Good afternoon, New Orleans Saints fans! I bring you good tidings from the land of the Todd McShay Mock Draft. Is anyone else still on a high from that high-octane finish to the opening act of the NFL Draft 2011 last night?
What a roller-coaster ride that was. We got our man (Mark Ingram)...heck, we got two of our men (Ingram plus Cameron Jordan) yesterday, upgrading the defense and offense with some bold moves.
New England has our second round pick now, but we do still have two third-rounders (#72 and #88 overall) to contemplate today, when we're not daydreaming of our newly-bolstered rushing attack running roughshod over our opponents and boosting our offense back into the NFL stratosphere.
Make the jump to see what the most recent McShay Mock has us doing in the 3rd round...
With our first pick in the 3rd (thank you, Mr. Brown), Mr. McShay has us snagging.. Sam Acho (gesundheit!), the DE from Hook 'Em U - Texas.
According to the scouts at cbssports.com, he's a braniac, and he'd add to our Heisman count:
Acho won the 2010 William V. Campbell Trophy, formerly known as the Draddy Trophy and commonly referred to as the "Academic Heisman." He excelled in three sports in high school, tested out of 26 class hours before attending UT, and won multiple Academic All-American awards for his production and academic prowess.
If you must know his profile info...
Height / Weight: 6-2 / 257
Birthdate: 09/06/1988
Age: 22
Hometown: Dallas, TX
School: Texas
College Experience: 4
For the rest of the cbssports.com analysis, go here.
And then, 16 picks later (barring a trade, of course - BAM!! I'm still Loving the Loomis - no morning after hangover for me!!!), he has us shoring up the O-line with James Brewer, an OT from Indiana.
Big 10! Big 10! Big 10!
Brewer brings the following measurables (according to cbssports.com):
Height / Weight: 6-6 / 323
Birthdate: 12/23/1987
Age: 23
Hometown: Indianapolis, IN
School: Indiana
College Experience: 4
Despite Brewer's large frame, he is more of a finesse blocker than a mauler and never really took the leadership reins in 2010 from Rodger Saffold, whom the St. Louis Rams selected with the first pick of the second round of the '10 draft. But despite injury issues, scouts were impressed with his season-ending performance against Purdue's defensive cornerstone Ryan Kerrigan. Brewer may be a relatively high draft pick because of his vast potential but he's not without question marks.
For more info from his cbssports.com page, click here.
There you have it. So what are your thoughts on these picks? Do you like them? Did our selection of Cameron Jordan, make moot the mock pick of Acho, or will Will Smith join Alex Brown as backups on the 2011 squad? Is Brewer gonna send Stinchcomb or Bushrod packing?
Fire up the comment thread, please. I'm listening. (hope you enjoy the Frasier bloopers)
Canal Street Chronicles will be having a live open thread for Rounds Two and Three of the draft starting at 5 pm CT as well as plenty of post-draft coverage.
The second and third rounds of the 2011 NFL Draft start at 5 p.m. (CT) on Friday, April 29th and SB Nation has everything you need to prepare for it - NFL mock drafts, draft projections, scouting reports, the full NFL draft schedule and more. Check it all out at SB Nation's NFL Hub and our NFL Draft blog Mocking the Draft.