With draft season underway and free agency right around the corner, Derek Carr is the hottest free agent right now, and the market has not even opened yet. Lot’s of speculation to which team would land the Pro Bowl QB, from the Jets, to Indianapolis, New Orleans, Washington, Carolina, and potentially the Seahawks. Carr has been mildly quiet about his intentions and is taking the process slowly to garner the best interest.
Best Fit: Carr would be the best fit in either New York or New Orleans.
The Jets have a lot of pieces that need to be worked out, especially on the offensive line, but the draft could help that out. They have a young RB, and some young WR’s that could develop nicely with a QB like Carr. With a wide open division, the Jets could see playoff action by acquiring Carr to their roster.
New Orleans is visiting Derek Carr at the combine and are hoping to iron out something during this time. Doesn’t mean the Jets are completely out of it. Of course, most analysts are saying that no action can be done until Aaron Rodgers makes a decision on his future. Unfortunately, the Saints are not in a position of being a powerhouse or just a QB away. But the NFC South does not have a team that could essentially run away with the division.
AARON RODGERS
Another QB that is linked to numerous clubs is Aaron Rodgers. The 41 year old QB seems to want to play football still, but just not in Green Bay. His drive is likely to win another ring and hang it up. It would be the ultimate slap in the face to the 21 teams that didn’t draft him. Of the QB needy teams, only one has the potential that seems to fit the requirements of the future Hall of Famer: New York Jets. They have the cap room to take on his bloated contract and they have draft picks as well.
Ultimately, I don’t think Aaron Rodgers ends his career anywhere but Green Bay.
MOCK DRAFT TOOLS
About, maybe 5 years ago, there were two mock draft tools that were on the market. There was On the Clock, by Steve Shoup and Fanpeak. There was also First-Pick which introduced a crazy grading system which removed the concept of the mock draft and made the focus shift to getting the best score. I always had the question about how a score could be calculated, when it’s the site owner’s own data inputs and bias that deliver some random score without explanation of how the user gets this score.
It was about that time, The Draft Zone started to look for developers to create a mock draft simulation that didn’t quite promote a score to beat, but encompassed all of the NFL draft stages such as trade up or back, randomness, values for players based on positional ranking and overall ranking, team needs vs. BPA, and draft pick trade values.
It was at that moment, that a few other tools hit the internet such as:
The Draft Network – Mock Draft Machine
Pro Football Network – Mock Draft Simulator
Pro Football Focus – Mock Draft Tool
NFL Mock Draft Database – Mock Draft Tool
On the Clock
The interesting thing about all of these tools, they all resemble each other. On the Clock is different and uses some cool features like other people’s big boards. I do wish they would change their font, but overall its one of the better simulators that has been true to itself since inception. Not to mention, the addition of other added functionality like a full off season.
Pro Football Network offers the ability to trade players, which shifts a bit towards Madden like features, simply put, it is rare to have players drafted during the draft.
If you’re reading this, then I suggest trying our Mock Draft Tool – The Pick Is In. It is in need of a design overhaul, but functionality, it resembles nothing on the market, and, has a multi-user session built in. If a user wanted to hold a session with friends, they could do so. I have tried all of these simulators, and all have great graphics, nice presentation and really set up the results well.
Some of them run slow even if you select Fast, and there is a simple fix for that. Believe me, I ran into it, but my developer offered a different option, and it made the simulator blaze through the draft. With all current logos, updated draft order, provided by Tankathon, the Pick Is In sim delivers the best functionality of any of these simulator tools. You can view my latest mock draft using The Pick Is In here: 2023 NFL Mock Draft.