On Thursday, April 25, the Waynesburg University Department of Communication students got together to hold their annual NFL Mock Draft.
The Mock Draft has been held each year for close to 25 years by Chairperson of the Department of Communication and Assistant Professor of Communication, Richard Krause.
“The idea originated sitting in a class, talking about sports management/media related things and we had a lot of different states represented in the class and the idea just bubbled up,” Krause said.
Krasue likes to use this opportunity to help teach students about sports media.
“This is really a great example of sports media,” he said. “We’re working with sports announcing with the lead-ins and announcements,” he said. “It’s just an opportunity to take something that we’re passionate about; something we enjoy and at the sametime it has relevance to sports media.”
This year the mock draft was pushed back due to time conflicts that came up in the department that were “academic in nature”.
Krause said that next year he hopes the event continues to grow and can get some alumni back as well.
“I want to get a firm date, and I want to get alumnus. Traditionally, we have had at least a couple at a time and I would really like for next year have some alumns come.”
Tyler Aaron, a first year participant in the Mock Draft, thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the draft.
“Overall I thought the draft was a lot of fun,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to do a mock draft, to get together with everybody and have an event like that.”
Listed below is this year’s Mock Draft.
Draft Picks:
- (Chicago Bears) Dean Shazer – Caleb Williams / QB / USC
- (Washington Commanders) Cordelle Jones – Jayden Daniels / QB / LSU
- (New England Patriots) Keegan Raabe – Marvin Harrison Jr. / WR / OSU
- (Arizona Cardinals) Jordan McLoyd – Malik Nabers / WR / LSU
- (Los Angeles Chargers) Ethan Spozarski – Rome Odunze / WR / Washington
- (New York Giants) Ethan Erhard – Drake Maye / QB / North Carolina
- (Tennessee Titans) Wyatt Clatterbaugh – Joe Alt / OT / Notre Dame
- (Atlanta Falcons) Logan Hawn – Dallas Turner / ED / Alabama
- (Chicago Bears) Dean Shazer – Brian Thomas Jr. / WR / LSU
- (New York Jets) Tyler Zeman – Brock Bowers / TE / Georgia
- (MInnesota Vikings) Ron Brown – Byron Murphy / DT / Texas
- (Denver Broncos) Frank Cortazzo VI – Bo Nix / QB / Oregon
- (Las Vegas Raiders) Meg Barry – Quinyon Mitchell / CB / Toledo
- (New Orlean Saints) Mike McKenzie – Olumuyiwa Fashanu / OT / Penn State
- (Indianapolis Colts) Brett Gombita – Cooper DeJean / CB / Iowa
- (Seattle Seahawks) Professor Krause – Jer’Zhan Newton / DI / Illinois
- (Jacksonville Jaguars) Tyler Aaron – Terrion Aarnold / CB / Alabama
- (Cincinnati Bengals) Daniel Rogers – Taliese Fuaga / OT / Oregon State
- (LA Rams) Josh Clingan – Laiatu Latu / ED / Washington
- (Pittsburgh Steelers) Amarius Mims / OT / Georgia
- (Miami Dolphins) Ben Heaps – Graham Barton / OL / Duke
- (Philadelphia Eagles) Joey Chirillo – Jared Verse / ED / Florida State
- (Minnesota Vikings) Ron Brown – Michael Penix Jr. / QB / Washington
- (Dallas Cowboys) Scott Donnoley – Jackson Powers-Johnson / C / Oregon
- (Green Bay Packers) Kent Peterson – Kool-Aid McKinstry / CB / Alabama
- (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) Ethan Erhard – Chop Robinson / ED / Penn State
- (Arizona Cardinals) Jordan McLoyd – Adonai Mitchell / WR / Texas
- (Buffalo Bills) Logan Lepiscopo – Ladd McConkey / WR / Georgia
- (Detroit Lions) Chuck Taylor – Nate Wiggins / CB / Clemson
- (Baltimore Ravens) Ryan Martin – Troy Fautanu / OT / Washington
- (San Francisco 49ers) Josh Clingan – JC Latham / OT / Alabama
- (Kansas City) Julius Darling – Xavier Worthy / WR / Texas