Mock draft-a-palooza!

With less than a week to go before the 2013 Draft, here is every expert projection for the Rams' picks I could find. You'll notice that West Virginia WR Tavon Austin is slotted to the Rams the majority of the time at #16. Any mock that doesn't have the Rams picking Austin has him off the board earlier, quite often to Tampa Bay at #13, but the Jets have been projected to take Austin at #9 in some. And we currently have the Vikings making a major effort to trade up, a move I completely expect is with drafting Austin in mind. The chances of most of these mock drafts being right about the Rams getting Austin are decreasing by the minute, 7 on the Wonderlic or not.

Though the names differ, safety is a pretty popular projection for the Rams' second pick in the first round. Yet to my knowledge, the Rams had only one safety in for a pre-draft visit, and that was Shamarko Thomas, who I haven't seen projected as a first-rounder anywhere. The Rams' first three picks last year were all here for pre-draft visits; I'd think that's worth paying attention to when trying to predict where the Rams will go.

The experts' current projections, as of noon 4/19:

Todd McShay, ESPN.com
Rams pick at 16 - Cordarrelle Patterson (WR, Tennessee)
Rams pick at 22 - Eddie Lacy (WR, Alabama)

Mel Kiper, ESPN.com
16 - Tavon Austin (WR, West Virginia)
22 - Kenny Vaccaro (S, Texas)
46 - Montee Ball (RB, Wisconsin)

That's Kiper's prediction of who the Rams will pick. His "A-Draft", which goes by who he'd take if he were each team's GM, looks like this:

16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eddie Lacy
46 - Shamarko Thomas (S, Syracuse)
78 - Hugh Thornton (G, Illinois)

Charles Davis, NFL.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eric Reid (S, LSU) (Also, ?!?!?!?)

Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com
16 - Kenny Vaccaro
22 - Cordarrelle Patterson

Bucky Brooks, NFL.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eddie Lacy 

Pete Prisco, CBSSports.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Jonathan Cyprien (S, Florida International)

Rob Rang, CBSSports.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eric Reid

Pat Kirwan, CBSSports.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eric Reid

Clark Judge, CBSSports.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Matt Elam (S, Florida)

Don Banks, CNNSI.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Kenny Vaccaro

Vinnie Iyer, SportingNews.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Eddie Lacy

Tony Softli, former Rams VP of player personnel
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Matt Elam
On his website, Softli takes credit for drafting Jason Smith. 

Scott Wright, NFLDraftCountdown.com
16 - Chance Warmack (G, Alabama)
22 - Tavon Austin
46 - Arthur Brown (OLB, Kansas State)
Very much an outlier among mock drafts, but this isn't a very recent effort... it's dated March 22. This has been a go-to draft site for me in the past, so that's a bit of a surprise. There's nothing worse than a football website that isn't kept up to date, am I right?

Peter Schrager, FoxSports.com
16 - D.J. Fluker (T, Alabama)
22 - Eric Reid
46 - Eddie Lacy
Schrager's mock is a shock, but he had Austin and Patterson off the board at #16. Awesomely, he's working on a 7-round mock that will be posted next week.

A couple of sites have beaten him to the punch. I couldn't tell you if either of these sites are ever very accurate, I just think it's awesome they throw 6- and 7-round mocks out there. Talk about getting into your work...

WalterFootball.com
16 - D.J. Fluker
22 - Alec Ogletree (LB, Georgia)
46 - Eddie Lacy
78 - Terrance Williams (WR, Baylor)
113 - Shawn Williams (S, Georgia)
149 - Oday Aboushi (OL, Virginia)
184 - Gerald Hodges (LB, Penn State)
This would be a close to excellent draft if it happened this way, and credit to Walter Football for doing their homework - almost all of these players were Rams Park pre-draft visitors.

Draft-Tek.com
16 - Tavon Austin
22 - Alec Ogletree
46 - Phillip Thomas (S, Fresno State)
78 - Chris Harper (WR, Kansas State)
113 - Montee Ball (RB, Wisconsin)
149 - Matt Scott, QB, Arizona. Seriously?
184 - Lerentee McCray (OLB, Florida)
222 - Josh Boyd (DT, Mississippi)
This mock kind of loses me after Ogletree. Harper makes Brandon Gibson look fast. Ball is usually a second-round projection vs. a fourth. And I have no flipping idea why they expect the Rams to use any pick on a QB. I'd get behind them drafting a punter before I'd say drafting a QB makes any sense whatsoever.

OK, that just leaves RamView to contribute my own draft mockery here over the weekend. Feel the anticipation!

-$-