3rd Annual In Thin Air Mock Draft Challenge

Happy Draft Day, Broncos fans! As promised, here again is your opportunity to enter a 1st round mock draft for the chance to win… still nothing, just like the last two years. Sorry I’m so late getting this up. Evolving priorities have limited my time and interest in my usual pre-draft work. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to do this again.

These mock drafts really are a good time. Much like fantasy football or NCAA tourney brackets, they give you a rooting interest in the Draft. All of a sudden you’ll find yourself caring about who the Tennessee Titans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft, and shouting “THAT’S RIGHT, KIPER!” and “YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT, TODD!” at your television, and any loved ones who share your home will no longer have any doubt that you’ve lost your damn mind.

Now that we’ve established the stakes, let’s get into the rules. I’ll give you until 5:00 pm MDT today to enter your mock into the comments below this post. You don’t need a lot of detail. Just list the FULL NAMES, ordered 1-32 but WITHOUT PICK NUMBERS, so I can copy and paste them into my scoring spreadsheet. I realize we can all edit posts, but I’m copying and pasting at 5 o’clock, so any sly maneuvers to beef up your picks after the fact will be in vain. Also, please don’t use ALL CAPS as it does not agree with the formula cells in the scoring spreadsheet.

Points will be awarded as follows:

Correct pick (Player in precise slot where he is selected) – 8 points
Off by 1 slot, early or late – 4 points
Off by 2 slots, early or late – 2 points
Off by 3 slots, early or late – 1 point

Trades will not affect the scoring as points are awarded based on draft slot. For instance, if you have Bradley Chubb going #4 to the Browns, and the Browns trade out of the pick, but the team trading in still selects Chubb, you still get 8 points. You’ve assigned Chubb to the 4 slot, and it doesn’t matter which team takes him there. Make sense?

The draft order is as follows:

1 Cleveland Browns
2 New York Giants
3 New York Jets from Indianapolis Colts
4 Cleveland Browns from Houston Texans
5 Denver Broncos
6 Indianapolis Colts from New York Jets
7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8 Chicago Bears
9 San Francisco 49ers
10  Oakland Raiders
11 Miami Dolphins
12 Buffalo Bills from Cincinnati Bengals
13 Washington Redskins
14 Green Bay Packers
15 Arizona Cardinals
16 Baltimore Ravens
17 Los Angeles Chargers
18 Seattle Seahawks
19 Dallas Cowboys
20 Detroit Lions
21 Cincinnati Bengals from Buffalo Bills
22 Buffalo Bills from Kansas City Chiefs
23 New England Patriots from Los Angeles Rams
24 Carolina Panthers
25 Tennessee Titans
26 Atlanta Falcons
27 New Orleans Saints
28 Pittsburgh Steelers
29 Jacksonville Jaguars
30 Minnesota Vikings
31 New England Patriots
32 Philadelphia Eagles

I’ll try my best to post the score tallies periodically throughout the night.

Good luck, and Go Broncos.