Steel Balls

Another magnificent draft by the guru team of Khan and Weidl is in the books, but as happy as we are with the results of the real draft, there were some fantastic mocks submitted by our own ballers. In fact, all of the submissions were pretty great and mostly credible, even those that came in dead last. Here are the results:

Total Points:

1. drock – 8
2. EstimatedProphet (mock 2) – 5
3. copanut (mock 2) – 4
4. EstimatedProphet (mock 1) – 2
5. Tie (in order of submission):

• • MWalsh26 (mock 1) – 1
  • MWalsh26 (mock 2) – 1
  • copanut (mock 1) – 1
  • Earl – 1
  • TomPaulBillyBob – 1
  • Eleven – 1

Yes, drock nearly lapped the field by guessing the correct position for four different rounds, including the first three picks, and correctly guessing the selections of Frazier and Watts. Kindly, drock spared us further humiliation by not bothering to submit UDFA selections.

A couple of honorable mentions:

• Though Mack did not submit an official mock, he gets an honorary point for applying mental pressure to the Steelers to take a center worthy of playing for the Steelers. Besides, anyone puttering around in a Steelers golf cart deserves an honorary point.
• I’m granting a -1 point to JamesH for failing to submit a mock despite having worn out the simulator servers with endless simulations.

DISCLAIMER: I always manage to make at least one error in tabulation, so look over your mocks and compare to my evaluation to make sure I got it right. If you find a mistake in my tabulation, let me know. Although it’s pretty unlikely that I made enough mistakes for drock to lose the title, it could be that one of us cellar-dwellers might arise from the muck to claim sole possession of 5th place.

+2

April 25th. Draft Day. The magical day of perennial hope is fast approaching. It’s a day we long for each year, usually beginning about five minutes into the first quarter of the first Wildcard game.

You have up until the day before the draft to produce your predictions: have your predictions in no later than end of day April 24th. If you submit a mock earlier than that, you may edit the mock up until the deadline (e.g., in the event of a signing or trade that wrecks your initial mock). 

Please use the following format as a template. Any deviation from this format that causes me to have to interpret your gibberish will result in unfavorable scoring, so beware.

Identify any trades if applicable
Round (Pick) – Position, Name, School
1 (17)  – WR, Moe Howard, Harvard
2 (32)  – ILB, Larry Fine, Yale
2 (49)  – OG, Curly Howard, Stanford
3 (80) – RB, Shemp Howard, Princeton
4 (120) – NT, Joe DeRita, Brown
7 (234) – SS, Joe Besser, Penn
7 (241) – PK, Emil Sitka, Allegheny County Community College
Add up to five UFAs

This year, you may submit up to two mocks: one without any trades, and one with trades.

As in the past, you will be given two points for each correct name, and one point for each correct position/round combination. For UDFA selections, you will get a point only for a specific name. I may give or take other points for special predictions or egregious failures, at my sole dictatorial discretion.

Trades: Given the difficulty and risks of predicting a trade, I will grant bonus points for a successful prediction. If you predict a trade, you will be granted bonus points as follows:

• +1 if you correctly predict the trade partner
• +1 if you correctly predict the Steelers pick position(s) being traded
• +5 if you correctly predict the partner, the Steelers pick position(s) and the partner’s pick position(s)

I normally kick things off with my own predictions, but I’m not quite ready yet. There is still time for you to have the glory of being first.

Good luck, ladies and gentlemen…

0

Now that the draft is behind us, it’s time to take a look at who had the most accurate prediction.

Total Points:

1. tennbob – 4
2. Earl – 4
3. copanut (mock 1) – 3
4. copanut (mock 2) – 3
5. Mwalsh26 (mock 2) – 3*
6. EstimatedProphet – 3
7. Eleven – 3
8. Mwalsh26 (mock 1) – 1
9. TomPaulBillyBob – 1
10. All the losers who were too lazy or scared to participate – 0

Yes, tennbob and Earl got it right, proving the old adage about broken clocks. Well done, guys, you made us proud! Technically, tennbob takes the crown because his predictions were submitted first. After those two, there was an amazing five-way tie for third place, with the tie-breaker being the chronology of the entries.

Earl had the distinction of being the only Baller to correctly pick a player and round combination, with Broderick Jones in round 1, garnering 3 points. He added another point by guessing a CB for the next pick. Tennbob predicted the positions of the first two picks, and also had a named player (Herbig) but with the wrong round, accumulating 4 points total. EstimatedProphet and Mwalsh26 (mock 2) also predicted Broderick Jones in round 1, but had no other hits. Only two other Ballers correctly picked a player, but did not have the correct round. Both copanut (mock 1) and Eleven correctly named Joey Porter Jr, but in the wrong round. Both mocks also correctly identified a DL as the third pick, but got the actual player wrong.

Copanut (mock 2) and tennbob had the distinction of being the only mocks to correctly guess more than two positions, though none for the correct player. Each predicted OT, CB, and DL for the first three picks, in that order, for one point each.

