Bedtime for Bonzo

 

The world's only pigskin prognosticating primate set the gridiron jungle ablaze in 2005 by picking games against the spread simply by flipping a coin ... and beating the top experts at CBS Sportsline over the course of an entire season. He grew into a media darling last week, in the days leading up to the draft, with stories about him in The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press wire, and plenty of blogs and web sites out there in pigskin cyberspace.

 

But flipping a coin is a 50-50 proposition, even for Bonzo the Idiot Monkey. The odds of being right are quite a bit lower when it comes time to conduct a mock draft by randomly pulling names out of our Appalachian State ball cap.

 

We found this out the hard way ... through public humiliation (believe you us, the sting of a lifetime of personal humiliation wears off around 10th grade).

 

Bonzo didn't get a single pick right beyond JaMarcus Russell to Oakland with the No. 1 pick. And we spotted Bonzo that pick. He went 0-for-31 for the rest of the round.

 

But it could have been worse for Bonzo.

 

He could have been one of the guys at Scouts Inc.

 

Scouts Inc. is an organization of football talent evaluators who "watch games, break down films and use extensive experience and contacts ... to provide the deepest and most detailed scouting reports available anywhere." Bonzo is a monkey.

 

Still, there wasn't a whole lot of difference between their two mock drafts.

 

Scouts Inc. correctly named just 3 of 32 first-round picks – or 2 of the final 31 after Russell to Oakland with the No. 1 pick.

 

Considering the amount of time, energy, emotion and research each party devoted to scoping out college football talent, Bonzo clearly provided more bang for the buck ... which means little to none.

 

Otherwise, however, it was a pretty good year for the "pundits" and their mock drafts ... relatively speaking. And when it comes time to comparing the "pundits" to primates, relative is the operative word.

 

In our first two years of tracking mock drafts, our six "experts" were correct with just 24.5 percent of their cumulative first-round picks. When it came time simply to assign the right position with the right team, they were correct 40.9 percent of the time. This year, our six "pundits" nailed 29.7 percent of their first-round picks and identified the correct position a team would draft with 40.6 percent of their first-round picks.

 

Basically, we give mock drafts credit for putting the right player with the right team. We also give credit if a mock draft correctly identifies the position that a team will fill.

 

 

As usual, there was a fair bit of success early in the first round, and very little the further we move down the draft board. As for all those mock drafts that go beyond the first round? Not even worth the energy. Guys can barely get any picks right in the second half of the first round, let alone anything beyond the first.

 

Our six "pundits" (combined) this year:

In the past two years, we included the mock draft of Ron Borges of the Boston Globe. But Borges didn't come down for breakfast this year. He will, however, be back later this week as his two-month suspension for being a hack comes to an end. At the urging of John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, we replaced Borges this year with Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News.

 

"Rick's as good as anyone I've seen at this," said McClain.

 

He wasn't lying: Gosselin performed fairly well and will remain our permanent replacement in future mock draft reports. Borges has a long track record of putting his name above things he didn't write, from columns to his weekly NFL picks in the Boston Globe. We don't even know if he does his own mock draft. No need to include him in the future ... if he has one.

Here's a look at the player each team picked and the mock drafts of all six of our "pundits." The first chart shows how the draft specialists fared. The second list shows how the football generalists fared. Correct players and positions are denoted by bold text.

 

Remember, when teams traded positions (which several did this year) we gave the "pundit" credit for listing the right player with the right team, even if the pick occurred at a different position on the board.

 

Team	Actual Pick	OurLads.com	Mel Kiper	Scouts Inc.
Oakland	Russell, QB	Russell, QB	Russell, QB	Russell, QB
Detroit	Johnson, WR	Johnson, WR	Johnson, WR	Adams, DE
Cleveland	Thomas, OT	Thomas, OT	Thomas, OT	Peterson, RB
Tampa	Adams, DE	Adams, DE	Adams, DE	Johnson, WR
Arizona	Brown, OT	Brown, OT	Brown, OT	Thomas, OT
Washington	Landry, S	Landry, S	Landry, S	Okoye, DT
Minnesota	Peterson, RB	Quinn, QB	Peterson, RB	Quinn, QB
Atlanta	Anderson, DE	Anderson, DE	Okoye, DT	Landry, S
Miami	Ginn, WR	Okoye, DT	Quinn, QB	Brown, OT
Houston	Okoye, DT	Peterson, RB	Hall, CB	Hall, CB
San Fran	Willis, LB	Willis, LB	Willis, LB	Branch, DT
Buffalo	Lynch, RB	Lynch, RB	Harris, LB	Willis, LB
St. Louis	Carriker, DE	Carriker, DE	Anderson, DE	Anderson, DE
Carolina	Revis, CB (NYJ)	Nelson, S	Nelson, S	Olsen, TE
Pittsburgh	Timmons, OLB	Hall, CB	Timmons, OLB	Timmons, OLB
Green Bay	Harrell, DT	Meachem, WR	Lynch, RB	Lynch, RB
Jacksonville	Moss, DE (Denver)	Revis, CB	Carriker, DE	Carriker, DE
Cincinnati	Hall, CB	Spencer, DE	Revis, CB	Revis, CB
Tennessee	Griffin, FS	Bowe, WR	Ginn, WR	Ginn, WR
N.Y. Giants	Ross, CB	Staley, OT	Staley, OT	Posluszny, OLB
Denver	Nelson, FS (Jax)	Moss, DE	Branch, DT	Moss, DE
Dallas	Quinn, QB (Cle)	Ross, CB	Ross, CB	Bowe, WR
Kansas City	Bowe, WR	Branch, DT	Harrell, DT	Jarrett, WR
New England	Meriweather, S	Harris, LB	Meachem, WR	Ross, CB
N.Y. Jets	Beason, OLB (Car)	Olsen, TE	Olsen, TE	Houston, CB
Philly	Spencer, DE (Dallas)	Posluszny, LB	Meriweather, S	Griffin, S
New Orleans	Meachem, WR	Timmons, OLB	Houston, CB	Harrell, DT
New England	Staley, OT (SF)	Meriweather, S	Posluszny, LB	Nelson, S
Baltimore	Grubbs, G	Grubbs, G	Grubbs, G	Staley, OT
San Diego	Davis, WR	Ginn, WR	Bowe, WR	Meachem, WR
Chicago	Olsen, TE	Beason, OLB	Spencer, DE	Beason, OLB
Indy	Gonzalez, WR	Houston, CB	Beason, LB	Spencer, DE