With the NFL Combine looming and plenty of time to review post-season all-star games like the Senior Bowl, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. released his second mock draft of the year on Wednesday.
The extra film study and evaluation hasn’t been kind to SEC players at the top of the 2015 draft, at least in Kiper Jr.’s eyes. He’s downgraded some of his projections for SEC first-rounders and eliminated a few more altogether.
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Here’s how the SEC’s first-round players currently project, according to Kiper Jr.
3. Missouri DE Shane Ray (Jacksonville Jaguars)
4. Alabama WR Amari Cooper (Oakland Raiders)
13. Florida DE Dante Fowler Jr. (New Orleans Saints)
22. Alabama S Landon Collins (Pittsburgh Steelers)
24. LSU CB Jalen Collins (Arizona Cardinals)
29. LSU OT La’el Collins (Indianapolis Colts)
Ray was the one SEC player that Kiper Jr. elevated in his rankings, moving the former Tigers standout from No. 6 to No. 3 in his projections. Meanwhile, he dropped Collins from No. 7 to No. 22 and Fowler Jr. from No. 8 to No. 13.
His initial 2015 mock draft included first-round projections for former Missouri WR Dorial Green-Beckham, former Kentucky DL Bud Dupree, former Mississippi State LB Benardrick McKinney and former Auburn WR Sammie Coates, all of whom he dropped for his ’15 mock draft, version 2.0.
Kiper Jr. did write that his evaluation of Alabama’s Collins, for instance, hasn’t changed at all, but that players “rise and fall all the time on fit” as teams look for a player who can contribute immediately, and team needs change with free agency.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
