As you might expect, the NFL carefully practices and prepares for its live events off the playing field. The NFL draft, the league’s most prominent off-field event, is no exception.
The league runs through a “dress rehearsal” edition of the draft ahead of Thursday night’s first round in Kansas City. Leaving nothing to chance, the league scripts out the picks for all 32 teams and strips away the trades that moved picks around for Tuesday’s scheduled rehearsal.
The results are wild!
Dianna Russini of ESPN tweeted out the scripted mock draft picks the NFL submitted to all teams for the dress rehearsal. Instead of the usual names crowding the first round, the players on the fake list are primarily Day 3 prospects or guys who project as priority undrafted free agents. The No. 1 pick is Troy OL Jake Andrews, who looked like the first pick of the seventh round during Senior Bowl week.
The full first round, courtesy Russini:
That could very well be the way the sixth round plays out.