Friday Funday: The analytics of the 2020 NFL Mock Draft has the Arizona Cardinals taking a wide receiver at eight

Happy Friday one and all.

The Arizona Cardinals and the rest of the NFL are preparing for the 2020 NFL free agency period.

That means another week until the free agency period begins and we really start to know some of the ins and outs of the 2020 NFL Draft.

However, that won’t change the fact that we are getting daily updates with 2020 NFL Mock Draft’s.

Today is one from Cynthia Frelund who does analytics work for NFL.com, and dropped her first mock draft of the offseason.

Let’s check it out:

8. CeeDee Lamb - WR

School: Oklahoma | Year: Junior

Systems and familiarity create measurable learning-curve reductions, which is why Lamb — paired with Kyler Murray’s arm and Kliff Kingsbury’s game plan — creates value that leapfrogs other significant needs. This pick suggests that the Cardinals will address their defense in free agency, since it doesn’t need to become elite in order for their offense to win.

The analytics last year had the Cardinals taking Quinnen Williams, which would have been a disaster.

This year, it has them taking at least at this point, Lamb.

The idea last year was obviously they still had Josh Rosen, but the NFL and most pundits seem to have been wrong about Rosen.

Meanwhile, Williams did a nice job as a run stuffer, but the Cardinals needed an interior pass rusher and Williams mustered 2.5 sacks on the season.

So, with this year it is interesting to see that Lamb would lead to the biggest increase in wins (obviously all of this means their projections on a player are accurate).

The idea behind it is that adding Lamb would boost an already improved offense, maybe into the top 7-10 in the NFL, while outside of a Kyler Murray like defender the defense will not improve as much (again this has not taken into account free agency).

There other thing, the way the first seven picks fell for Frelund’s draft.

1. Chase Young - Bengals
2. Isaiah Simmons - Redskins
3. Derrick Brown - Lions
4. Tristan Wirfs - Giants
5. Joe Burrow - Dolphins
6. Tua Tagovailoa - Chargers
7. Jeff Okudah - Panthers

The top four defensive players and the best (analytically speaking) offensive tackle is off the board. That means it goes to the best and most impactful player and that would be Lamb.

Based on the way the analytics worked last year I am not feeling this draft too much, even though I am a Lamb fan.

What do you think if the draft wackily fell this way?