Field Yates & Mel Kiper, Jr. presented an alternating mock draft with input from Matt Miller where Kiper, Jr. selected Jordyn Tyson for the Rams at 13th overall. Despite being the 3rd wide receiver taken up to that point, Kiper, Jr. still had Tyson on the same tier with Makai Lemon & Carnell Tate in an indeterminate order. Lemon was chosen 6th overall for the Browns by Miller while Tate was projected to Miami at 11th overall. Interestingly, Omar Cooper, Jr. was not far behind Tyson at 16th overall to the Jets. I was a little surprised to see OT Monroe Freeling available until the Lion's pick at 17. Oh...Kenyon Sadiq was unexpectedly mocked at 9th overall to the Chiefs.
While Kiper, Jr. is really high on Lemon and despite Tyson being the third WR taken, Mel stated that it's hard for him not to have Jordyn as Wide Receiver 1 given his physical abilities, top-level talent, college production and ultra-competitiveness. He goes on to say that there's not a team in the NFL that wouldn't welcome Tyson onto their roster and that his hamstring injury only happened because he was playing through the pain of the other hamstring instead of taking the easy (maybe even wiser) way out. Yates addressed concerns about Tyson's durability by saying that none of his injuries appear to be chronic in physical nature and, as more of a testament to his toughness, his frequent injuries were not the result of him opting to play it safe and tap out for the sake of protecting his draft stock, but rather the opposite: he played through pain for the sake of the team. Yates further goes on to cite the last 6 games of Tyson's 2024 season by saying that he displayed superstar ability by balling out during that stretch. His 2025 season has been marred by bad QB play and the unfortunate circumstance of him managing a common injury right after other notable but non-career threatening injuries.
One could obviously say that his injuries have, in part, been self-inflicted and they could become chronic if he doesn't take better care of himself, but that's where the coaches along with the medical and training staff have to step in and save him from himself. I've previously posed the question of whether Jordyn Tyson's injuries were the result of an inherent physical trait of his or because his competitive nature and team-first mentality was putting him at higher risk for injuries.
At this point, Tyson is my top target for the Rams to draft at 13th overall unless Freeling is available or if a Sonny Styles or Jeremiyah Love somehow fell into our laps. I'm also down with either Jermod McCoy or Omar Cooper, Jr. as fallback options, preferably in a trade-down scenario. I'd be fine with either Tate or Kenyon Sadiq, but in a more "meh" fashion.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAVyovObG_c&t=1515s
