100 Days of Mocks: Two Three-Round Mocks
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have used their last three first-round picks on players from Georgia. Could they extend that streak to four?
At USA Today’s Touchdown Wire, Doug Farrar went with Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones in Round 1 of a three-round draft.
“Whither David Bakhtiari? There’s no question that when the Packers’ left tackle is healthy, he’s one of the best in the business — but ‘when healthy’ is doing a lot of work these days,” Farrar wrote. “Jones is both a high-level pass-protector and a complete mauler in the run game on the left side, and if Bakhtiari manages a full season for the first time since 2019, Jones has enough positional versatility to project him perfectly to a staff that has appreciated such things in recent years.”
Back from his horrendous knee injury sustained on Dec. 31, 2020, Bakhtiari might challenge Farrar on the health part of the equation. He was positively bullish about his future, saying after the season that he had no surgeries scheduled and could spend the offseason focusing on football rather than rehab.
“I look at the offseason as putting on your armor and then, going through a season, you get deteriorated throughout the year,” Bakhtiari said a day after the season-ending loss to Detroit.
“I don’t have a chance to put on my armor, I'm kind of going into war unprotected so, thankfully, did a really good job talking to training room, strength staff, even bringing in people from outside, making sure I can get myself to grow, because football's not in any rehab that you do coming off of surgery.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Jones didn’t allow a single sack in 470 pass-protecting snaps at left tackle as a redshirt sophomore in 2022. Could he play right tackle? He logged 34 snaps at that spot in 2020 and 2021.
Broderick Jones (Photo by Mark J Rebilas/USA Today Sports)
The Day 2 picks addressed key needs at tight end and defensive line. The tight end was Utah’s Dalton Kincaid, who we’ve written about frequently in this series. He was Daniel Jeremiah’s pick for the Packers in his latest mock.
“I think he is one of the best players in the draft,” NFL.com’s Jeremiah said in his pre-Scouting Combine conference call. “He is just sudden in everything that he does. … I don't like when you compare guys to all-time great players, but just in his movement stuff, he moves, he kind of looks likes (Travis) Kelce just the way he moves in and out of breaks.”
Pro Football Network’s Arif Hassan went with Notre Dame tight end in Round 1 of his three-rounder.
“The Green Bay Packers haven’t had a franchise-quality tight end since Jermichael Finley,” he wrote. “With Robert Tonyan getting up there in age and a clear TE1 in this draft, Michael Mayer seems like a no-brainer for a team looking to provide friendly options for Jordan Love should they move on from Aaron Rodgers.”
Mayer is the best combo of blocker and receiver in this year’s class. He was Todd McShay’s pick for the Packers in his latest mock.
“He is kind of the king of the combat catches,” Jeremiah said. “He has a good feel on option routes just keeping guys on his back and kind of walling them off and making plays. A good overall tight end, good blocker.”
With the Day 2 selections, Hasan went outside linebacker and safety.
The pass rusher was Kansas State’s Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, a finalist for the Ted Hendricks Award as the nation’s top defensive lineman and a second- and third-team All-American in 2022.
In 14 starts, he had 8.5 sacks, 11 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles. That came on the heels of his breakout 2021 campaign of 11 sacks, 14.5 tackles for losses and an incredible six forced fumbles.
Late in 2021, he should have had a record six sacks in a late-season game against TCU but the NCAA’s fumble rules robbed him of two. Nobody could have forecast that type of production.
“In my high school career, for three seasons,” he said, “I had like, seven sacks. Not even seven. Like, five.”
Officially, he had 13 sacks. Kansas State was the only Power 5 school to offer him a scholarship.
“My No. 1 objective was to prove everybody wrong," Anudike-Uzomah told KStateSports.com. “People under-recruited me. I was barely a three-star. Some of my high school coaches said they didn't think I'd be at the FBS level or Power 5 level.
“I had to enjoy proving people wrong. I know my capabilities they don't know.”
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100 Days of Mocks
Starting Jan. 17, when there were 100 days until the start of the NFL Draft, we started our mock-worthy goal of 100 mock drafts in 100 days. Here’s the 100-day-countdown series.
62 days: Three mocks, three receivers
63 days: A massive haul for Rodgers
64 days: Three team-issued mock drafts
Packers take tight end in Daniel Jeremiah’s second mock
65 days: Pass-rushing defensive lineman in two-rounder
67 days: Three-rounder starts with receiver
68 days: Grandson of Glory Years legend
69 days: Mayer to Packers in SI mock
70 days: Football Outsiders picks pass rusher
71 days: 33rd Team trades Rodgers in two-rounder
71 days (bonus): Todd McShay 2.0
72 days: Packers take receiver to start NFL.com three-rounder
73 days: Packers fill big need with big man
74 days: Rodgers traded, take two pass-catchers in first round
75 days: Two NFL.com mocks, two different tight ends
76 days: Tight end and pass rusher in two-rounder by NFL Draft Bible
77 days: Rodgers traded to Raiders for No. 7 pick
78 days: A seven-round mock includes Big Ten playmakers
79 days: Rodgers traded in two-round mock
80 days: Packers take safety in ESPN mock
81 days: Aaron Rodgers traded in three-round mock
82 days: Seven mocks, including NFL.com
83 days: Two pass-catchers in first-round mocks
84 days: Aaron Rodgers traded for extra first-round pick
85 days: PFF picks a pass rusher
86 days: Tight end in NFL Draft Bible Mock
87 days: Packers trade back, get extra second-rounder
88 days: Sorry, vacation day.
89 days: A “Eureka!” moment in two-round mock
90 days: Playmaking cornerback at PFF
91 days: Three defensive backs in seven-round mock
92 days: Kiper takes a tight end
93 days: Safety first for Bucky Brooks in NFL.com mock
94 days: College Football News mocks Mayer
95 days: Two firsts if Rodgers is traded
96 days: NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah goes back to Georgia
97 days: This pick would break a long drought
