A minor surprise out of Mocking the Draft's 2011 NFL Mock Draft: Julio Jones went 11th, to the Houston Texans bloggers at Battle Red Blog. The Texans haven't been linked to Jones since the St. Louis Rams began coveting him, but the bloggers explain their pick by saying that, in spite of the Texans' historically bad defense, they had no choice but to take the best player available at 11. Unfortunately for our sister site Turf Show Times, picking 14th in our MTD mock draft, that happened to be the best wide receiver available, too.
The good news is that for the real Rams this seems like a relatively unlikely scenario. The Texans bloggers would have taken one of the pass-rushers they so coveted if they'd still have been around, and in the actual 2011 NFL Draft they could well be—not to mention that the Texans likely have a longer list of defensive types they covet.
And an obligation to the press. As BRB concludes, "with all the holes in their defense, the Texans would surely get KILLED by pundits and fans alike by taking an offensive player with the 11th overall pick." That's something NFL teams seem to find harder to stomach than we bloggers.