NFL Mock Draft Roundup: Experts still pointing to RB for Arizona Cardinals
Apr 30, 2015, 2:22 PM | Updated: 3:34 pm
It’s here.
After months of workouts, combines, rumors and speculation, the 2015 NFL Draft finally gets underway Thursday night in Chicago.
Since January, we’ve been monitoring projections from experts all over the country in the Arizona Sports Mock Draft Tracker.
In fact, just this month alone, we’ve updated the database with 94 different mock drafts. An astounding 43 percent of them have the Arizona Cardinals picking a running back with the 24th overall selection.
Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon and Georgia’s Todd Gurley showed up in 20 mock drafts each in April, by far the two most popular projections.
There were 22 different players linked to Arizona in April mocks, but only five — Gordon, Gurley, Florida tackle D.J. Humphries, Miami tackle Ereck Flowers and Florida State center Cameron Erving — are offensive players.
Missouri edge rusher Shane Ray was the most common projection among the 17 defensive players that showed up on Cardinals’ mocks. Ray appeared in seven mock drafts, while a pair of cornerbacks — Wake Forest’s Kevin Johnson and LSU’s Jalen Collins — and Oregon defensive lineman Arik Armstead each popped up four times.
Full disclosure: last season, we tracked 252 different mock drafts over the months leading up to the real event, and not one had the Cardinals drafting Deone Bucannon out of Washington State in the first round.
Not one.
Players linked to Arizona Cardinals in April Mock Drafts
| Player | Position | School | Mock Draft Appearances (April) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melvin Gordon | RB | Wisconsin | 20 |
| Todd Gurley | RB | Georgia | 20 |
| Shane Ray | Edge | Missouri | 7 |
| Cameron Erving | C | Florida State | 6 |
| Jalen Collins | CB | LSU | 4 |
| D.J. Humphries | T | Florida | 4 |
| Kevin Johnson | CB | Wake Forest | 4 |
| Arik Armstead | DE | Oregon | 4 |
| Alvin “Bud” Dupree | Edge | Kentucky | 3 |
| Randy Gregory | Edge | Nebraska | 3 |
| Eli Harold | Edge | Virginia | 3 |
| Marcus Peters | CB | Washington | 3 |
| Eddie Goldman | DT | Florida State | 2 |
| Eric Kendricks | LB | UCLA | 2 |
| Nate Orchard | Edge | Utah | 2 |
| Vic Beasley | Edge | Clemson | 1 |
| Malcom Brown | DT | Texas | 1 |
| Ereck Flowers | T | Miami | 1 |
| Byron Jones | CB | Connecticut | 1 |
| Denzel Perryman | LB | Miami | 1 |
| Shaq Thompson | S/LB | Washington | 1 |
| Trae Waynes | CB | Michigan State | 1 |
