1/4 way through NFL mock

Now that we are a quarter of the way through the season I think it is interesting to look into how next years draft is shaping up.  A lot of things will change between now and the draft, but team needs usually stay relatively the same.

Round One

1. Jacksonville Jaguars - Teddy Bridgewater QB (Louisville)

The Jaguars haven't had a franchise quarterback in what seems like forever, they get one here.

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Bret Hundley QB (UCLA)

If the Bucs are picking this high Greg Schiano will likely be fired and a new coach usually means a new quarterback.

3. New York Giants - Jadaveon Clowney DE (South Carolina)

The Giants picked a great year to suck as they are in position to possibly land a once in a generation defensive talent.

4. Pittsburgh Steelers - Jake Matthews OT ( Texas A + M)

The Steelers offensive line seems to have been bad forever, they add a potential yearly pro bowler.

5. Atlanta Falcons - Taylor Lewan OT (Michigan)

The Falcons can use upgrades all over their offensive line and start here.

6. St. Louis Rams - Anthony Barr OLB (UCLA)

The Rams add a Von Milleresque player to round out their linebacking corpse.

7. Minnesota Vikings - Tajh Boyd QB (Clemson)

Josh Freeman isn't a lock to be the answer at quarterback for the Vikings and with a possible new coach in town you know what that means.

8. Carolina Panthers - Sammy Watkins WR (Clemson)

Since taking Cam Newton with the #1 pick the Panthers have done a terrible job at surrounding him with weapons, they fix that here.

9. Buffalo Bills - Austin Seferian-Jenkins TE (Washington)

A tight end is a young quarterback's best friend, especially one that has the athletic ability to be a special player at the position.

10. St. Louis Rams - Haha Clinton-Dix FS (Alabama)

The Rams add a safety with a skill set that compliments last year's pick, T.J. McDonald, perfectly.

11. Philadelphia Eagles - Marcus Mariota QB (Oregon)

Michael Vick isn't getting less injury prone or younger and Nick Foles / Matt Barkley limit the potential of Chip Kelly's fast paced offense.

12. Oakland Raiders - Louis Nix DT (Notre Dame)

Terrelle Pryor allows the Raiders to look elsewhere than quarterback and go with the best player available strategy for a team that has many needs.  

13. San Diego Chargers - Jason Verrett CB (TCU)

The Chargers add the best cornerback in the draft to one of the league's worst secondaries.

14. Houston Texans - Johnny Manziel QB (Texas A + M)

Matt Schaub has worn out his welcome in Houston and the team gladly welcomes an instate phenom to take over the team. 

15. Green Bay Packers - C.J. Mosley ILB (Alabama)

Clay Matthews and Nick Perry seem to have it taken care of on the outside but the middle of this defense needs upgrading.

16. Cleveland Browns - Mike Evans WR (Texas A + M)

Cleveland adds another reliable target to go with Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron.

17. Tennessee Titans - Cyrus Kouandjio OT (Alabama)

Offensive tackles Michael Roos and David Stewart are both on the wrong side of 30 and declining.

18. Arizona Cardinals - Khalil Mack OLB (Buffalo)
The Cardinals need to get a consistent edge rusher to compliment Calias Campbell's ability to rush the passer from the interior.

19. New York Jets - Marqise Lee WR (USC)

Santonio Holmes' days in New York are numbered, the team needs a true #1 wide receiver for Geno Smith to grow with.

20. Miami Dolphins - James Hurst OT (North Carolina)

The Dolphins have given up the most sacks in the league so far and pretty much have to address the offensive line in the first round.

21. Dallas Cowboys - Ra'Shede Hageman DT (Minnesota)
The Cowboys surprisingly switched to the 4-3 and didn't add any defensive lineman early, they rectify that with this selection.

22. Chicago Bears - Dominique Easley DT (Florida)

Henry Melton tore his ACL and is a free agent, even if he is retained the Bears still need to add more youth to their defensive line.

