Episode #6 - The Mockery of Mock Drafts and NFL Draft Grades

Is watching the NFL Draft a prime example of time you'll never get back? Buckle up as Brian Sinkoff serves up a no-holds-barred critique on the marathon that is the NFL draft and the farcical circus of mock drafts in the latest episode. With a blend of humor and blunt honesty, he dissects why these crystal ball predictions are as reliable as a chocolate teapot and why slapping a grade on a draft mere moments after it concludes is as premature as celebrating a touchdown at the 50-yard line.

If your springtime ritual involves being a couch commando for the NFL's three-day name-calling bonanza, then prepare for a wake-up call. Sinkoff take a swing at the obsession consuming fans, where mock drafts and immediate draft grades are gospel, despite their inevitable obsolescence. Tune in for a laugh, a moment of sober reflection on life choices, and the cold, hard truth about the unpredictability and marketing genius behind America's favorite sports spectacle.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there, this is Brian Sinkoff, and welcome to Sound Off with Sinkoff. Thank you so much for checking out this podcast. I do appreciate it. Of course. Sound Off with Sinkoff, sponsored by the Sinkoff Realty Group, a full service real estate brokerage in the capital region of New York.

Speaker 1: 0:20

All right, let's talk a little bit about the NFL draft. You're getting set for the NFL draft. Perhaps you're watching the NFL draft. You're getting set for the NFL draft. Perhaps you're watching the NFL draft. As you're watching this, maybe you've already seen the NFL draft. So what I'm saying is really going to hit home. I love.

Speaker 1: 0:37

First of all, I don't know why anyone watches the NFL draft. It's a complete waste of time. We're going to get to that in a second. But I love these mock drafts like Mock Draft 1.0, mock Draft 7, Mock Draft up until the actual draft.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Why is anyone on earth doing a mock draft? It blows my mind. Trade is made. You can throw the mock draft out the window. You don't know how a team, what a team is going to do, based on the team in front of them. If a player slips down, the mock draft is irrelevant.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Um, the fact that people could spend months upon months doing mock drafts is laughable. I know it's content, I know it's sexy, I know it, you know gets clicks, but when's the last time you saw a mock draft with more than like three correct picks? I, I haven't. I don't even pay attention to it. Um, the other thing that craps cracks me up about the nfl draft and it is crap. Uh, draft grades. Like I love the fact that people make draft grades on draft night or when the draft is over. They grade the draft, ignore any and all draft grades for your team. Um, you're not going to be able to grade a draft properly for three to five years. That's how long players take to sort of get established in their positions. You know, and you properly can evaluate a draft. You know player needs a couple of years. Why somebody is going to make a prediction about how a guy is going to do in the NFL on the night they're drafted Also very hilarious.

Speaker 1: 2:27

The NFL is one of the most difficult leagues I think baseball too to predict how well a player is going to do. Baseball is tough because the development time takes so long from the time the guy is drafted and then spends a few years in the minors. So many things can happen to a player in the minors. The NFL is also a little bit different, especially quarterbacks, because they have to get adjusted to the speed, they have to get adjusted to the fact that everyone's as good as they are. They have to learn a playbook, they have to learn a system. You know, linemen may be a little bit easier but generally speaking, draft grades are almost impossible. You look at, you know you probably can't do a draft grade, but realistically you can't grade a draft for, I say, three to five years. So I get the content of it all. It's cute to assign grades on drafts but we don't know. Let's be honest, we have no idea what we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Also, watching the draft, especially over all three days, you got to look in the mirror and evaluate your life decisions. It's freaking spring. Get out there, enjoy the weather. You're sitting in front of your TV screen for six hours to hear a guy's name called Jump on the internet. After it's over, people look where you're, where your players got drafted, look what your team did. They have a list, they have a chart. Um, and again, what are you? What are you doing? You're gonna watch the draft. You don't know how these guys are gonna do for three to five years anyway. But sitting there and watching the draft, god bless the NFL because they really promote their league. They can sell anything, they can sell free agency, they can sell drafts.

Speaker 1: 4:27

It's just I've never, even as a kid, I never watched the NFL draft. I felt like it was a colossal fat waste of time. I got better things to do. I just I don't understand. It's also long, like 10 minutes or whatever in between. It's I don't know it's long. I look on social media, I look on Facebook, not so much the draft pundits. That bothers me.

Speaker 1: 4:59

This is sort of my fourth point here. It's the guys that are sitting here and evaluating and almost making themselves be draft experts. Let's face it. You haven't seen 98% of these players play in a game. You have no idea. And some dude sitting on a couch has absolutely no concept as to how to grade an offensive lineman. You have no idea as to what a safety should be doing in the NFL. You don't have any concept as to how a quarterback should read a defense as opposed to you know, college going to the NFL. You don't know, you have no idea.

Speaker 1: 5:52

It is when people you know say, oh, they should take this guy. They should take that guy. We don't know. I mean we really have no clue. I don't know how to properly grade an offensive lineman. I've been watching sports for a long, long time. I don't know what makes a good or bad offensive lineman. I mean 6'6", 320, that runs fast, that can jump. That sounds good on paper, but is it really good? I don't know. I don't know. So, yeah, I mean, throw the mock drafts out the window. The draft grades ignore them.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Sitting in front of your TV for six hours to watch this is a waste. If you are watching it for three straight days, you've got to check your priorities in life and you haven't seen 95% of these players play, probably 98%. So enough with grading offensive linemen and pretending you're a draft expert. I mean, the NFL propaganda machine has turned the NFL draft into a big event, but it is complete propaganda because this is a made-for-internet event. Go online and check out who your team drafted after the fact. Do you need to watch it? I mean you're not.

Speaker 1: 7:20

That's what's so funny about the draft. It's not a sporting event, it's. It's a fricking. It's a roll call deal. You know, this guy goes here, this guy goes there. It's, it's, it's. It's. It's just it's. There's no reason to watch it. You don't miss anything. It's like if you don't watch the Knicks playoff game, you missed nine points in the last minute or whatever the hell. The Knicks scored right. You missed an event.

Speaker 1: 7:49

What did you miss by not watching the NFL draft? Did you miss Roger Goodell shaking a player's hand who he probably doesn't like, or pretending to like him, or the player doesn't like Goodell shaking a player's hand who he probably doesn't like, or pretending to like him, or the player doesn't like Goodell? What exactly did you miss by not watching the NFL draft? That's why it's such a propaganda event. It's not like you missed good content because you didn't watch it, or you missed a big play, or you can't talk about you know some big event the next day at the office because you didn't see it. You didn't sound like you missed something. You missed a commissioner calling a guy's name and him walking on stage and wearing a dorky hat.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Then the NFL sells for $45 on their website. I mean the marketing is ingenious. Props to the propaganda machine for spinning it. But the reality is you don't need to watch this draft. It's made for the internet. So that is all for this episode of Sound Off with Sync Off. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. It's available everywhere you get a podcast, from Spotify to Apple to iHeartRadio, to wherever else you get your podcasts. Of course, the SoundOff with SyncOff is sponsored by the SyncOff Realty Group right here in Delmar, new York. We got great stuff coming up here on SoundOff with SyncOff in the next couple of months, so I want you to check it out. Thanks so much, great to be back on the microphone and I hope you enjoy the podcast so far. Have a great day everybody. We'll see you next time and enjoy the NFL draft, or not.