There are those who will tell you that doing mock drafts for 2023 right after the 2022 draft comes down is the ultimate example of wool-gathering/navel-gazing/clickbaiting, and just generally a useless exercise. After all, there’s so much we don’t yet know about how the boards will stack based on the 2022 NCAA season. Had the quarterbacks in the 2022 draft been available on their 2020 tape alone, Sam Howell (fifth round to the Washington Commanders) probably would have gone first, and Kenny Pickett (20th overall to the Steelers) — who had never thrown more than 13 touchdown passes in a season before 2021 — might not have been drafted at all. We also don’t know who will be this year’s Pickett, Zach Wilson, or Joe Burrow — the guy who comes out of nowhere to become a legitimate first-round talent.
You just never know how things are going to pop.
That said, working ahead to the next draft is an interesting and instructive if you take it from the point of view of what NFL teams did in 2022, and where things might need to be bolstered next year. The Giants and Eagles, for example, have created excuse-proof situations for Daniel Jones and Jalen Hurts, and we aren’t sure how that’s going to go.
(Spoiler: In this 2023 mock, both teams select quarterbacks in the first round. So, there you go).
There are other teams who are in the middle of full-on rebuilds, and looking ahead to 2023 brings about ideas of how those teams can fill in the remaining blanks.
So, with all that out of the way, here’s my 2023 mock draft. Positions are based on Pro Football Focus’ projections for the 2022 NFL season, and I used their awesome Mock Draft Simulator to keep everything straight.