Post-Senior Bowl 2023 NFL Mock Draft

Trevor Sikkema (0:09)

It's not about politics, it's about football. This is a simple game. We're gonna run the ball, and we're gonna pass the ball. He's just gonna play football, really. How good of a football player are you?

I just get in and try to spin it.

Mike Renner (0:27)

That's all. I just love the game.

Trevor Sikkema (0:31)

It really is the best time of the year.

What's up, everybody? Welcome in to It's Just Football. Trevor Sikkema and Mike Renner here with you, braving the elements of Mobile, Alabama here, just after the day three of the Senior Bowl practices that we've got here. Mike, it was a great week that we had in the Senior Bowl, but now it is time to put all of what we saw on the field, all the practice notes, all the recaps into practice with a post-Senior Bowl mock draft. Give the people truly what they want. How you feeling, my friend? I saw you shivering a couple of minutes ago.

Mike Renner (1:06)

Not even cold. Not even feeling it anymore.

Trevor Sikkema (1:07)

Not anymore. You say the word mock draft, and it's just the body.

Mike Renner (1:10)

The blood just flows so hard through my veins once I hear the word mock draft that I'm ready to do. And it's bittersweet mock draft, because it's the last episode of IJF.

Trevor Sikkema (1:20)

I know. I know. But we had to send you guys off the right way.

It's one of the episodes that we know you guys love. You've fallen in love with draft Wednesdays that we have had all season long, so we figured that this would be the perfect sendoff. So we're going to have a lot of fun here on this mock draft format. We're going to go through an entire new first round. I think there are going to be some senior bowl players that are going to make an appearance. I don't know what's going to happen yet, but if I was a betting man, I bet that that would be the case. Mike, I will give you the honors, my friend. I will let you pick number one overall, because I will let you go odds. We'll go back and forth. We'll go odds and evens.

You're up with the Chicago Bears. What are you going to do, my friend?

Mike Renner (1:55)

Well, we agreed, pre-show, with your fourth overall pick.

Trevor Sikkema (2:00)

And we did.

Mike Renner (2:00)

We agreed to deal it. Because, as Elbert Brewer reported, we're sticking with Justin Fields. We're committed to Justin Fields. So we want to move it.

Because we're not taking a draft quarterback. But someone wants this picket quarterback.

Trevor Sikkema (2:11)

And you can't stick it one. Exactly. If other teams really want a quarterback in this class, you can't just stick it one.

Mike Renner (2:18)

Especially because, just how the class is laid out, there's Jalen Carter, Will Anderson, and then there's Seguin.

You want one of those two. If you're picking two, three, four, you're still going to get one of those two.

So we're moving back to four. With number one overall pick, the Indianapolis Colts select Bryce Young, Alabama quarterback. That's my take until someone tells me that someone else is higher on Will Leves than Bryce Young. I'm going Bryce Young. Just this.

Trevor Sikkema (2:45)

I feel like the Will Leves stance, I was a little nervous there. The pause, I was a little nervous that you were going to derail the mock.

Hell no. 120 seconds into the show, that wouldn't have been great. But Bryce Young going number one overall to the Indianapolis Colts. That puts me up with the Houston Texans at number two.

This one's pretty easy for me. It's a team that needs a quarterback. It's a team that would love Bryce Young. Bryce Young no longer on the board. So I'm going with CJ Stroud. I got CJ Stroud hiring the quarterback rankings. I think especially from what we saw from Stroud in that final game against Georgia, I loved how he was able to play under pressure. That's my biggest gripe of what I've seen from CJ Stroud over the last two years is that the play under pressure has not been what we wanted to see.

But I'm encouraged with that Georgia game. It makes me feel like that kind of play from him, the best and the more consistent ability, is yet to come in that regard, because I think that this is a good, tall, strong-armed quarterback who can really be a good franchise leader for you. So I'm going to go with Stroud there, number two. Yeah, he's got to be the quarterback.