One of my favorite exercises each year is revisiting the “Way Too Early” mock drafts that were released around this time of the calendar. For example, last August I put out my first mock draft, and in reviewing that article for a piece I’m working on a few things stood out to me:
- I nailed the first overall selection (Trevor Lawrence to the Jacksonville Jaguars) but honestly that seems like a layup.
- The only other team/player pairing that I got right was Kyle Trask to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, although I predicted it would happen at the end of the first round, and it came about at the end of the second.
It is also a worthwhile endeavor to review those to see what players fell out of favor, as well as what players dramatically increased their draft stock. For example, two names not in that “Way Too Early” mock draft of mine? Zach Wilson and Mac Jones.
This is becoming something of a routine each year. The year before Joe Burrow’s name was not common in the early mocks, nor was Kyler Murray the year before that (although his baseball dreams were likely a big reason why). Not many people saw the rise of Mitchell Trubisky coming, in fact I’m not even sure he made a watch list I put together the summer prior to his final season.
But if history has taught us anything, we might see some QBs rise up boards this fall. So while you probably have heard of some of the names floated about in early mock drafts right now (Kedon Slovis, Spencer Rattler, Tyler Shough, Matt Corral, Sam Howell and D’Eriq King, among others) who are some of the contenders to rocket up boards next fall? Here are some quarterback to carve out time to study this summer.