Mock Draft Muncher makes its 2011 debut

The Mock Draft Muncher is a great way to get a consensus view from more than 40 mock drafts, wading through a lot of picks and presenting it in an easy-to-read format. What does it say about the Vikings?

The “Mock Draft Muncher” that Barry McBride of TheOBR.com created has long been a favorite predraft ritual for the people running this site, and hopefully those frequenting the site.

The beauty of McBride’s MDM is the quantity of mock drafts it consumes – currently at 43 – and the ease in which it presents the data to the reader. Want to know who is the most common first overall pick in the mock drafts consumed here? That would be defensive end DaQuan Bowers, who was chosen 13 times to go to the Panthers. But defensive tackle Nick Fairley (nine times), quarterback Cam Newton (seven times) and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus (seven times) were also popular picks.

Who is the first quarterback drafted, according to the mocks that were munched? Cam Newton was Buffalo’s selection at No. 3 in 12 of the 43 mocks. Interestingly, quarterback Blaine Gabbert was never the consensus pick for any of the teams, but that’s how it works in this particular format, where wide receiver A.J. Green is the pick two times in the top six selections.

They weren’t the only players going multiple times in the first round. So did cornerback Prince Amukamara, wide receiver Julio Jones, defensive end J.J. Watt, quarterback Jake Locker, cornerback Jimmy Smith, defensive tackle Phil Taylor and offensive tackle Derek Sherrod.

The consensus pick for the Vikings at No. 12 is quarterback Jake Locker, but that was the least agreed-upon pick of the top 17 selections. Locker was chosen in seven of the 43 mock drafts that were munched, and quarterback Ryan Mallett was right behind him, going to the Vikings in six of those mocks. Other top choices were defensive end Robert Quinn (three times), defensive end Cameron Jordan (three times) and WR Jones (three times).

The “draft simulation” – which more closely resembles the typical mock drafts and doesn’t allow for a player to be selected twice – also has Locker going to the Vikings. In the simulation, Newton is chosen by Buffalo at No. 3 and Gabbert is selected by Tennessee at No. 8, while Jones (No. 10 to Washington) and Quinn (No. 11 to Houston) also go off the board before the Vikings’ pick.

The Muncher also lists players’ average draft position, where Dareus is tops at 3.79 in the “filtered player analysis,” which throws out any players that weren’t selected in the first round by more than one-third of the mocks that were munched. As for the quarterbacks, Gabbert is actually ahead of Newton, with Gabbert’s average position at 5.51 and Newton at 5.89. Locker’s average was 17.26, meaning that if he gets past the Vikings he tends to slip far in a lot of the mock drafts.

What does this all mean? In the real NFL world, probably not a whole lot, but in a world where fans have been starved of free-agent speculation and inundated with labor legalese, the Mock Draft Muncher is a great way to get back to football speculation.

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Tim Yotter is the publisher of Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

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