I will be kicking myself for the next 11 months because I originally had Broderick Jones for that first pick, which would have given me a total of 5 and the win, but lacking the imagination of Omar Khan, I decided Jones would be gone by 17 (which was true of course), and so I changed the name. Next time I’ll try to remember to have more faith in the Khan Artist to find a way around the impossible.

Mwalsh26 (mock 2) gets an asterisk because for some inexplicable reason he declared that this mock did not count. Well, we’re counting it anyway just to demonstrate how fair and reasonable we are here at Steel Balls. We won’t even mention that the mock he embraced came in tied for last, because that would be rude.

DISCLAIMER: I always manage to make at least one error in tabulation, so look over your mocks and compare to my evaluation to make sure I got it right. If you find a mistake in my tabulation, let me know. Eagle Eye JAMESH has already caught one major error, now fixed, and there may be more.

0

Here we go again. Time to start contemplating the draft instead of our navels.

You have up until the day before the draft to produce your predictions: have your predictions in no later than end of day April 26th. If you submit a mock earlier than that, you may edit the mock up until the deadline (e.g., in the event of a signing or trade that wrecks your initial mock). 

Please use the following format as a template. Any deviation from this format that causes me to have to interpret your gibberish will result in unfavorable scoring, so beware.

Identify any trades if applicable
Round (Pick) – Position, Name, School
1 (17)  – WR, Moe Howard, Harvard
2 (32)  – ILB, Larry Fine, Yale
2 (49)  – OG, Curly Howard, Stanford
3 (80) – RB, Shemp Howard, Princeton
4 (120) – NT, Joe DeRita, Brown
7 (234) – SS, Joe Besser, Penn
7 (241) – PK, Emil Sitka, Allegheny County Community College
Add up to five UFAs

This year, you may submit up to two mocks: one without any trades, and one with trades.

As in the past, you will be given two points for each correct name, and one point for each correct position/round combination. For UDFA selections, you will get a point only for a specific name. I may give or take other points for special predictions or egregious failures, at my sole dictatorial discretion.

Trades: Given the difficulty and risks of predicting a trade, I will grant bonus points for a successful prediction. If you predict a trade, you will be granted bonus points as follows:

• +1 if you correctly predict the trade partner
• +1 if you correctly predict the Steelers pick position(s) being traded
• +5 if you correctly predict the partner, the Steelers pick position(s) and the partner’s pick position(s)

I will get things kicked off with my own mocks. Good luck, ladies and gentlemen…

+2

It was a great draft experience, if not a great draft, but the drama has now come to a close. We can declare who finished, um, ahead, and state that our efforts were not, um, in vain.

First, let’s declare outright that none of us did particularly well compared to previous standout performances such as Walsh in 2021. Still, a win is a win. As Big Ben used to say, winning ugly is as good as winning pretty.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Which AFCN team won the draft? Yep, it’s a silly question given the massive disparity of opinions regarding players versus needs, when they haven’t even stepped on the field. But what good is the offseason without silly questions?

Gut instinct tells me that the Ravens won the draft, but I feel that way mainly because they snagged some players I had hoped would become Steelers, and because of their absurd haul of six picks from the 4th round. But maybe it’s not that clear cut.

For our analysis, let’s go with the pick grades provided by CBS Sports. While these grades may be wildly wrong, at least they don’t come from my homer brain.

Read the rest of this entry »

0

Yep, it’s that time to mock and be mocked. It’s that time of the year where Ballers have the chance to prove they know more than the Steelers’ brass, or at least more than other Ballers. You have up until the day before the draft to produce your predictions: have your predictions in no later than end of day Wednesday, April 27th. If you submit a mock earlier than that, you may edit the mock up until the deadline (e.g., in the event of a signing or trade that wrecks your initial mock). 

Please use the following format as a template. Any deviation from this format that causes me to have to interpret your gibberish will result in unfavorable scoring, so beware.

Identify any trades if applicable
Round (Pick) – Position, Name, School
1 (20)  – WR, Moe Howard, Harvard
2 (52)  – ILB, Larry Fine, Yale
3 (84)  – OG, Curly Howard, Stanford
4 (138) – RB, Shemp Howard, Princeton
6 (208) – NT, Joe DeRita, Brown
7 (225) – SS, Joe Besser, Penn
7 (241) – PK, Emil Sitka, Allegheny County Community College
Add up to five UFAs

This year, you may submit up to two mocks: one without any trades, and one with trades.

As in the past, you will be given one point two points for each correct name, and one point for each correct position/round combination. For UDFA selections, you will get a point only for a specific name. I may give or take other points for special predictions or egregious failures, at my sole dictatorial discretion.

I will get things kicked off with my own mocks. Good luck, ladies and gentlemen…

+2

Benny Snell, picked 4-122

Zack Gentry, picked 5-141

Sutton Smith, picked 6-175

Isaiah Buggs, picked 6-192

Ulysees Gilbert, picked 6-207

Derwin Gray, picked 7-219

0

Projected pick: #40. Actual pick #83.

0

Projected pick: 4th round. Actual pick: #66.

0