NFL Draft 2024 challenge: Put your money where your mock is!

As the 2024 NFL Draft looms with a Thursday 8 p.m. start, draftniks everywhere are poring over late clues on X by Adam Schefter to update there last-minute mock. All that work for what? Maybe they can win The Huddle Report championship, which has graded mock drafts for more than two decades.

We will get back to The Huddle Report and tap into some of the top current online draft gurus who were on the NFL Draft Scout team that dominated internet draft coverage on numerous sites, especially CBS Sports and NFL.com.

Getting back to the present, let's issue a challenge to the growing universe of draftnick mockers. Unlike NFL teams for which this is an expensive exercise, draftnik mockers get away with some pretty outrageous predictions and incur no consequence except for a perceived loss of credibility ... or is that loss of perceived credibility?

Regardless, here’s a challenge to mockers everywhere: Put your money where your mock is!

Our Vegas friends BetOnline will reward your expertise if you are willing to put some coin on the accuracy of your predictions. There are numerous props, but we'll just go with the odds on each of the first 10 picks.

The most overwhelming favorite is at No. 1, where USC quarterback Caleb Williams is 1/500, followed by LSU QB Jayden Daniels (33/1, -500) and North Carolina QB Drake Maye (40/1). We list all the top-10 draft-pick odds at the bottom, for your consideration.

Hint: The first spot where the favorite is not an overwhelming favorite is No. 5, topped by LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers.

That is exactly where NFL Draft Scout has him rated, of course.

Getting back to the ever-growing mockathon craze. NFL Draft Scout does have an ascending star in Jeremy Bissett, who posted his first round and all seven rounds for each team.

A family get-together 

Historically, NFL Draft Scout and its extended football family (including The Sports Xchange) featured some of the best in the biz: Dane Brugler (Sr. draft guru for The Athletic and author of "The Beast," best draft guide ever), Chad Reuter (Sr. analyst with NFL.com), Rob Rang (draft analyst with FOX), Howard Balzer (co-host of Sirius radio's Pro Football Hall of Fame show), Ric Serritella (All Access/NFL Draft Bible thumper on Substack), Jay Glazer (NFL Insider with FOX Sports) and Kevin Demoff (president of the L.A. Rams, in charge of Kroenke team and media operations).

Except for Glazer and Demoff, they all still mock. Balzer is moving to a new online site and isn't mocking this year. The talkative Glazer does his version verbally—what a shock!. As for Demoff, whom we stole for a short time during and after he earned a master's degree at Harvard, he is included just to show off. Hell, he could be the next NFL Commish.

That's also not including the great Brian "Hitman" Hitterman, the draft/player savant whose arrival in ~1998 launched NFL Draft Scout research to epic levels. Brian can recite the history, measurements, success/failure of just about any football player this century. He tracked em al.. Brian is doing that right now on draftscout.com, analyzing more than 14,000 CFP players who are currently active. Oh, and about 3,500 coming out of high school. He is too deep into reality than to bother with a mock. 

We decided to get together the old gang for a 2024 mock party, right back here on NFL Draft Scout, where they launched their online careers. We can no longer afford them, so we will bring them together with the magic of the internet. We will link to their current mocks. 

—Brugler's 257-man mock is here. As of this writing late Wednesday he did not offer in final mock for the year. He is a social media darling, so it will be easy to find.

—Reuter has this version of a seven-round mock.

—Rang, who still teaches in the northwest and does some professional scouting, posted this on FOX.

—Serritella, a marketing genius who covers football from every angle, posted his mock on Substack.

OK, party's over. Thanks guys. The check is NOT in the mail.

An existential question

Now, we have a rather basic question: What the hell is a mock draft? Does a mocker attempt to predict what will happen, or lecture on what should happen. Small but important detail, eh? 

Robby Esch, who launched The Huddle Report two decades ago, danced around that question, even as he created this formula for grading mock drafts: "Score (S) = (P) Players placed in first round 1pt +  Player matched to team (M) 2pt."

As for the reigning champion, per The Huddle Report, three mockers tied for first last year with 45 points (see formula): Sean Green ("Sports Gambling Podcast"), Sam Teets ("Sports Talk with Sam Teets") and Brad Spielberger (Pro Football Focus)

But for sustained best guesswork as mockers, two men each averaged 43.6 points over the last five years: Brendan Donahue ("Sharp Football Analysis") and Eddie Brown (The San Diego Union-Tribune). 

Here is Donahue's 2024 mock, and Brown, representing that quaint medium that endangers forests, offered this 2024 mock. 

Let's move to the play for pay mockery. Here are some of the props at BetOnline.

Let's see how creative your picks are with money on the line.