NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. Is one of the most high profile analysts out there and his Big Board mock draft was released for the first time for the 2014 class and he surprised many by putting Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel as the number one overall pick ahead of Jadeveon Clowney, Blake Bortles, Jake Matthews and Teddy Bridgewater.
Kiper unleashed his first mock draft just over a week after the national championship game and now that the NFL playoffs are underway, it's just a few short months until the draft and mock picks will start coming out on the regular. Manziel is considered to be one of the best players in the draft, but the consensus so far has Teddy Bridgewater as the top pick, something Kiper for the meantime disagrees with. Kiper's first set has Texas A&M left tackle Jake Matthews going second to the St. Louis Rams after they got the pick from the Washington Redskins, making the first two picks Aggies, while Clowney is third to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Kiper has UCF quarterback Blake Bortles going next to the Cleveland Browns after he broke out from the Fiesta Bowl against Baylor and then a couple picks later he has Bridgewater going to the Minnesota Vikings as their next quarterback of the future. Even if the Texans rate Bridgewater as the better player, there are a number of reasons why it wouldn't surprise people if Manziel is the pick, considering his upside, the fact that he is from Texas and also the way his college career went at Texas A&M could make him a premier draw in the league.
Kiper says that Bortles has a great set of physical tools and that is why he will get picked high and based on those metrics, he has the "most upside" in the league of the main quarterbacks in this draft. Kiper gets heat from many people around the sports world, but he is a very smart and adept draft analyst and his evaluations are usually very sound and this season he feels that Carlos Hyde from Ohio State will be a first round pick, as will Calvin Pryor from Louisville along with Louis Nix III from Notre Dame.
Last season the top of the draft was heavy with lineman and now it appears that quarterbacks, defensive players and wide receivers will be the main focus of the first round. For the second year in a row we could see zero running backs taken in the first round, but it's not due to lack of talent, as names like Tre Mason, Carlos Hyde, Ka'Deem Carey, Jeremy Hill and Bishop Sankey as well as Tyler Gaffney are all going pro. The wide receiver class this year has a deep roster of players as well with names like Kelvin Benjamin, Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans and Allen Robinson coming out.
Click here for the first mock draft of 2014 for Mel Kiper and more on his top players on the Big Board.
Kiper's top 10 picks:
Houston Texans, Johnny Manziel
St. Louis Rams, Jake Matthews
Jadeveon Clowney, Jacksonville Jaguars
Cleveland Browns, Blake Bortles
Oakland Raiders, Sammy Watkins,
Atlanta Falcons, Anthony Barr, lb
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Khalil Mack, lb
Minnesota Vikings, Teddy Bridgewater
Buffalo Bills, Greg Robinson, ot
Detroit Lions, Justin Gilbert, cb
