JACKSONVILLE – This one is bound to make a few Jaguars fans jealous.
We're referring in this case to the player many Jaguars fans would love the team to take in the NFL Draft later this month. The Jaguars passed on that player a few days ago – they did in this 2015 jaguars.com reader mock draft, anyway – but the Washington Redskins didn't pass on him …
But hold that thought for a while.
The first thing – even before revealing the Redskins' selection at No. 5 – is to get caught up on the goings on thus far and to get things restarted in the jaguars.com 2015 reader mock draft, which began last week and now faces what is traditionally a transition period.
Remember? A week ago?
The reader mock thundered through opening week, starting when the readers mocked Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 1 and gaining momentum when the Tennessee Titans selected Southern California defensive end Leonard Williams No. 2.
The week peaked on Friday when the Jaguars selected Florida outside linebacker/pass rusher Dante Fowler Jr. No. 3 overall.
The reader mockers then projected Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Oakland Raiders at No. 4, leaving six more selections – all of this week and a couple of days next week – until we pick up the pace with multiple selections.
Consider this a call to arms – or a call to "enter buttons."
It would be easy to lose momentum now, with the No. 3 overall selection in the rearview and the Jaguars' second-round selection – the No. 36 selection overall – multiple weeks away.
Don't let it happen.
Push forward, brave reader mockers. Don't merely bridge the gap to next week. Don't just go through the motions for the Bears, the Jets, the Falcons and the like. They deserve better and if they're not really all that deserving … fake it. Argue amongst yourselves. Make fun of the senior writer if you will. (And you probably will).
Before you do that, let's take care of the Redskins' selection at No. 5, a selection that understandably featured some quarterback-oriented discussion. That's understandable because Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is still on the board in this draft.
That may or may not be the case in reality. While some analysts believe Mariota will be gone before the Redskins' selection at No. 5, others believe he'll slide at least this far.
Reader/mocker Bruce Wahyne was among those who believed that if Mariota indeed does get this far he will get no further.
"New General Manager Scot McCloughan has a big task ahead of him but has the background to prove he can do it," Wahyne wrote. "He takes the team in a new direction by taking Marcus Mariota and offering up RG3 for trade for more picks...if he doesn't trade out of the spot as is expected."
Reader/writer KennyCobbShow agreed.
"I'm really sold that Marcus is going to the Bucs," he wrote. "You're looking at Kap 2.0; I mean, he (49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick) did reach the Super Bowl. They (the Redskins) take Mariota."
While a strong argument can be made for the Redskins and Mariota, stronger arguments were made for the Redskins taking a pass rusher to pair with Ryan Kerrigan.
"I think the Skins pick Shane Ray," reader/mocker Jagsfan wrote of the Missouri pass rusher. "Underrated prospect being knocked because of his size, but he fits what they want to do scheme-wise, and has been very productive."
Reader/mocker Scott Ennis agreed.
"The pick could be Mariota, in my opinion another QB wasted by expectation," Ennis wrote. "The true pick should be an edge rusher, like they lost in (Brian) Orakpo. With the fifth pick of the draft, the Washington "Team" picks Shane Ray, DE, Missouri."
Reader/mocker Paul T wrote that while Ray was a possibility, Clemson outside linebacker Vic Beasley was a slightly better fit and "too good of a player to pass up."
Reader/writer scoff789 also felt strongly about Beasley, adding that while wide receiver Kevin White of West Virginia made sense, Beasley made more sense and "is the best pure rusher left available."
"So Vic Beasley from Clemson it is," he wrote.
Indeed he is. So, with the No. 5 selection of the '15 reader mock the Redskins select Beasley, which means a legion of pro-Beasley Jaguars fans are a legion's worth of jealous. It also means after five selections the reader mock draft looks like:
1.Tampa Bay | Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State
2.Tennessee | Leonard Williams, DE, Southern California
3.Jacksonville | Dante Fowler Jr., DE/LB, Florida
4.Oakland | Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama
5.Washington | Vic Beasley, OLB, Clemson
That brings us to the New York Jets at No. 6. The guess here is there's not much reason to guess because the Jets appear to need a quarterback and Mariota is still on the board. So, the projection from the senior writer indeed is Mariota.
Have at it.
