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Vikings are eyeing Georgia’s freakish DT in the latest seven-round mock draft
I love mock drafts.
These aren’t trying to be predictive in a vacuum but rather be predictive based on the situation. Each of the first five editions of these mock drafts have done just that, and this one is no different.
There is a high likelihood of a top talent being available at No. 12. Would the Minnesota Vikings take a great player at a position they don’t need? This explores that exact scenario.
Nebraska hasn’t had a first-round pick since 2011 and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change.
It’s become apparent that as we move closer to the 2022 NFL Draft, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will see the few players they have selected in the annual event taken in the mid to late rounds. In fact, Nebraska hasn’t had a first-round pick in the draft since Prince Amukamara was selected 19th overall by the New York Giants back in 2011. Somehow Lavonte David fell to the second round a year later, but that discussion is for a different day.
Our partners at Draftwire have done a new 3-round mock draft and project only one Husker getting their name called during that time. In the late 3rd round, 100th overall, Draftwire sees Offensive Lineman Cam Jurgens selected by the Baltimore Ravens. Jurgens started all 12 games for Nebraska at Center in 2021 and made 31 starts during his career. He was a third-team All-Big Ten this season and was on the Remington Trophy watch list.
Back in February, the 6-foot-3-inch lineman was a limited participant at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. He only ran the 40-yard dash in 4.92 seconds and did 25 reps at the bench press. Jurgens also participated in the Nebraska Pro Day back in March. HuskerOnline reported that Jurgen put together an impressive performance and it may improve his stock. Cam Jurgens is a name to watch the first couple of draft days as he may end up going sooner than people think.
We look at a trade up scenario for the Ravens in our latest 2022 mock draft
With 10 selections in the 2022 draft, the Baltimore Ravens have no shortage of possibilities as to how they can add talent to their roster come draft weekend. They can select players with each of those 10 picks, or they could move up and down the draft board to get the best value for their selections.
In situations where they trade up, they would most likely do so if there’s a falling star taking an unprecedented drop. It’s been rare that Baltimore has a first-round selection as high as No. 14, so it would cost less draft capital to move up into the top-ten as opposed to if they had a pick in the late first round.
Below we look at our latest seven-round mock draft for the Ravens, this time including a trade-up scenario.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar breaks down the 11 best interior offensive linemen in the 2022 NFL draft class.
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Since 2000, there have been 35 interior offensive linemen selected in the first round of any draft. And generally speaking, if you’re going to select a guard or a center in the first round, you’d better be pretty sure — the player had better be not only ding-proof, but he’d also better have some serious upside. Not only must he have near-total command at the position; he’d also better be able to clearly demonstrate the ability to take the unfinished parts of his game and take them to an NFL-acceptable level.
Of the 35 first-rounders among guards and centers since 2000, there’s one Hall of Famer (Steve Hutchinson, selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the 17th overall pick in 2000), a few now-retired players who could see themselves enshrined over time (Logan Mankins, Maurkice Pouncey, Nick Mangold), and current players who are now on a Canton track (Quenton Nelson, Zack Martin, Alex Mack).
The first-round guards and centers who don’t work out are generally the ones whose athletic traits are overcooked by evaluators at the expense of the nuances of the positions. At any position, you don’t want to talk yourself into the idea that you can take a “raw clay” player and turn him into something he never was in college. It’s a dangerous idea, especially when every position is harder to master at the NFL level.
In the 2022 class of interior offensive linemen, there are two or three I could see going in the first round, because they have the attributes you want at the position, and they’ve developed those attributes to the point where you can see it on tape over and over. Then, you can look at the things that don’t quite work yet and make your own calculations as to whether he fits what your head coach, offensive coordinator, and position coaches want to do schematically. The players further down the list may have more glaring weaknesses, or they’re less scheme-transcendent, but they’re still good enough to make their offensive lines better.
Depth at these positions is key, because guard and center aren’t positions where you’re going to overdraft guys a lot. So, you can get a Wyatt Teller or a Corey Linsley in the fifth round, a Shaq Mason in the fourth round, and you can get a David Andrews as a priority free agent.
The Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s had among the greatest offensive lines in pro football history, and only one player on those lines (right tackle Norm Evans) was drafted — by the Houston Oilers in the 14th round of the 1965 American Football League draft. But two guys from those lines (center Jim Langer and right guard Larry Little) are now in the Hall of Fame.
These are the positions where the names at the bottom of the list might wind up outperforming the names up top, so it’s crucial to scout it all the way down.
Here are our top 11 interior offensive linemen in the 2022 NFL draft.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated. All testing data comes from the 2022 scouting combine, with percentile per position, courtesy of MockDraftable.com).
