For the overwhelming majority of the NFL offseason, mock drafts serve as thought experiments. They are intended to see how the field would react if a specific variable is changed.
What if the Texans didn’t take a quarterback at 2?
What if Tyree Wilson went ahead of Will Anderson?
What if Jalen Carter fell?
What if Will Levis fell?
Once you get closer to the draft, the mock drafts become much more about what the author thinks could actually occur, and much less about experimenting in the abstract. So it is with this mock draft, which is intended to gauge what I believe may actually occur on the first night of the 2023 NFL Draft.