Auburn Football: New mock draft has Auburn’s Adams in the first round

Here we take a look at former Auburn football players Montravius Adams and Carl Lawson, where Adams is now projected in the first round.

A new NFL mock draft released Wednesday by NFL.com’s Chad Reuter has Auburn football defensive lineman Montravius Adams being drafted in the first round by the Oakland Raiders.

Reuter has Adams going No. 24 overall. He wrote, “Jack Del Rio gets his quick and strong pass rusher inside.”

Reuter has defensive lineman Carl Lawson going in the second round to the Arizona Cardinals with the No. 45 overall pick and playing outside linebacker.

Those selections run contrary to what most mock drafts have been projecting for Auburn’s top two prospects. Most mock drafts so far have had Lawson being selected in the first round and Adams going in the second or third round.

Both players performed well in the NFL Combine earlier in the month and at Auburn’s Pro Day. Lawson had the most bench press lifts of any player at the Combine. Adams shined at the Senior Bowl in January.

Meanwhile, Chris Burke of Sports Illustrated also has a new mock draft out Wednesday and did not place any Auburn players in the first round.

Nick Klopsis of Newsday has his mock draft out as well and puts Lawson as the No. 32 and last pick in the first round, going to the New Orleans Saints with the pick that the team acquired from the New England Patriots in the Brandin Cooks deal.

Klopsis writes, “Lawson has the ability to bend the edge when getting after the quarterback and has a good mix of speed and power. The question is whether or not he’ll be able to stay healthy — he had a torn ACL as a freshman and battled a hip injury as a sophomore — but he put it all together as a junior and showed the kind of pass-rush ability the Saints need.”

Pete Prisco of CBS Sports, in his mock draft released on Wednesday, also has Lawson going at the end of the first round at No. 31 to the Atlanta Falcons. Prisco writes, “Lawson had an impressive combine, and he was a productive player in a good conference. The Falcons need to give Vic Beasley help.”

There’s still six more weeks before the actual draft, and a lot can change between now and then. Free agent signings can change what a team is seeking in the draft, and more colleges are holding their pro days in the next few weeks, likely influencing the final selections.

Next: Auburn's Five Best/Worst First-Rounders

In other words, a lot can happen until the draft.