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 offensive tackles
2022 NFL draft: The top 11 tight ends
2022 NFL draft: The top 16 receivers
Cam Jurgens was a three-year starter at Nebraska.
The Denver Broncos hosted Nebraska center Cam Jurgens on a pre-draft visit earlier this week, according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. He was a three-year starter for the Cornhuskers.
Jurgens (6-3, 303 pounds) earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a redshirt senior last season. He ran a 40-yard dash in 4.92 seconds and bench-pressed 225 pounds 25 times at the NFL combine earlier this offseason.
Jurgens is one of at least three center prospects visiting the Broncos, joining Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Cole Strange and Dylan Parham of Memphis. Denver’s interest in centers might be bad news for Lloyd Cushenberry, who started 32 games over the last two years (he missed one game last year with COVID-19).
Cushenberry has been penalized eight times and has allowed six sacks through two seasons in the NFL. It remains to be seen if Cushenberry will be an ideal fit for new coach Nathaniel Hackett’s zone blocking scheme, but it seems clear that he’ll at least face competition this summer.
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Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum was rated by NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks as one of the top-five interior offensive linemen in this NFL draft class.
NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks put together his latest top five 2022 NFL draft prospects by position. As expected, Iowa center [autotag]Tyler Linderbaum[/autotag] is highly regarded.
In fact, Brooks has Linderbaum as his second highest-rated interior blocker. According to Brooks, Texas A&M offensive lineman Kenyon Green is the top interior blocker in this class. After Linderbaum, Brooks ranked Boston College guard Zion Johnson No. 3, Georgia offensive lineman Jamaree Salyer No. 4 and Nebraska center Cam Jurgens No. 5.
Here’s what Brooks wrote about these interior blockers in this 2022 NFL draft class.
The class of interior blockers includes technicians with enough power and pop to play bully ball at the line of scrimmage. Green is an athletic phone-booth controller with the strength, power and explosiveness to blow defenders off the ball in the running game. The former Texas A&M standout excels in a pin-and-pull scheme, but he displays enough athleticism to thrive in zone-based or man-blocking systems, as well. Linderbaum is an athletic pivot with polished skills and a nasty finishing move. The Iowa product is a rare find as a scrappy player with a versatile game. – Brooks, NFL.com.
Linderbaum actually fell one spot in Brooks’ rankings of interior blockers. In Brooks’ first top five 2022 NFL draft prospects by position on Feb. 16, Linderbaum was the No. 1 interior blocker according to Brooks. Now, he’s swapped Green for Linderbaum at the top.
Either way, it’s clear that Linderbaum is considered one of the elite interior offensive line talents in this draft class. Linderbaum started all 35 games at center for Iowa over the past three seasons after making the transition from the defensive line to the offensive side of the football.
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The center prospect had meetings with a number of teams at the combine, including the Cardinals.
The Arizona Cardinals have a very good center in Rodney Hudson but he will turn 33 years old this year. He is still playing at a high level, but looking toward the future is not a bad idea.
Center Cam Jurgens, who played for Nebraska in college, is preparing for the NFL draft.
According to The Draft Network’s Justin Melo, the Cardinals were one of several teams to meet with Jurgens at the NFL combine last week.
Jurgens was a three-year starter at Nebraska and showed athleticism at the combine. At 6-3 and 303 lbs, he ran the 40 in 4.92 seconds.
Many see him as a Day 3 prospect, which fits the profile of lineman the Cardinals like to draft. But if they see something him, it allows them to develop him for a couple of years before Hudson’s contract expires.
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Friday was the day for the offensive linemen to get on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium. Which linemen stood out at the scouting combine?
Remember Thursday night at the scouting combine, when the receivers were running all kinds of crazy 40 times, and it held up fairly well even when the times were made official? That extended to Friday’s offensive line drills, when we saw a display of pure speed from the big men we’ve never seen before.
There were six linemen with official sub-5.0 40-yard dash times in the first group, and six in the second. The previous record was six, and there were 11 sub-4.5 40-yard dashes overall in the last three combines.
There were officially 12 offensive linemen to run a sub-5.00 40-yard dash at the 2022 #NFLCombine
Not only is that the most such offensive linemen at a single combine since 2003, it DOUBLES the next-most (6 in 2013) and is more than the last 3 combines combined (11)
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) March 5, 2022
The 10-yard splits were just as impressive, meaning that we have a group of offensive linemen who can get on the hoof to a highly impressive degree. Many of those linemen also looked great in the position drills, with natural movement and agility.
NFL teams should be going away from these drills excited about the talent available in the 2022 draft, and that’s without two of the best linemen — Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal and Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum — choosing to pass on the activities for now.
