Kiper ESPN Mock Has Emmanuel Ogbah Going to Carolina

NFL mock drafts will start rolling in over the next few weeks and months, and I’m going to be completely fascinated to see what happens with Emmanuel Ogbah.

“He’ll be very impressive at the combine,” Mike Gundy told the Oklahoman. But will he be a top 10 pick like some people think? Mel Kiper says no. Kipes (yeah, I’m gonna call him Kipes) put out the first version of his mock draft over the weekend. Ogbah was the last pick of the first round.

For a physical freak who has improved in each year at Oklahoma State, this slot may look WAY too low in a couple of months. Ogbah is an awesome size/quickness combination and can also play a power game and push blockers backward. He has also shown he can play in space a little bit. He’d be a great get this far down the board.

There are far worse places to land than the Panthers elite defense, but that has to be a bit of a surprise to some folks who have followed Ogbah’s career. And Kiper is right, I bet Ogbah rises as he goes through interviews and performs at the combine.[1. Will the Justins (Blackmon and Gilbert) hurt Ogbah and/or future OSU picks? Could be something to keep an eye on.]

Selfishly, I would love to see him on a great team like the Panthers or Seahawks, but financially, I bet he wishes differently. The difference (in total contract) between the 10th pick and the 31st pick last season was over $5M ($12.3M to $7M). That’s a lot of dough for anybody (except maybe Boone).