100 Days of Mocks: Three Mocks, Three Different Tight Ends

With exactly 30 days until the 2023 NFL Draft, three major mock drafts focused on the same player but with different results.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Aaron Rodgers’ reign in Green Bay coming to an ugly conclusion, it’s time to build anew. New starting quarterback Jordan Love needs weapons, and NFL.com’s Eric Edholm provided one in his new mock draft.

The pick? Utah’s elite tight end, Dalton Kincaid.

“Want Jordan Love to succeed? Giving him a highly athletic seam threat with sticky hands might help,” Edholm wrote. “Assuming Kincaid’s back injury isn't an issue that lingers, he and Love could make quite the duo in Wisconsin.”

A late-season back injury – one that didn’t require surgery – prevented Kincaid from going through drills at the Scouting Combine. Medically cleared only recently, Kincaid turned his attention to getting ready for his NFL career rather than last week’s pro day.

If the draft were to play out like it did in Edholm’s mind, the selections at No. 15 and No. 16 would surely create some Twitter fireworks.

If Kincaid is the best of the receiving threats, then Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer is the most ready-to-go three-down tight end. He was the choice by The Athletic’s Diante Lee and Nate Tice.

“Regardless of whether it’s Rodgers or Jordan Love under center for the Packers in 2023, they are going to love having Mayer as an option in the passing game,” the authors wrote. “The Notre Dame product checks a lot of boxes at the tight end position and for how the Packers like to use them.

“He is a solid blocker with the upside to play tight at the line, but he also has the athleticism and route-running versatility to line up anywhere in the formation. He might lack the elite athleticism to be a true mismatch, but Mayer is a strong pass catcher with reliable hands in the short and intermediate zones that every offense would enjoy having.”

Mayer was the choice over Kincaid and the same receiver that Edholm bypassed.

Let’s make it three mocks and three different tight ends. At Draft Countdown, Brian Bosarge’s three-round mock started with Georgia’s Darnell Washington.

While Kincaid is the best pass-catching tight end in the draft and Mayer is the best receiver-blocker, Washington is the most potential-packed with an exciting combination of size and athleticism. He wasn’t asked to catch passes at Georgia but could become a real mismatch-creator.

With the Day 2 picks, the choices were an athletic Big Ten defender in the second round and Cincinnati receiver Tyler Scott in the third round. Scott caught 55 passes for 904 yards (16.4 average) with nine touchdowns in 2022.

At 5-foot-10 and 177 pounds and with 9-inch hands, he might be a bit small for Green Bay’s tastes. Physically, he looks like a slot receiver but he barely lined up at that spot at Cincinnati.

At Pro Football Focus, Brad Spielberger continued Green Bay’s recent draft history and focused on the defense with Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness, who had 13.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for losses in two seasons. At 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds, he fits the Green Bay mold for an outside linebacker.

Noting Van Ness’ snaps were split between the edge and defensive tackle, Spielberger wrote: “His strong agility testing numbers and comparatively poor strength and explosiveness numbers may suggest he’s best suited over or outside the tackle, and that’s what we expect from Green Bay, much like Rashan Gary coming out of Michigan.”

The Dallas Morning News’ Calvin Watkins took an offensive tackle.

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100 Days of Mocks

Starting Jan. 17, when there were 100 days until the start of the NFL Draft, we started our mock-worthy goal of 100 mock drafts in 100 days. Here are the last 10 days of the series.

Packer Central Mock Draft 4.0

31 days: First-round receiver streak in Jeopardy

32 days: A Rodgers trade and a short story

33 days: Breaking down NFL.com four-round mock

34 days: Kincaid rests his case

Packer Central’s third seven-round mock draft

35 days: You can bet on Michael Mayer

36 days: Defensive tackle with “special” skill-set

37 days: Seven-round mock shows challenge I Kiper 3.0 I Jeremiah 3.0

38 days: Rodgers traded, Smith-Njigba picked

Packer Central’s second seven-round mock

39 days: Bryan Bresee leads seven-round mock

40 days: A big, bad Bulldog