McShay & Kiper: Mock draft debate

This week, Mel Kiper and Todd McShay each released a second mock draft of the year. But with the two experts diverging on their projections in several intriguing instances, we decided to press them for deeper explanations. The following analysis helps bring into focus key questions concerning how the top of the draft will play out, whether there's a QB worthy of a top-10 pick, and what the situation at running back will look like in April.

You guys split on the No. 1 pick. Feeling confident?

Todd: Not really. I think there are two questions we still have to answer. One, what do the Kansas City Chiefs do at QB? Only the Chiefs know their plan of attack. They need to evaluate QBs in free agency and rookie QBs. They need to figure out if a free-agent QB is going to be a stopgap QB or quote-unquote franchise QB. Is there a QB that interests them at some point in the draft? The second question is what their plan is with Brandon Albert. If they don't have a QB they like for the No. 1 overall pick and Albert comes back, there's a stronger likelihood they could go in a different direction. That's why I went with the choice of Star Lotulelei.

To see the rest of Todd and Mel's analysis, plus to gain access to all of Insider's NFL draft content, you must be an ESPN Insider.

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Todd McShay

Scouts Inc.

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• ESPN College Football and NFL Draft Analyst
• Joined ESPN in 2006
• Played quarterback in high school and was a backup QB for the University of Richmond.

Mel Kiper Jr.

Football analyst

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• ESPN NFL Draft analyst since 1984
• Contributes to SportsCenter and ESPN Radio
• Writes weekly for ESPN Insider