2019 NFL Draft Visits and Mock: 4/10/19 v2

In an ideal world, every NFL team would pick the next best player on their draft board to maximize the expected talent on their roster, but we all know that teams put needs and prospects they become infatuated with ahead of the best available player. 

Five years ago, I did some exploratory draft analysis and wrote a blog post looking at the number of team visits by position. I decided to re-do that for the 2019 draft. I'll reiterate the caveats: these visits were pulled from Walter Football (as of 4/9/19) and it's likely that they don't cover even half of the visits some teams and prospects have had. But it's still useful info (and put together in a format that I haven't seen yet).

To begin with, here are the number of players each team has met with, by position:

Insights:

• NY Giants, Washington, and Denver have met with the most QBs, then Miami and LA Chargers
• Chicago and NY Jets have met with the most RBs
• Tampa Bay has met with the most WRs BY FAR (and the most visits total by team) then Washington
• Detroit and Denver need a TE apparently
• Minnesota, NY Giants, Tampa Bay, and Carolina need an OT
• Buffalo needs a G and Baltimore a C
• Philadelphia wants a DT
• Tampa Bay, Miami, Kansas City, NY Giants, and Tennessee need EDGE rushers
• Tampa Bay and Denver need more OLB while SF needs an ILB
• Kansas City, Houston, and Denver need CBs
• Kansas City and Tampa Bay need Safeties
• Chicago needs a K and Philadelphia needs a P

Next let's look at the 25 prospects that have been the busiest (or have the best promoting agents). Multiple visits with the same team are counted, so Jaylon Ferguson hasn't visited 18 teams, but is on record for 18 visits total:

Finally, I awarded points per type of visit (1 pt for a meeting at the Senior Bowl, 2 pts for a meeting at the Combine or that prospects Pro Day, and 3 pts for a private visit or workout), and you can see what prospects have been thoroughly vetted by teams:

Insights:

• QB fits are fleshing out: Haskins with Oakland (at #4 likely), Jones with NY Giants (at #6 or #17), and Will Grier with Washington (at #15)
• New Orleans doesn't have a first rounder, but is likely targeting Blake Cashman with their second rounder
• Denver is likely targeting Isaiah Johnson with their second rounder and Houston with Brandon Hitner (don't know what round but probably earlier than I expect)
• Buffalo likes Caleb McGary and I'd bet they go with him at #9

With all of that info, I tried my hand at a second attempt of a mock draft, with emphasis on what players have visited which teams or positions the teams have focused on: