2017 NFL Mock Draft: Full First-Round Mock Draft Before Scouting Combine

The 2017 NFL Scouting Combine is upon us. Players began arriving on Tuesday, and workouts, interviews and medical checks will run through March 6. By the time combine week is over, we just might know a little bit more about this year's draft class.

Not everything about the combine is wholly important, of course. While events like the long jump or the 40-yard dash can confirm a team's thoughts or raise suspicion, they aren't the be-all and end-all of player evaluations. How a player performs in pads and in a game environment is still always going to be more important.

However, interviews and medical evaluations can influence a player's draft stock. They can also give us more insight into the teams evaluating the players.

For now, we have to base our judgments on what we've learned during the past few collegiate seasons and what we currently know about each player. With this in mind, let's take a look at our predictions for the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

We'll run down the current draft order and make our picks for each draft slot based on factors like projected player potential, team needs and team fit. We'll also examine some of the latest draft-related storylines entering combine week.

2017 NFL Mock Draft

Pick	NFL Team	Proj. Selection
1	Cleveland Browns	Myles Garrett, DE, Texas A&M
2	San Francisco 49ers	Jonathan Allen, DL, Alabama
3	Chicago Bears	Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson
4	Jacksonville Jaguars	Jamal Adams, S, LSU
5	Tennessee Titans (from LAR)	Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan
6	New York Jets	Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State
7	Los Angeles Chargers	Solomon Thomas, DE, Stanford
8	Carolina Panthers	Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU
9	Cincinnati Bengals	Reuben Foster, LB, Alabama
10	Buffalo Bills	Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State
11	New Orleans Saints	Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee
12	Cleveland Browns (from PHI)	Mitch Trubisky, QB, North Carolina
13	Arizona Cardinals	Mike Williams, WR, Clemson
14*	Indianapolis Colts	Ryan Ramczyk, OT, Wisconsin
15*	Philadelphia Eagles (from MIN)	Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State
16	Baltimore Ravens	Jabrill Peppers, LB, Michigan
17	Washington Redskins	Chris Wormley, DL, Michigan
18	Tennessee Titans	Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida
19	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Charles Harris, OLB, Missouri
20	Denver Broncos	Forrest Lamp, OL, Western Kentucky
21	Detroit Lions	Dawuane Smoot, DE, Illinois
22	Miami Dolphins	Teez Tabor, CB, Florida
23	New York Giants	O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama
24	Oakland Raiders	David Njoku, TE, Miami
25	Houston Texans	Marlon Humphrey, CB, Alabama
26	Seattle Seahawks	Dan Feeney, OG, Indiana
27	Kansas City Chiefs	John Ross, WR, Washington
28	Dallas Cowboys	Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan
29	Green Bay Packers	Tim Williams, LB, Alabama
30	Pittsburgh Steelers	Sidney Jones, CB, Washington
31	Atlanta Falcons	Takkarist McKinley, DE, UCLA
32	New England Patriots	Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford

Latest Buzz

Mahomes Rising

Former Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes might not be in everyone's conversation to be the first quarterback taken in this year's draft—those conversations generally revolve around Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer and Mitch Trubisky—but Mahomes very much appears to be a guy on the rise.

According to NFL Media draft expert Mike Mayock, Mahomes is already entering first-round territory.

"He's different. He's a gunslinger, he's got an innate feel for the game," Mayock said, per Chase Goodbread of NFL.com. "The more I look at him, the more I push him higher and closer to that first-round conversation with Kizer, Watson and Trubisky. Mahomes is picking up steam in NFL circles."

There is certainly a lot to like about Mahomes, including his production and his size. The 6'3", 215-pound signal-caller ripped off 5,052 yards passing in 2016. He completed 65.7 percent of his attempts and threw 41 touchdowns to 10 interceptions.

Pro Football Focus (PFF College) rated Mahomes fourth overall among all quarterbacks for the 2016 season.

If Mahomes is able to check all the boxes at this week's combine, his stock is likely to only increase over the next couple of months.

How Much Can Mahomes Really Prove?

While it will be important for Mahomes to handle the interviews well and check out medically, it's fair to wonder what else he can actually accomplish at the scouting combine.

According to former NFL executive and analyst for TheMMQB.com Andrew Brandt, not much. 

Brandt wrote the following for TheMMQB.com:

"

Although every NFL player evaluator will attend the combine, my experience has been that combine results do not change opinions on players much. Team scouting departments have just spent a month putting “The Board” together. Performances that deviate, whether positively or negatively, may shift a player up or down in a round—or perhaps even moving them into a different round—but that is the most. The combine is used more as an affirmation than a new set of judgments.

"

While the combine events can be fun for fans to watch, they really don't have much to offer actual NFL evaluators. Unless a player measures inches shorter than advertised or completely flops in a drill, team executives likely aren't going to be swayed much.

The reason for this is that prospects have been training specifically for the combine for years. They'll enlist the help of track coaches to prepare for the 40-yard dash or alter their workout routine in order to squeeze our more reps of 225 pounds. While training for the combine can help make a player look great, it has very little to do with the training and skills relevant to football.

What a guy like Mahomes really needs to accomplish at the combine is prove he is healthy, impress in interviews and show that he is at least a marginal athlete. If he does these things, the teams that love him are going to continue to love him. The teams that aren't so high on him will continue to share that opinion.

It's not like a team with a fourth-round grade on Mahomes is suddenly going to consider him a top-10 pick. OK, so workout warriors do sometimes rocket into the first round, but they more often than not end up being busts (think Stephen Hill and Vernon Gholston).

Redskins Take a Quarterback Off the Market...Maybe

The desire to land a quality quarterback in this year's draft might have increased with the news that the Washington Redskins have used the franchise tag on Kirk Cousins.

Cousins, who was set to become a free agent, is now off the open market, which theoretically leaves an open spot for a rookie to compete for. However, the Redskins now have the opportunity to trade Cousins since he is under contract.

According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, the Redskins would need to be "blown away" by an offer to actually consider moving Cousins. Yet, it's entirely possible that such an enticing offer could emerge.

Right now, the quarterback most heavily linked to trade rumors is New England's Jimmy Garoppolo. What happens, though, if the Patriots refuse to part with Garoppolo? What happens if a team executes a deal within the week and leaves every other quarterback-needy team grasping at air? What happens if teams secretly believe that no quarterback in this class will be capable of starting as a rookie?

There are many scenarios that could drive up the price for Cousins. His value and his future are likely to both hinge on and impact this year's draft class—at least at the quarterback position.