With the NFL Combine in progress, 2011 NFL Mock Draft mavens have one last chance to predict the future before everything blows up in their faces. Jon Dove of Mocking The Draft graded Fanhouse's last pre-Combine mock draft, and their predictable Julio Jones pick for the St. Louis Rams grades, predictably, as high as any in the draft. Few teams have such obvious needs as the Rams, and few players are better matched to them to Jones. Perhaps more interesting—Jonathan Baldwin has sneaked back into at least one mock first round ahead of the Scouting Combine, where he's expected to show off outstanding speed for his size. (Or else.)
Baldwin's an overdraft in the Rams position, and he's falling specifically because he wouldn't fit Steve Spagnuolo's much-talked-about four pillars. But the Mock New England Patriots' pick of the Pitt receiver at 28 earns a B+ from SB Nation's mock-drafter-in-residence, even though that 4.3 speed remains strictly theoretical at this hour.
A combination of a great Combine performance from Baldwin or another second round-ish receiver, not to mention the possibility that Jones is off the board by the time the Rams have a chance to draft him, could still lead to the Rams trading their awkwardly positioned pick.