23. Cincinnati Bengals - Jordan Matthews WR (Vanderbilt)

Andy Dalton is not the type of QB to carry a team that is why the Bengals need to keep providing him with more talented weapons.

24. Baltimore Ravens - Ifo Ekpre-Olamanu CB (Oregon)
Jimmy Smith has been very inconsistent for the Ravens, they add someone who they hope will bring more consistent play across from Ladarius Webb.

25. Detroit Lions - Brandon Coleman WR (Rutgers)

The Lions need a compliment wide receiver to Calvin Johnson this way there offensive doesn't look lost when he isn't able to play.

26. San Francisco 49ers - Bradley Roby CB (Ohio State)

The 49ers continue to build their secondary spending back to back 1st round picks on the unit.

27. Cleveland Browns - Zach Mettenberger QB (LSU)

Brian Hoyer played well in the two games he started, but that isn't enough for the Browns to go all in on him as their QB of the future.

28. New England Patriots - Anthony Johnson DT (LSU)
Vince Wilfork has been a pillar in the middle of the defensive line for many years now, the Patriots give him an understudy to eventually pass the torch to.

29. Seattle Seahawks - Cyril Richardson OG (Baylor)

Even before the Seahawks offensive line was decimated by injury it was the weakest unit on the team, adding a guard that can also play right tackle seems logical.

30. Kansas City Chiefs - Antonio Richardson OT (Tennessee)

Branden Albert is most likely playing his last season in Kansas City, Eric Fisher will slide over to left tackle leaving a void at right tackle.

31. New Orleans Saints - Kyle Van Noy OLB (BYU)

The Saints defense has been the most improved unit in all the NFL this season and they add another piece to it.

32. Denver Broncos - Trent Murphy DE (Stanford)
Robert Ayers should not be starting in the league, the Broncos properly replace Elvis Dumervil.

** You can follow me on twitter @pigskinlogic **

5 Trades that should be made.

The Trent Richardson trade got me thinking, why aren't more trades like this done in the NFL?  The first big reason is salary cap implications, but mostly it seems like teams value draft picks and the future way more than they should.  Teams that are going for the Lombardi trophy should be more willing to part with future draft picks before and during the in season trade deadline to get deals done.  A championship season is worth selling out for as the fans will remember it forever.  Not to mention having a Super Bowl championship on your resume is good for job security as well as getting jobs in the future.  Below are some deals I believe should be made, but most likely will not be made before the deadline.

1. Steelers trade SS Troy Polamalu to the Packers for a 3rd round pick.

The Steelers traded their 3rd round in the upcoming draft to the Browns for the their 4th round pick in last years draft to take Polamalu's potential replacement, Shamarko Thomas.  Pittsburgh needs to enter a rebuilding mode as soon as possible to have a chance at another Super Bowl run on the back end of Big Ben's career. With this trade they would get back a 3rd round pick in this years draft, which they are missing from the aforementioned trade, for a guy that doesn't have much tread left on his tires.

Green Bay is in desperate need of a playmaker of Polamalu's caliber in their secondary to take on Charles Woodson's old role.  Though Polamalu is 32 and has had trouble staying healthy the past few seasons, he is healthy now and making big plays.  Polamalu's big play ability can help be the difference for the Packers in a very tight NFC.  This deal also would be for more than a one year rental as Polamalu's contract is valid through the 2014 season.

2. Browns trade DE Jabaal Sheard to the Falcons for a 2nd round pick.

The Browns signed Paul Kruger to a 5 year $41 million contract and drafted Barkevious Mingo with the #6 pick in the draft, making Jabaal Sheard expendable.  The 37th pick in the 2011 draft has had a pretty solid start to his career notching 8.5 sacks as a rookie and 7 as a sophomore at DE in a 4-3.  Through two games at his new positions 3-4 OLB he has added half a sack to his resume.  The Browns are stockpiling picks for the 2014 draft to make sure they can get the franchise back on track, even though trading a young pass rusher doesn't seem smart the moves mentioned above make it seem that Sheard is not in their long term plans.

