Yesterday, I posted a different kind of Mock NFL Draft. It took the player rankings from Scouts Inc and simply mapped that against the draft order to get an idea of where players should be drafted rather than what a team is expected to do based on needs. Today, I do the same thing but use The Sporting News' War Room rankings to come up with a very different mock draft - very different. This mock draft is so different that I can't help thinking of it as a list of possible second and third round sleepers.
Where to start? Possible #1 overall pick, OT Jake Long, is rated #13 by the War Room by their scoring method. Rutgers' RB Ray Rice is rated #17. Maybe I haven't perused enough mock drafts, but neither of those players have been projected to go anywhere near those levels.
To me, this looks like the Miami Dolphins could be making a mistake to take Long #1 while those 1st round teams who need a RB and pass could get that level of talent in the second or third round in Rice. The same thing can be said of QB Matt Ryan and WRs Early Doucet and Devin Thomas.
I want to ask if you agree, but this mock draft is so different that the proper question would be how much do you disagree.
| PICK | TEAM | PLAYER | POS | SCHOOL |
| 1 | Miami | Chris Long | DE | Virginia |
| 2 | St. Louis | Glen Dorsey | DT | Lsu |
| 3 | Atlanta | Darren Mcfadden | RB | Arkansas |
| 4 | Oakland | Keith Rivers | OLB | Usc |
| 5 | Kansas City | Ryan Clady | OT | Boise State |
| 6 | N.Y. Jets | Rashard Mendenhall | RB | Illinois |
| 7 | New England (from S.F.) | Mike Jenkins | CB | South Florida |
| 8 | Baltimore | Devin Thomas | WR | Michigan State |
| 9 | Cincinnati | Chris Williams | OT | Vanderbilt |
| 10 | New Orleans | Early Doucet | WR | Lsu |
| 11 | Buffalo | Felix Jones | RB | Arkansas |
| 12 | Denver | Malcolm Kelly | WR | Oklahoma |
| 13 | Carolina | Jake Long | OT | Michigan |
| 14 | Chicago | Andre Caldwell | WR | Florida |
| 15 | Detroit | Brian Brohm | QB | Louisville |
| 16 | Arizona | Sedrick Ellis | DT | Usc |
| 17 | Minnesota | Ray Rice | RB | Rutgers |
| 18 | Houston | Leodis Mckelvin | CB | Troy State |
| 19 | Philadelphia | Jonathan Stewart | RB | Oregon |
| 20 | Tampa Bay | Desean Jackson | WR | California |
| 21 | Washington | Kenny Phillips | S | Miami |
| 22 | Dallas (from Cleveland) | Beau Bell | ILB | Unlv |
| 23 | Pittsburgh | Dajuan Motgan | S | Nc State |
| 24 | Tennessee | Matt Ryan | QB | Boston College |
| 25 | Seattle | Mario Manningham | WR | Michigan |
| 26 | Jacksonville | Quentin Groves | OLB | Auburn |
| 27 | San Diego | Brandon Flowers | CB | Virginia Tech |
| 28 | Dallas | Donnie Avery | WR | Houston |
| 29 | San Francisco (from Indianapolis) | Phillip Merling | DE | Clemson |
| 30 | Green Bay | Jordan Dizon | OLB | Colorado |
| 31 | N.Y. Giants | Reggie Smith | CB | Oklahoma |