Tuesday, April 21, 2009

NFL Draft Un-contest

A few years ago, pro-football-reference.com did a draft contest that I participated in (and did poorly at). Unfortunately, they haven't run it since, so I thought I'd take a shot at resurrecting it here.

The basic concept is simple: Post your first-round mock draft, by draft position, not team (so that even if, say, you list Matthew Stafford #1 and Detroit trades out of the #1 pick and some other team picks Stafford, you still get credit). Do this for all 32 picks in the first round in the comments (on either site). If you've posted your mock draft elsewhere, give me the link and I'll use that. I'll compile everyone's results and score them after the draft.

I'm going to do scoring a bit different (read: simpler) than how PFR did it, though. First, there will be no bonus for getting your pick in early, since we're only a few days out anyway. Second, each player can be named only once. As for scoring, you'll simply score one "point" for each spot you're off, to a maximum of 10. The lowest "score" wins. I'll also look up a few mock drafts from the "pros" and see how they score, to compare to us "amateurs."

So, if you pick Mark Sanchez to go in the #4 spot and he's picked at #10, you'd get 6 points. I'll track players into the second round, so if your #31 pick goes at #35, you'll get 4 points. The 10-point maximum is to keep one or two bad picks from ruining your entire entry. Think Aaron Rodgers or Brady Quinn. As with every other contest I've run on this site, there's no prize, just bragging rights.

Entries are due before the first pick of the draft; I'll post mine in the comments (as soon as I figure out what to pick). Make sure that players are listed unambiguously: "J. Smith," "Jason Smith," "Smith, Baylor" are all fine, but "OL Smith" is not, since I wouldn't know if you're referring to Jason Smith or Andre Smith. And please number your picks so it'll be easier to track.

Good luck!

1 comment:

Jason said...

1. Matthew Stafford
2. Jason Smith
3. Aaron Curry
4. Eugene Monroe
5. Brian Orakpo
6. Michael Crabtree
7. Jeremy Maclin
8. Mark Sanchez
9. BJ Raji
10. Andre Smith
11. Aaron Maybin
12. Tyson Jackson
13. Robert Ayers
14. Malcolm Jenkins
15. Brian Cushing
16. Chris Wells
17. Josh Freeman
18. Ray Maualuga
19. Everette Brown
20. Michael Oher
21. Knowshon Moreno
22. Eben Britton
23. Vontae Davis
24. Brandon Pettigrew
25. Darrius Heyward-Bey
26. Clay Matthews
27. Peria Jerry
28. Max Unger
29. Hakeem Nicks
30. Evander Hood
31. Michael Johnson
32. Alex Mack