S&BP community mock draft Olympics

Last Friday, we asked the S&BP community to send in your Raiders 7-round mock drafts.

We received a ton of entries ranging from intriguing to hilarious, and after a week of deliberation, each of our five staff members selected five favorites.

With so many mocks available, we decided to use a grading system to separate out our picks and truly decide what the top mocks were.

For this system, a 1st place vote equals 10 points, a 2nd place vote is 8 points, a 3rd place vote is 6 points, and so forth. That means the maximum amount of points that someone could receive is 50, although with so many good mocks to choose from it was impossible for us to find consensus.

And while we only picked three award winners, your quartet of honorable mentions are Grandvillapiano, chitownyankee, nightfury129, and forum8usa.

Without further ado, here are your medal winners:

Bronze Medal: TownBizz25 (12 points)

Round 1, Pick 12: Tua Tagovailoa, QB Alabama

Round 1, Pick 19: Henry Ruggs III, WR Alabama

Round 3, Pick 80: Troy Dye, LB Oregon

Round 3, Pick 81: Jordyn Brooks, LB Texas Tech

Round 3, Pick 92: Lamar Jackson, CB Nebraska

Round 4, Pick 111: Michael Pittman, WR USC

Round 7, Pick 203: John Reid, CB Penn State

TownBizz25 takes third place in our S&BP community mock draft Olympics with the mock in his signature. He received a third place vote from Alex, a fourth place selection from Will, and a fifth place mark from yours truly.

In Alex’s words, “Do I think Tua drops this low? Nope, but I like the rest of this draft. Especially, the attention towards the center position, Hudson isn’t getting any younger, and the Pittman pick is right around where mocks I’ve seen have him valued at.”

I doubt that Tua drops to No. 12 either, barring a drop off due to some major worries regarding his medical report. But I love the idea TownBizz 25 is going for here. Doubling up on receivers, linebackers and cornerbacks while drafting a potential quarterback of the future.

In Ruggs and Pittman, the Raiders would add a speed freak and a physical red zone threat. Dye and Brooks are relatively similar players who profile as Will linebackers, but they both have great range and have high upside.

Silver Medal: ColonelDax (18 points)

Round 1, Pick 12: Isaiah Simmons, LB Clemson

Round 1, Pick 19: Henry Ruggs III, WR Alabama

Round 3, Pick 80: Cam Akers, RB Florida State

Round 3, Pick 81: Troy Dye, LB Oregon

Round 3, Pick 92: Jacob Phillips, LB LSU

Round 4, Pick 111: Michael Pittman, WR USC

Round 7, Pick 203: Levonta Taylor, CB Florida State

ColonelDax achieved his silver finish by grabbing Evan’s 1st place vote and BD’s 2nd place vote. And funnily enough, this mock had some striking similarities to our third place mock, with Ruggs and Pittman both taken in the same spots, while Dye was paired with a different third round linebacker in Jacob Phillips.

I tried to avoid selecting mocks with Isaiah Simmons at No. 12 because I personally don’t think that it’s realistic to assume to he falls to No. 12, but it certainly isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. Had I not docked this mock for having Simmons at No. 12, I would’ve probably placed this mock in my final top 5.

Here’s ColonelDax’s own explanation of his silver-winning mock:

“Used TDN simulator. As for the explanations, I obviously went needs and BPA and value combined. Isaiah is key as we get huge flexibility with him. I still took two other LBs because I can’t take it anymore! I think that both of those players have a shot at being legit starters too. I think our secondary and DLine are expected to develop and I think they’ll try to do more damage in FA on DLine and possibly the secondary so I drafted my LBs with that in mind. I loved the Akers value there, his speed and pass catching ability. I would love to see D’s have to deal with him and JJ and at times, at the same time. Pittman and Ruggs are obvious need picks but they are opposite ends of spectrum and are just what we need for our corps and since Jeudy and Lamb were off my board when I picked, I had no choice other than Shenault which wouldn’t bother me. CB Taylor has serious speed and played at a big time program. 5 Star that didn’t develop, had some injuries which may have hampered him. Could be a good developmental/depth guy with ST potential. I also think our OLine depth looked good this year all things considered but maybe FA could help a little there too. Kicker needs to be upgraded for sure.”

Gold Medal: RaiderRoy21 (20 points)

Round 1, Pick 12: Isaiah Simmons, LB Clemson

Round 1, Pick 19: Kristian Fulton, CB LSU

Round 2, Pick ??: Tyler Johnson, WR Minnesota

Round 3, Pick 81: Alton Robinson, DE Syracuse

Round 3, Pick 92: Solomon Kindley, G Georgia

Round 5, Pick ???: Van Jefferson, WR Florida

Round 7, Pick 203: Francis Bernard, LB Utah

Our Gold medal winner’s mock looks a bit weird because he proposed a trade up that would include a third round pick (80), fourth round pick (111), and 2021 second rounder for an opposing team’s 2020 second and 2020 fifth.

In doing so, RaiderRoy21 was effectively aiming to trade up for Minnesota wide receiver Tyler Johnson in an effort to take care of all the Raiders top needs with their initial three selections.

Trades are quite hard to pull off in a mock draft format, but RaiderRoy21’s final result made enough sense to receive 2nd place votes from both Evan and Will in addition to a 4th place vote from BD.

I really like the draft plan that this mock provides, with major needs being taken care first of via impact player selections, before some solid depth selections took over. Alto Robinson would give the Raiders a fourth capable defensive end that could shore up the rotation along with Maxx Crosby, Clelin Ferrell and Arden Key.

The Raiders may not have a major need at guard after re-signing Denzelle Good, but if the team moves on from Gabe Jackson, Solomon Kindley could potentially start right away.

Grabbing Van Jefferson with the fifth round pick accrued in the earlier trade up what be quite the frugal move in my eyes. Jefferson is a hidden gem amidst a deep receiver class who has an advanced ability to stem up cornerbacks. He could be even better than Johnson in all honestly. And with Francis Bernard rounding out this mock as a quality depth player who could bring some competition to the Mike linebacker spot, you can tell RaiderRoy21 has done his draft homework.

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Congratulations to all of our medal winners, honorable mentions, and others who received votes from our team of writers. We quite appreciate all of the submissions that we received, and we had a blast combing through the mocks you all posted.

It’s way too early in the draft process for any mock drafts to be truly spot on, but we figured that this would be a fun exercise and an interesting story to look back on in late April.

Once we get closer to the draft, we will hold another mock draft Olympics and see if RaiderRoy21 can retain his Gold medal.