ESPN has released a new seven-round NFL Mock Draft, and there's one name that should pop off the page for Wisconsin fans: Mason Reiger. He's flying up draft boards and mock drafts, and this may be the highest he's been projected by a respectable mock draft since the end of the football season.
Matt Miller of ESPN, who put together this seven-round mock draft, has Reiger being selected at No. 129 by the Chicago Bears. That's a fourth-round selection and up about three whole rounds from where many were projecting him at the beginning of the offseason.
Matt Miller has Mason Reiger selcted as No. 129 by the Chicago Bears in his latest NFL Mock Draft
Reiger was listed as a potential 7th-round pick when Wisconsin finished its season. He then took over the East-West Shrine Bowl and won the defensive MVP. That turned a lot of NFL Scouts and draft pundits his way. He then came to the combine and was one of the better-performing edge rushers across the board. Reiger was tied for second in the vertical at 40", tied for fourth in the broad jump at 10'5", seventh in the 10-second split, and he also showed out at many of the drills.
He began to be listed as a potential steal in the NFL Draft. He's now considered a 4th round pick, and there's a chance he goes even higher.
He's risen so rapidly that he's not even listed on the top edge rushers available for the NFL Draft by ESPN. However, he's mock drafted as the 13th edge rusher in the draft ahead of Joshua Josephs from Tennessee, who's currently listed as 13th on that list.
Reiger has proven that his intangibles are there, his game tape is also impressive, and now his performance at the East-West Shrine Bowl shows that he can do it against other elite rookie talent. There's going to be a team that takes a flier on him in the draft, and they will get a steal when they do. He's already gone from the 7th round to the 4th round. Will he end up even higher at the actual NFL Draft?