NFL Draft Readiness Guide: Predominantly Orange

Do:

Study projected first round prospects. Utilizing NFL.com’s Draft Profile Database is a huge tool to get to know these prospects.

Watch game film that analyzes a player’s weaknesses and strengths, creating your own professional opinion on the prospect. It is easy to get caught up in what mock drafts say about a player, but the eye in the sky doesn’t lie.

Many draft analysts have gained access to game film to create season-long compilations of a player’s performances. My personal favorite when it comes to analyzing quarterbacks is watching Jon Gruden’s QB Camp on ESPN.

My DVR consists of hours of Draft analysis from ESPN, NFL Network, and Gruden’s QB Camp. These help you get to know the prospect a little more, and it helps to also hear what a professional’s opinions are of them.

Mock drafts are amazing to take part in, but are difficult if you don’t have the right formula. Just like in life, we need to analyze needs vs wants.

This is often the most difficult aspect of creating a mock draft. Eliminate your own personal bias and complete your first round.

If you are doing a mock draft, I recommend you spend time watching some film of prospects on trusted draft analyst’s YouTube channels or through an archived subscription.

When watching film, compare and contrast prospect film vs opponents of lesser competition and opponents of greater competition. How will the prospect do against NFL competition based on these two analysis elements?

Last but not least, have fun and make the event fun. Tweet about the picks and give your live analysis.

Don’t:

Eliminating personal bias is important. You have to approach the draft and the first 32 picks with an objective point of view.

My biggest draft day no-no is not being objective or looking into true needs vs wants. Does the team’s pick align with what they have a primary positional need for or is it impulsive?

Please do not rely on “highlights” in comparison to actual film breakdown. Highlights show the good of the athlete and seldom show the bad traits on the field.

Do not fall for false news. Twitter is useful in determining validity vs. parody.

Some of the top analysts to follow are Daniel Jeremiah, Matt Miller, and Mike Mayock. Real information is vital information.

There are many Twitter accounts that will attempt to mislead those on their timeline, the blue verification mark is very helpful.