2022 NFL Mock Draft: Spencer Rattler out of first, Kenny Pickett to Steelers

After a horrendous start to the 2021 season and another benching, Spencer Rattler is out of round one. Kenny Pickett to Steelers in this 2022 NFL Mock Draft

It’s been a brutal start to the 2021 college football season for Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler. At one point, Rattler was considered a potential number one overall pick candidate in the 2022 NFL Draft and that was reflected in many 2022 NFL mock draft scenarios.

At this point, he’s more likely to transfer to a new school in 2022 than be starting for an NFL team.

Heading into Week 6 of the young NFL season, team needs are becoming more and more apparent. You can always project based on free agents and bad contract situations, but teams are giving us inklings of their current and possibly future weaknesses as well.

Let’s take a look at how teams may address areas of need and capitalize on the value of some top prospects in this 2022 NFL Mock Draft.

2022 NFL Mock Draft at Week 6 of the season

1. Jacksonville Jaguars: Evan Neal, OT, Alabama

The Jacksonville Jaguars made the bold (let’s just call it that) move last offseason to hire Urban Meyer out of retirement from the college ranks to come and coach their NFL team.

It’s not going well.

Meyer was gifted the number one overall pick and had the obvious choice of Trevor Lawrence staring him right in the face, but with all that has transpired in Jacksonville (and Ohio) in recent weeks, are you not a little surprised Meyer didn’t mess that up as well?

I don’t think Meyer will be the Jaguars’ head coach helping make this pick.

I do think that the Jaguars have to do everything in their power to protect the investment made in Trevor Lawrence.

Alabama’s Evan Neal is one of the freakiest athletes you will probably ever see at the college level. He has proven himself to be not just a great athlete, but a dominant left tackle as well. If Jacksonville winds up with the number one pick, you can probably take a position other than QB to the bank and Neal might be the best non-QB in this class.

2. Detroit Lions: Malik Willis, QB, Liberty

The Detroit Lions traded away Matthew Stafford in the 2021 offseason and based on the way he’s played for the Rams so far, they didn’t get nearly enough in return.

Oh well.

This Detroit team has played relatively well given the expectations pretty much everyone had for them going into the 2021 season. With that being said, their future QB is probably not in place.

Jared Goff will probably float around the league until he lands on a really strong roster to rehab his career, but he has a great opportunity right now in Detroit to prove that he can be the tide to raise all boats.

So far, not so great.

Malik Willis has superstar potential with his big-time arm talent and elite abilities as a runner. He’s a very instinctive player and when he takes off to run, he’s hard to bring down.

Detroit’s rebuilding process gets a major foundation piece here early in round one.