Wisconsin football: mock draft roundup

I hope you are all staying safe and trying to make the most of this unprecedented situation we’re all living through at the moment.

To attempt at preserving some of the scarce normalcy in our lives, the NFL Draft is under one month away. Multiple former Badgers should hear their names called, including a couple potential first rounders. Let’s take a look and see where some of the former Badgers are being projected to in the NFL!

The Draft Network - Jordan Reid (3 rounds)

In The Draft Network’s most recent mock draft, draft analyst Jordan Reid projected three Badgers to be selected in the first three rounds of his mock draft. This scenario is likely to keep Wisconsin fans and natives happy, sending Zack Baun to the Packers. (Did you guys know they could have drafted T.J. Watt?)

• LB/EDGE Zack Baun to the Green Bay Packers in the first round at pick 30.
• RB Jonathan Taylor to the Buffalo Bills in the second round at pick 54.
• Center Tyler Biadasz to the Baltimore Ravens in the third round at pick 92.

NFL.Com - Chad Reuter (4 rounds)

In the most recent mock draft on NFL.com, Chad Reuter has the same three Badgers going in the top four rounds, but in a different order than Reid had them going. A different former Wisconsin player goes in the first round of this one, as Jonathan Taylor is pegged as a major building block of the Dolphins rebuild.

• RB Jonathan Taylor to the Miami Dolphins in the first round at pick 26.
• LB/EDGE Zack Baun to the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round at pick 33.
• Center Tyler Biadasz to the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round at pick 123.

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

DraftWire - Luke Easterling (4 rounds)

In Easterling’s mock draft, he has five Badgers going in the first four rounds of the draft, with Baltimore getting two of them, which won’t be the last time in this article that happens. Wisconsin players heading to Baltimore is about as perfect a fit as you’ll find - including for Chris Orr, whose brother played for the Ravens before a career ending injury two years ago.

• RB Jonathan Taylor to the Baltimore Ravens in the first round at pick 28.
• LB/EDGE Zack Baun to the Seattle Seahawks in the second round at pick 64.
• Center Tyler Biadasz to the Atlanta Falcons in the third round at pick 78.
• LB Chris Orr to the Baltimore Ravens in the fourth round at pick 134.
• WR Quintez Cephus to the Miami Dolphins in the fourth round at pick 141.

CBS Sports - Josh Edwards (7 rounds)

In the most extensive mock draft of the bunch, Edwards has four Badgers getting selected in total, with once again two former Wisconsin players going to be Ravens in Baltimore on each side of the ball.

• LB/EDGE Zack Baun to the Baltimore Ravens in the first round at pick 28.
• Center Tyler Biadasz to the Baltimore Ravens in the second round at pick 60.
• RB Jonathan Taylor to the Detroit Lions in the third round at pick 67.
• WR Quintez Cephus to the Chicago Bears in the sixth round at pick 187.

Just a reminder that these are projections and guesses about what could happen and a fun exercise to imagine what players could like in different locations and different scenarios.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

I think the five in this article are the only five likely to be prioritized by NFL teams, with likely only four of these players getting picked (Taylor, Baun, Biadasz, Cephus). Chris Orr and potentially A.J. Taylor should also draw interest from NFL teams as undrafted free agents, but Orr’s lack of high end athleticism and Taylor recovering from that Achilles injury will likely prevent them from hearing their names called next month in the NFL Draft.