St. Louis Rams fans have had a front row seat to Julio Jones mania throughout the 2011 NFL Mock Draft season, but it looks like the post-Combine hysteria has finally reached the national media—on the NFL Network, reports Rotoworld, a talking head recently predicted the heretofore-unpredictable—that Jones would pass A.J. Green on the NFL draft board come April 28.
Yesterday's Mike Sando piece makes me less convinced than I might have been that this will happen. It reminds me, a little, of the brief, contrarian groundswell of support for Jimmy Clausen over Sam Bradford, only I won't be crushingly disappointed if the Rams anoint Julio Jones, come draft day, as their wide receiver of the future. (And who knows what exciting players will be available next year, when the Rams select another wide receiver of the future to replace him!)
Jones's 2011 has been better than any draft prospect's in the first round, but it takes more than a great NFL Combine performance to counteract months of draft-thought inertia. Come the actual 2011 NFL Draft, I think the contrarians won't be quite so loud in the war rooms as they are here on the internet.