Todd McShay NFL Mock Draft 2017: Notable Picks from ESPN Guru's 3-Round GM Mock

ESPN NFL draft guru Todd McShay released his latest mock draft Wednesday, but he did a little something different.

Rather than predicting how he believes things will shake out, McShay's latest mock focused on how he believes things should play out. McShay put on his general manager hat and took control of all 32 teams, putting them through a three-round mock draft.

We'll be focusing on the first round here, but the whole thing is noteworthy when you look at the discrepancies. It's clear McShay (and likely other experts) view drafts very differently than they believe NFL general managers do.

With that in mind, here's a look at McShay's first-round breakdown, with a highlight on some of the most notable selections.

Pick	Team	Selection
1	Cleveland Browns	Myles Garrett, DE, Texas A&M
2	San Francisco 49ers	Solomon Thomas, DE, Stanford
3	Chicago Bears	Jamal Adams, S, LSU
4	Jacksonville Jaguars	Jonathan Allen, DL, Alabama
5	Tennessee Titans (from LAR)	Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State
6	New York Jets	Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State
7	Los Angeles Chargers	Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan
8	Carolina Panthers	Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU
9	Cincinnati Bengals	Derek Barnett, DE, Tennessee
10	Buffalo Bills	Reuben Foster, ILB, Alabama
11	New Orleans Saints	Kevin King, CB, Washington
12	Cleveland Browns (from PHI)	O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama
13	Arizona Cardinals	David Njoku, TE, Miami (Fla.)
14	Philadelphia Eagles (from MIN)	Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford
15	Indianapolis Colts	Forrest Lamp, OG, Western Kentucky
16	Baltimore Ravens	Mike Williams, WR, Clemson
17	Washington Redskins	Haason Reddick, LB, Temple
18	Tennessee Titans	John Ross, WR, Washington
19	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Garett Bolles, OT, Utah
20	Denver Broncos	Cam Robinson, OL, Alabama
21	Detroit Lions	Takkarist McKinley, DE/OLB, UCLA
22	Miami Dolphins	Gareon Conley, CB, Ohio State
23	New York Giants	Jarrad Davis, LB, Florida
24	Oakland Raiders	Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida State
25	Houston Texans	Ryan Ramczyk, OT, Wisconsin
26	Seattle Seahawks	Malik McDowell, DT, Michigan State
27	Kansas City Chiefs	Tre'Davious White, CB, LSU
28	Dallas Cowboys	Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida
29	Green Bay Packers	Charles Harris, DE/OLB, Missouri
30	Pittsburgh Steelers	T.J. Watt, DE/OLB, Wisconsin
31	Atlanta Falcons	Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan
32	New Orleans Saints (from NE)	Tyus Bowser, OLB, Houston

No QBs in Round 1

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

The biggest takeaway here is also the one McShay knows will not happen. Despite there being potentially two quarterbacks who go inside the top 10 (Deshaun Watson and Mitchell Trubisky), McShay has them both falling out of the first round. The Cleveland Browns nab Trubisky with the top pick in the second round, and the San Francisco 49ers land Watson a pick later.

This is obviously the inherent flaw with an exercise like this. At least one of Watson or Tribusky is going in the top 10; one of them might wind up going to Cleveland with the first pick in the first round. 

But the reasoning makes sense. Neither Trubisky nor Watson is a sure thing. They're on even shakier ground as prospects than Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were a year ago, and neither of those guys had 100 percent approval ratings. It won't be until next year's group of guys, led by USC's Sam Darnold, that you see teams falling over themselves to land a quarterback.

The only reason Watson and Trubisky are first-round locks is due to positional value. Quarterback is the most important position on the field by an exponential margin. An improvement from bottom-barrel quarterback play even to league average can lead to three or four extra wins per season. And when you're a team so regularly undermined by dreadful play under center like Cleveland, average sounds like a godsend.

Corey Davis, Not Leonard Fournette, Goes 1st Among Skill Position Players

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

OK, here's a surprise. The first six picks off the board in McShay's mock follow something of an understandable pattern. Myles Garrett and Solomon Thomas go No. 1 and No. 2 and are followed by Jamal Adams, Jonathan Allen, Marshon Lattimore and Malik Hooker. 

None of those are questionable picks, but it leaves the Chargers in a bit of a quandary. None of the remaining secondary players are strong enough to take at No. 7, and this is one of the weakest offensive line classes in recent memory. Odds are they would trade out in this scenario, but McShay did not allow for trades.

So they roll the dice and take Western Michigan wideout Corey Davis. A good athlete with solid route-running skills and ball skills, Davis has been slowly matriculating his way up draft boards for months. He was near the end of most first-round mocks when this process started but has unseated Clemson's Mike Williams as the top wideout in this class.

The result means Leonard Fournette, considered a candidate as high as No. 1 overall, slips to No. 8. Going to Carolina would be something of an ideal fit. Cam Newton makes every running back's job easier, and the Panthers prioritize the straight-line power that made Fournette a superstar at LSU.

David Njoku Ascends All the Way to No. 13

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Another riser in this process, Njoku has clearly unseated all competition to emerge as arguably the top tight end in this class. Njoku is 6'4" and 246 pounds with an elite athletic profile. He ran the 40 in 4.64 seconds, turned in a 37.5-inch vertical leap and ran an excellent 6.97-second time in the shuttle.

"He's so good with the ball in his hands, and as soon as he gets it he wants to do something right away," Todd Hartley, Njoku's position coach at Miami, told Bleacher Report's Sean Tomlinson. "He wants to make somebody miss, or run somebody over, or hurdle somebody, or outrun them.

"So sometimes he might lose a little eye discipline on the football. It's never a hand issue. He has great hands. But he's so eager to get that ball and do something with it that he might turn his head quickly and drop a pass here and there that we've worked on constantly. But other than that, the kid is a pretty well-rounded tight end."

McShay has him going to the Arizona Cardinals, where he would instantly provide Carson Palmer another option in the passing game. The Cardinals were better than their record showed last season and have a limited window with this roster. Getting a guy who can play right away like Njoku makes some sense.

O.J. Howard goes No. 12 to Cleveland one pick before Njoku, and it'd be a major shock to see Howard not go off the board as the first tight end. There's just enough Njoku hype at this point that it's a possibility.