Questions remain about when and if the 2011 NFL season will begin and there's certainly no one who knows how the season will end. What we tend to see in early predictions about up-coming seasons is a heavy reliance on the past. That's how Todd McShay's mock draft ends up having all four NFC West teams picking between six and 12 in the 2012 NFL Draft with the Cardinals repeating as the division's worst team.
The rest of the NFC West is predicted in this mock draft with the St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks in the first through third spots. The worst five teams in the league according to this early guess will be the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills, and Denver Broncos. Not surprisingly, the top five teams are the Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, and New Orleans Saints.
Obviously, these are very early predictions. The real value in a 2012 NFL Mock Draft at this point before free agency and trades and long before training camps is to rank the top 32 college football prospects. The NCAA has plenty of issues on its plate, but they are not facing a lockout and will have a full season of football.
The top ten prospects according to McShay's 2012 Mock Draft are:
Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
Quinton Coples, DE, North Carolina
Matt Barkley, QB, USC
Matt Kalil, OT, USC
Jerel Worthy, DT, Michigan State
Donte Paige-Mos, DE, North Carolina
Alshon Jeffery, WR, South Carolina
Jayron Hosley, CB, Virginia Tech
Janoris Jenkins, CB, Florida