Now that the actual NFL Draft has come and gone, let’s take one more look back at our predictions for how it would go down. For the purposes of this exercise, a correct draft position prediction for a player (within one spot) is worth one point, a correct team-player combo prediction is worth three points, and a spot-on prediction (exact draft position with the correct team and player combination) is worth five points. Since most of these mocks only focused on the first round, that’s what this exercise will also focus on. Let’s rank our five mock drafts!

Obviously Mendoza going to the Raiders at one was set in stone at this point. Tate was mocked fifth and ended up going fourth. Jordyn Tyson going to the Saints at eight was a spot-on prediction, as was Caleb Downs to the Cowboys (though the mock had them trading up to 11 instead of waiting to 12), and Olaivavega Ioane to the Ravens at 14. Francis Mauigoa (mocked at nine) went tenth, and Peter Woods (mocked at 28) went 29th, giving this mock it’s 23 total points.

This mock draft came all the way back on March 4th. Every mock draft got five points for correctly predicting Fernando Mendoza to the Raiders first overall, but this mock had three other spot on predictions: Caleb Downs to the Cowboys (though the mock had them trading up to 11 instead of waiting to 12), Monroe Freeling to the Panthers at 19, and KC Concepcion to the Browns at 24. Tate was mocked fifth overall and went fourth overall instead, giving this mock its final point.

This one had very few things correct but was spot on when correct. Obviously Mendoza was the first five points, but Arvell Reese to the Giants at 5 and KC Concepcion to the Browns at 24 were the other five pointers for this mock.

Mendoza to the Raiders at one and Ioane to the Ravens at 14 were the two spot on predictions in this mock. Jeremiyah Love was mocked third but to the Cowboys instead of the Cardinals. Mansoor Delane was correctly mocked to the Chiefs, but this mock had him being taken ninth overall so only got three points for that prediction.

Mendoza and Concepcion were once again spot on predictions here. Bailey was mocked third overall and went second, Ioane was mocked 15th and went 14th, and Peter Woods was mocked 28th and ended up going 29th.

I have long argued that earlier mock drafts are generally closer to actuality than the mocks done right before the Draft. Once the combine is over, all the other machinations we hear about are mostly the media guessing to create content. For what it’s worth, the Insanely Early 2026 NFL Mock Draft that was posted just after last year’s NFL Draft would have scored zero points. Long story short, the college football season and combine are the most important data points when predicting the draft, but even with all the research and data it’s still ultimately a crap shoot. Peter Schrager (often considered one of the most accurate mock drafters) released a mock that would have scored 31 points: spot on predictions of Mendoza, Bailey, Love, Reese, Ioane, correct team wrong spot for Fano, and correct spot within one for Delane, Mauigoa, and Proctor.