Mayock's rankings

of playing left guard at the Senior Bowl but I do think that with experience he would be a solid right tackle. I would risk drafting him with the idea of him playing left guard and being a possible replacement for Harris. I’m just not sure that I would draft him as high as 10/11.

Some of these questions could be better answered by the ‘Xs and 0s’ guys. The first thing that occurs to me is that some of the OTs are too tall to play OG. Another difference is in pass protection, which LTs must excel at, which leaves the players who excel at run blocking at OG or RT (who also must pass protect but have help in the TE).

I’ve already proposed taking at RT/RG type to cover both positions, and Mayock inspired this idea since he advocates moving OTs to OG.

Most of the talent on the OL is at OT so looking at that position for OL help is a sound idea. And RT is an easier position to address since they’re not expected to be as adept at pass blocking. Both Iupati and Ducasse were/are being looked at for their potential at OT, but Senior Bowl practices have cooled enthusiasm for this idea. Both are now being projected solely at OG now. However, there are some versatile OLs who can switch between OG and OT. Hochstein can play anywhere on the OL. Kuper was being considered for a switch to OT in the offseason two years ago. And we’ve seen some draftees by other teams recently, such as Max Unger, who have the ability to play anywhere on the OL, although they’re better suited to some positions.

The downside in taking an OT is that we’d be relying on a rookie, and even a player with Clady-like ability would either supplant existing talent or be moved back to the bench once Harris returns. It’s a problem of efficiently delegating resources; too little and we’re weak at RT, too much and we waste them on the bench. Our best recourse at this point may be to find another veteran OT, preferably better than Gorin.

I haven’t given up on the ‘hybrid OT/OG’ project, but it appears to be solution for a slightly different problem. A replacement for Harris needs to be ready immediately, whereas a hybrid T/G could be developed for the future.

The only prospect I’ve identified as being (probably) able to switch between OT and OG is Bryan Bulaga. The problem — again — is that he’s a high pick. The OTs would have provided a possible way of using our 1st pick if we lacked an reasonable alternative this year. There’s a number of OTs around our pick so it’s possible that the BPA at #10/11 would be an OT. However, the value in OT is in their value on the field, and mostly as LTs, so bench-sitters and OGs aren’t as justifiable as picks.

Wright has a very good record of predicting picks, as his archive shows. Predicting who teams will pick may not seem impressive but it shows that he’s in tune with their needs and evaluation processes.

It’s hard to understand criticism of the Ayers pick except as an offshoot of Jaygate.

Mayock said he would eventually be the best defensive player from that draft, I think he realized that Ayers was at least three years away from being productive, I still think Mayock does a very good job and generally is pretty unbiased.

C.J. Spiller is really special

Mayock is high on him, maybe a little too high (although Mayock rates final potential). Ducasse is a wonderful prospect as an athlete but he’s still got some learning to do. Mayock has him in with the1st round draft picks. I think the story is that there’s a big gap between 4th and 5th OTs. Bruce Campbell is the only other candidate for the top OTs, and he’s a very unfinished prospect, too.

Also note that the list is pre-Senior Bowl.

Mayock is a good source but Kiper’s pretty accurate, too. Try doing a follow up after the draft. You can measure how accurate they were.

I looked at Kiper’s 1st round MOCK and thought it pretty good — unlike most here.