It's Monday, and that means we have a roundup of 2016 NFL Draft notes, mock drafts, and general football links for you. Each week, we'll summarize some of the things worth knowing as draft news continues to stream in.
Last week at Buffalo Rumblings
Here's the last Mock Draft Monday, for those of you who missed it.
Our Community Mock Draft is going on right now! Are you following along?
We published our first scouting report over the weekend, a breakdown of quarterback Christian Hackenberg.
Rumor has it that the Bills are interested in Cardale Jones.
The latest Mel Kiper mock has the Bills going with Shaq Lawson.
We delved into the fourth tier of NFL draft prospects last week.
Will the Bills be able to trade down in the first round this year?
We had another tag-team film breakdown, this time featuring receiver Kenny Lawler.
If you've been paying attention to Buffalo's recent draft picks, you'd notice how many of them came from the ACC.
We picked Reggie Ragland in the SB Nation NFL writers mock draft.
Recent news of visits:
- Kelvin Fisher Jr. (whose dad is Buffalo's director of college scouting) made a pre-draft visit.
- We had our first news connecting Connor Cook with the Bills.
- The Bills had dinner with Paxton Lynch. But did he have the chicken or the fish?
- Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah visited the Bills.
- Wow, a lot of Ohio State players had dinner with Buffalo.
Mock of the week
In Dan Kadar's latest mock draft, he went out to three rounds. The most interesting pick came in the first round, however: Paxton Lynch, a quarterback out of Memphis, going to the Bills at No. 19.
Their other picks were defensive lineman Chris Jones and linebacker Kentrell Brothers.
Around the web
With the draft drawing ever closer, a common theme is for analysts to publish their own draft guides or notebooks. While you often have to pay for these, they can provide a ton of valuable information and insight into the year's prospects. I won't recommend anything that costs money unless I consider it worth the buy.
- Matt Waldmann published his Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which I now own from 2014-2016. The RSP, which is focused on skill position players (quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends) is the most comprehensive resource available for those positions. This year's RSP has 250 pages of pure analysis and prose, accompanied by 1,250 pages of Waldmann's stream-of-consciousness notes from all of the games he watched.
- Pro Football Focus created their first draft guide, part of the expansion strategy they began when Cris Collinsworth bought a controlling interest. While some parts of it aren't as great as they sound (the exclusive Senior Bowl practice grades, which are just more of the same old +/- formula), the big draw is that this guide has passing location charts for almost every quarterback, receiver, tight end, and cornerback in this year's draft. This is invaluable for gleaning an at-a-glance look at where passes are thrown and how successful those passes are.
- Other resources that I've seen recommended, but that I haven't personally purchased this year: Dane Brugler's draft guide, which covers over 400 prospects, and NDT Scouting's 2016 NFL Draft Prospectus.
Freelance writer Cian Fahey is an avid tape-watcher, and published a passing breakdown of every NFL quarterback this year. Recently he's been publishing NFL Draft features.
- This article talks why he's more optimistic about Cardale Jones than Carson Wentz (although he's not very impressed by either, to be clear).
- In this one, he breaks down what makes Darian Thompson such an intriguing candidate at safety.
- This piece talks about how Paul Perkins could be a draft steal (Perkins is a favorite of mine)
Justis Mosqueda took on the myth that Shaq Lawson is unathletic last week. He's also updated his list of Force Players as new testing numbers became available.
Two pieces about Vernon Adams, Jr. for your viewing: Five GIFs of his best throws from 2015, and a video that shows him compared side-by-side with Russell Wilson.
DraftBreakdown is back in action, and here are some articles worth reading from it:
- Why Joshua Perry is such an appealing prospect while being underwhelming at the same time
- The tale of Kalan Reed and the lost socks
- Why Jeremy Cash is the ideal box safety