[sherck]

Located here.

Basic ideal; SI's Albert Breer made a mock draft and then showed it to NFL scouts. The article is a summary of what the NFL scouts said about his mock draft.

High Points:

After four months of calling around, I feel good about the first four picks. And those are USC quarterback Sam Darnold, UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, Penn State running back Saquon Barkley and N.C. State defensive end Bradley Chubb. My sense is that, provided they all come out (Darnold is a redshirt sophomore, Rosen and Barkley are juniors, Chubb is a senior), the quarterbacks are safe bets to go inside the Top 5, but it’s the other two who are among the three best players in this class.

And the third of the top-three overall prospects is a guard. That’s right, a guard. Notre Dame’s Quenton Nelson is probably the most agreed upon prospect that I’ve discussed with scouts. When I told an exec last week that I’d probably write that Nelson was “maybe a better guard prospect than ex-teammate Zack Martin,” he told me to take the “maybe” out of there. In 2014, Martin, you may remember, became the first rookie linemen to make first-team All-Pro in 57 years. I had Nelson going fifth in my mock.

I would not be a fan of picking Barkley with the 3rd pick. Not that I don't think he is going to be a great RB at the NFL level; I just think we need to build a more complete team prior to adding the high powered RB to the offense. Build an actualy O-Line and get our defense to NFL average and then I am all for drafting the stud RB.

However, between Chubb or Nelson, I am all in. I don't really care which we would end up picking because I would be happy with either of them; they help solve 2 of our largest three holes on the team (O-Line, Pass Rush, ILB) and everything I am reading says that they are both the real deal.

​The offensive linemen, in general, are pretty good. And they’re a lot better than they were last year, when none went in the first 15 picks for the first time in draft history. In addition to Nelson, I had his teammate, Mike McGlinchey and Conor Williams of Texas as left tackle prospects going inside the first eight picks, and five O-linemen in the first round.

If Ballard decides to trade down a bit to pile up picks, one of these OTs would be a fine consolation prize to pick in addition to getting the more picks.

From a different SI article about Senior Bowl invites:

There are four small school OT prospects who have a chance to really help themselvesat the Senior Bowl: Humbolt State’s Alex Cappa, North Carolina A&T’s Brandon Parker, Stony Brook’s Timon Parris and West Georgia’s Desmond Harrison have shown NFL potential during their career.

Getting invited to the Senior Bowl is the premier way that you improve your NFL draft stock for guys whom are not sure-fire first round picks and a pretty good ticket into being drafted in the top 3 rounds of the NFL draft if you perform well regardless of the school size you came from.

At OT, the 2018 Senior Bowl invites were:

Mike McGlinchey, Notre Dame (DECLINED)
Conor Williams, Texas (DECLINED)
Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh (DECLINED)
Jamarco Jones, Ohio State (DECLINED)
Orlando Brown, Oklahoma (DECLINED)
Kolton Miller, UCLA (DECLINED)

Tyrell Crosby, Oregon
Alex Cappa, Humboldt State
Cole Madison, Washington State
Chukwuma Okorafor, Western Michigan
Martinas Rankin, Mississippi State
Desmond Harrison, West Georgia
Brandon Parker, North Carolina A&T
Timon Parris, Stony Brook

Picking up either Chubb or Nelson in the 1st round and following that pick with the best available OT in the 2nd round would be about my dream start to the 2018 NFL draft regardless of what we end up doing in free agency. Pass Rush, O-Line and then ILB. Fix those are we are well on our way (assuming Luck returns) to being back in the playoff hunt again with a new coaching staff and offensive/defensive systems.

Walk Worthy,