Though the surge of mock draft season is over until next January, here’s a PSA to note that even “insider” mock drafts have their shortcomings. That insider information comes at a cost, and as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer laid out, he’ll lay down some of his own smokescreens in order to preserve healthy relationships with teams.
Breer made a recent appearance on 98.5’s Toucher & Hardy and admitted he’ll avoid mocking players to teams he knows truly have interest in.
“I have a few people who will tell me [who they’re drafting],” Breer told the show. “There were a couple last week where I legitimately didn’t mock guys to teams because I knew they liked them. I kept quiet. I kept quiet on it.”
In fairness and in context, Breer pointed to instances where he will apply his inside information to mock drafts. But that often only comes if there’s a league-wide consensus, as was the case with the New York Jets selecting Missouri OT Armand Membou. For more secretive prospects where Breer has a good individual relationship with his source, he’ll plug in another name to prevent headlines of “Breer reports Team X will draft Player Y.”
NFL teams pay attention to insider mocks and covet any information they can gather, so sharing that info in a mock could prove damaging to a team and potentially hurt relationships.
Of course, if an insider isn’t going to report his inside information, what’s his value? How can readers determine what legitimate reporting is and what serves as a self-imposed smokescreen?
In his final mock draft, Breer slotted Michigan NT Kenneth Grant to the Steelers at No. 21. Ultimately, Grant was long off the board at No. 12 to the Miami Dolphins, and Pittsburgh selected Oregon DL Derrick Harmon instead. Breer deserves credit for being in the minority of national media analysts/insiders who did not predict Pittsburgh taking a quarterback in the first round. In past years, his predictions have been less accurate.
The point isn’t about Breer nailing every pick of his mock draft. No one does or even comes close. His commentary presents the insider dilemma: balancing the line between informing readers, his literal job description, and keeping healthy lines of communication from the hands who feed him—the teams and his sources. It’s easy to sit back and play media ombudsman and critique Breer’s comments, and there’s merit in doing so.
No matter what you make of his admission, it’s a nugget to file away when Breer and presumably other insiders create their 2026 mock drafts. One likely heavily focused on Pittsburgh’s moves and which quarterback they could potentially target.
