Draft Day

New Years Eve, Christmas, Halloween, your own birthday… Perhaps no holiday could be more exciting to a football player than Draft Day. 

On April 30^th, the city of Chicago hosted the 2015 Draft at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. In the first round, the New York Jets selected Leonard Williams sixth overall and the Philadelphia Eagles picked Nelson Agholor 20th. These two picks led USC to have 79 all-time NFL first-round draft picks, more than any other college. I’m sure Williams and Agholor would agree that this selection beat any Christmas gift they have ever received.

With the 2015 NFL Draft culmination only two weeks ago, one might think the sports world might have a couple weeks before any news about the 2016 NFL Draft talk began. Think again. 

Over the weekend, ESPN NFL draft analyst, Todd McShay, released an early 2016 NFL first round mock draft.  How many Trojans did this draft guru predict to be selected first round? Similar to how this year's draft panned out, McShay predicted two Trojans to also be first round picks in next year’s draft as well. Who are they?

According to McShay’s first 2016 mock draft, LB Su’a Cravens will be going to the Philadelphia Eagles 19th overall, while C Max Tuerk will be going to the Seattle Seahawks 32nd.

It should be noted that McShay did announced the disclaimer, "I have not done full tape studies on any of these players yet." But do we really care? He just gave team fanatics all over the nation hope and excitement for the 2016 season just one week after their teams cleaned up at the 2015 draft. 

Of course, USC fans could not be more excited than anybody to see a pair of Trojans on that list this early on. Why? Because although Cravens is unstoppable, he is only a junior and can only get stronger from here. On top of that, Tuerk is only entering his second season at center and can only get more comfortable in the position in the 2015 season. Overall, their strengths can only grow over the next year. 

However, since the name of this blog is 'Sports and Sass', I'm feeling very compelled to add a little spice to the end of this article. So Todd McShay, how on Earth can you call yourself a draft analyst if you release an early mock draft and you haven't even "done full tape studies on any of these players yet"? Please do your research. We'll be awaiting your next mock draft.

Here’s to an eleven month countdown to our favorite holiday of the year… Draft Day.