If you're already familiar with our community mock drafts and want to participate this year, all you really need to know is that the sign up will be posted sometime in the next few days. And there will probably be a heads up on Twitter a little bit before the post goes live.
If you're not familiar with it or could use a refresher, read on.
FAQ:
What is going on?
A community mock draft for our site. Community members (you) pick teams on a first-come, first-serve basis and act as their decision-maker for who to draft in the first round this year.
How many rounds is this again?
One. Just the first round.
Can we make trades and swap pick positions?
No. We're just following the current listed draft order.
How is this going to go down?
Most of this will be conducted via email. When someone makes a pick, I'll inform the next person on the clock as to who it was, and so on. Write ups are not immediately due alongside a pick though (unless someone slows the process down for everyone behind them), so ideally we can work pretty far ahead so folks have ample time to put something together.
After I receive a write up via email, I will then put together the post and publish it, with proper attribution for your efforts.
BTSC Community Mock Drafts
BTSC Community Mock Drafts
What kind of write up is a good write up?
It's always good to include an assessment of your team's needs (which should be in pretty good focus now that we're two weeks into free agency), to show an awareness of your team's recent draft history and if there were any significant coaching/regime changes this offseason, and to establish why your selection is the best choice on the board in your opinion.
Haters may hate, but this is all about what YOU think would be best for your chosen team. If you want to play it like you're trying to predict what your team would actually do in your situation, that's great. If you think you know what they would do, but don't want to do it because it's stupid, feel free to go in a different direction. It's your call.
My eyes kinda glazed over there. Can you try saying all that in a different and more interesting way?
You can make your write up as long or as short as you'd like, just don't shortchange us in showing the reasoning behind your selection. Put yourself into a reader's position - if you saw a pick made for a team in a mock draft and wanted to know the actual rationale behind it (beyond the one sentence blurb insisting that Pittsburgh needs an offensive tackle in the 1st round because "just trust me bro"), would your write up actually answer the questions you might have as a reader?
That doesn't mean it needs to be a dry, purely informational piece though - have some fun if you're feeling it, let some personality come through. If you can write satire, by all means go for it.
This is a Steelers site and I'm a Steelers fan, so can I pick for the Steelers?
Yes... and no.
The Steelers pick will be done by a community vote, and if everything goes according to schedule, there will be a full weekend for that. I'll then put together the write up for it.
(Note: This will bring the "working ahead" of picks to a grinding halt, but since this is probably the fairest way to pick for the Steelers around here, that stop in momentum really can't be avoided. So the first few folks after will just have to work with it.)
So I really have to pick for another team?
Yep. Ideally, you'd pick a team that you already know a little something about. Or you're willing to do a little bit of digging and maybe even ask around one of the other sites on our network for some advice.
Check out what we put together last year (link floating around up above), and if you have any other questions, drop them in the comments.