After weeks of four-way ties, three-way ties and two-way ties, we finally have the first sole consensus pick since Coby Fleener back on Feb. 28. The race for the consensus pick was another close one this week, but our sampling of mock drafts seemed to have settled on Clemson tight end Dwayne Allen for the Falcons at No. 55 overall.
But this development is merely a microcosm of the unrest we see on the Mock Monitor this time of year. We're now one month away from the day the Falcons will make their first selection of the 2012 NFL Draft and many different things can change between now and then, especially when it comes to the opinions of mock draft creators.
However, things will begin to settle down as we draw closer to the days when actual teams make actual picks, and Allen's selection among the mocks shows that many purported draft experts think the Falcons will be looking to find the heir apparent to Tony Gonzalez's position in this year's draft.
Considering the importance of the tight end position to the Falcons' offense, identifying that next big player at the position now wouldn't be a bad thing. A young tight end can come in and learn a wealth of knowledge from Gonzalez in what he has said will be his final year, thus meaning if the Falcons did go with a TE with that second-round pick, he'd be able to go through a rookie season of little pressure and lots of learning.
Among the top three TEs available — Allen, Stanford's Coby Fleener and Georgia's Orson Charles — there's not much dropoff. Allen may actually be the most complete of the three.
In this week's Mock Monitor, we see the virtual disappearance of Virginia DE Cam Johnson, who was profiled here last week as one of the two tied for the consensus pick. WalterFootball.com and FootballFanSpot.com — two sites that projected Johnson for the Falcons last week — both moved away from Johnson this week.
The running back position has again cropped up. Several mock drafts have flirted with Virginia Tech RB David Wilson for the Falcons in the past two months, but this week we see the debut of Washington RB Chris Polk and Boise State's Doug Martin as projections at No. 55 overall.
Click here to see the entire Mock Monitor for the week.
