May 9, 2008

For the second year in a row, PFW personnel analyst Nolan Nawrocki recorded some amazing results with his pre-draft projections.

In his final mock draft of the first round, posted approximately 3½ hours before the start of Round One, Nawrocki matched 12 players to the teams that drafted them, including 11 in the exact slot they were taken. This feat was particularly difficult in a year in which eight Draft Day trades caused 12 first-round slots to change hands on Saturday. He correctly forecast the first six picks of the draft, being one of the few who had both Matt Ryan going to Atlanta and Glenn Dorsey landing in Kansas City.

Besides the 12 players who were matched to the correct teams, Nawrocki had 12 others who were accurately projected to go in the first round. The remaining seven of his first-round projections were drafted in the second round.

Nawrocki was equally impressive with his top 100 draftable players, as 90 of his top 100 were actually drafted among the top 100. Two of his misses were taken at Nos. 101 and 102. The latest any of his top 100 was drafted was Nebraska OL Carl Nicks, whose character issues dropped him to No. 164.

Nawrocki’s 2008 results came on the heels of a 2007 draft in which his projections were even more impressive. Last year he correctly predicted the first eight picks in a row and accurately forecast 11 of the top 13. And 29 of his 32 first-round projections in 2007 were actually drafted in the first round.

Related Articles:

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