re: Scale of 1-10, rate the Saints draft

7.264

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Do you know how ridiculous this sounds? Everyone likes to say this sort of thing because Kiper is wrong on his mock drafts. Do you really think that you know more than someone who has studied 10,000+ players for the draft in his career? That doesn’t make him always right, I agree, but you can’t just offhandedly dismiss him because you, a fan, like this draft class. You objectively know a fractional amount about the sport and player evaluation.
I am not throwing shade on Kiper I think he's pretty sharp but like everybody else his analysis comes down to a mix of his own perception and the factual data.

Well said. Just because his mocks are "wrong", doesn't mean his player evaluations are junk. Besides, at this point everything is purely speculative because there are still so many variables to determine if someone will be a great pro; which is why they usually wait 3 years before truly judging a draft.

Draft grades, mock drafts are purely for entertainment and message board purposes.

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Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN: 1 pick correct
In his 40th year covering the NFL draft, Kiper put together arguably his least-accurate mock draft.

Like just about every other expert, Kiper successfully predicted the Panthers would take Young at No. 1. And that’s it.
Not only that, Kiper was among the most outspoken advocates for Levis, touting him as the second-best quarterback in the draft and a “top five pick” ahead of Stroud and Richardson. Kiper tried to make sense of Levis falling into the second round late Thursday night, suggesting NFL executives were too focused on a left toe injury that caused Levis to miss time last year.

“He’s playing because he’s a gutsy, tough kid. And he played through pain,” Kiper said. “I don’t know how you hold turnovers — Kentucky, with the offensive line as bad as it was — against Will Levis. We’re not in the seventh round here.”

We’ll have to wait and see who ends up being correct — Kiper or the 27 NFL executives who passed him over (five teams didn’t have first-round picks).

Kiper was also the only one of the four major TV draft analysts to predict the Eagles taking Robinson, which would have caused longtime 94.1 WIP host Howard Eskin to retire from radio. Instead, the Falcons took Robinson with the No. 8 pick, leaving Kiper and all of Philadelphia to wonder what might have been.

Look, I am not (mocking) you or Rand Al Thor

oops freudian slip
but Kiper does not have the advantage that these GM's and their staff have of just focusing strictly on a few players in a few positions. Kiper and these other analysts are tied down with several hundred players to look over and these teams have by then paired down to what and who they are looking for and it's still a crap shoot. I personally think Kiper is sharp but I still take his and other analysts opinions with a grain of salt because their analysis is all based off of a mix of their subjective view and the objective available data.