Greg Cosell mock draft projects Barkevious Mingo to Bills

Last year, Greg Cosell of NFL Films wrote his first ever mock draft. Striving more for conversation than accuracy, Cosell had the Buffalo Bills landing Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon in the first round - but more intriguingly, he threw in wrinkles like Robert Griffin III going first overall, the Bills passing on Matt Kalil for Blackmon and, most notably of all, Stephon Gilmore coming off the board with the third overall pick.

If you're reading a Cosell mock draft as a predictive tool, you're doing it wrong. If you're a fan of the idea of the Bills taking LSU pass rusher Barkevious Mingo on Thursday night, don't get your hopes up based on Cosell projecting Mingo to the Bills in this year's version of his mock draft.

Instead, focus on Cosell's words about the Bills - "they do not have a pass rusher at the linebacker position" is noteworthy - and on Mingo, who Cosell sees as a player in need of weight training but who has rare explosion and closing speed. Without doubt, Mingo is the type of athlete that could wear a lot of hats in Mike Pettine's hybrid defense.

Also of note within Cosell's mock draft: no quarterbacks were picked in the first round, but a running back was. That's obviously exceedingly unlikely to happen on Thursday night, but it speaks to the idea that Cosell doesn't see a lot of top-level talent at quarterback. (By comparison, Cosell slotted Ryan Tannehill to Miami last year and spoke glowingly of him.)