Information and mock draft pundits: where is the good stuff?

[dwmyers]

Link is here.

Excerpt:

For a mock draft enthusiast, the information you want, deep down, is the actual ratings of players by the football teams themselves, and their actual needs. Since that information is unavailable, to solve this problem, an estimation of the value of players is needed, and some reasonable inference about each teams needs. I say this because a mock draft where everyone follows your estimation of best players ends up being identical to the estimate (and thus boring), and a mock draft based on need tends more to resemble an actual believable draft. So a group of pundits has arisen, fan scouting services, bureaus such as Ourlads, or people such as Mel Kiper, who supply scouting information to fans. Scouting info plus team needs equals mock draft. It’s a straightforward combination.

Note that Joe Fan, the guy who doesn’t care about mocks but cares about the results of the draft, is interested in something else entirely.