Atlanta has been killed by injuries on both sides of the ball and the defense especially couldn't afford to lose any talent.  The most devastating injury for the Falcons was having to place DE Kroy Biermann on season ending injured reserve.  Osi Umenyiora was brought in to replace the departed John Abraham but doesn't seem to have much left and Biermann's replacement Jonathan Massaquoi is a a 2012 5th rd pick who was only active for 8 games and didn't show up on the stat sheet last season.  Thomas Dimitroff is one of the few GMs in the league that loves to make big deals and his team needs one to stay afloat this year.  Sheard would move back to his more natural position, 4-3 DE, help upgrade the Falcons' almost non existent pass rush and like Polamalu is signed through the 2014 season.  Add in that he is only 24 years old and this trade makes a lot of sense for a team that sees itself as a Super Bowl contender this year and beyond.

3. Jaguars trade ILB Paul Posluszny to the Giants for 4th round pick.

The Jaguars are the worst team in the NFL in my opinion and move one of their only talented players just a 4th round pick seems odd.  This makes sense for the Jaguars for two reasons even though he might be not only the most talented player on the defense but maybe the entire team ILBs don't win championships and secondly he has a big cap number.  Jacksonville can absorb the big cap hit for this deal and then have its book cleared of a high priced ILB when they are ready to start competing again.  Adding an extra fourth round draft pick will enhance the Jaguars chances of moving around in the draft or they can keep the pick and add depth to the roster.

New York has the worst LBs corpse in the league by far and despite having a bad LB corpse for years the team has forgone drafting LBs high and didn't even use one pick on the position in last April's draft.  Posluszny would be a massive upgrade in the middle of the Giants' defense and allow them to upgrade not only their run but even their pass defense.  Posluszny is one of the leagues better coverage LBs as evidenced by his 5 interceptions over the last two seasons in Jacksonville.  This move would give the Giants a presence in their LBing corpse they haven't had since Antonio Pierce.

4. Titans trade WR Kenny Britt to the Panthers for a 7th round pick.

The Titans seem to be fed up with Kenny Britt and all his injuries and off the field issues that they would probably take a bag of deflated footballs for him.  The team used a 1st rd pick on Kendall Wright in 2012 and moved up in the 2nd rd this year to take Justin Hunter so there is no way they are resigning Britt when his contract expires at the end of the season.  Instead of just letting him walk getting a draft pick for him, albeit a last round selection, is better than nothing.

The Panthers have done a real bad job of surrounding Cam Newton with weapons since selecting him with the #1 pick.  They did bring in Greg Olsen at TE but at WR it is a black hole behind 34 year old Steve Smith.  Taking a chance on a very troubled but also very talented player seems well worth the risk for just a 7th round pick.  If it doesn't work out they are right back where they started and if it does it could help take this offense to the next level and give Steve Smith someone to pass the torch to.

5. Vikings trade DE Jared Allen to the Denver Broncos for a 3rd round pick.

The Vikings get less for Allen than the Browns get for Sheard due to Allen being 31 and only under contract for the rest of the season.  It is shaping up to be Allen's last season in Minnesota so shipping him off for a 3rd round pick seems like a great idea for the future.

Denver can do much better at DE than Robert Ayers who has amassed only 6.5 sacks in his first four seasons in the league.  Adding Jared Allen would give the Broncos back that dual pass rush threat they had last season with Elvis Dumervil being the robin to Von Miller's batman; upon Miller's return from suspension of course.  The Broncos are the overwhelming favorite in the AFC at the moment and have to cash in on their Super Bowl dreams fast as Peyton Manning is not getting any younger.  Adding Allen to a defense that has performed pretty well to start the year without its best player, Von Miller, seems like a no brainer for a team that wants to avenge their first round playoff defeat from a season ago.