2022 NFL "Old Tweets" Mock Draft: What the top prospects tweeted back in the day
2022 NFL "Old Tweets" Mock Draft: What the top prospects tweeted back in the day
And how it connects them to teams that may need their services beginning in 2022!
I do not read replies to my tweets. As much as I have FOMO on seeing the perfect response by one of you to one of my Twitter history reveals, or a reply by the very person whose old tweets I uncovered, I find obsessing over the feedback to be an unnecessary distraction given what my intentions are with each tweet.
My Twitter account is an output and nothing more.
Follow if you like the content, reply if you have something to add, but know that every time I send out a tweet I tell it “Good luck to you lil guy” and then I’m forever done with it. Think of it like getting pregnant, witnessing the birth of your child, dropping them off at college, walking them down the aisle, and becoming a grandparent—all in less than a minute. That should be the life of every tweet.
Create it, love it, share it, and then let it be.
So I’m never quite sure what people think of it when I uncover old tweets, but I imagine that there could be some belief that “digging through someone’s social media past” is the same or similar to “finding a way to hit their cancel button.” That’s not why I look to the past, and I have no interest in canceling anyone or turning NFL players over to “the mob.”
I don’t want to cancel, I want to celebrate.
I don’t want to hurt, I want to hype.
I don’t want people to say “No!”, I want them to say “Noice!”
And the reality is that it is far easier to find tweets that are nice than the ones that are not. I’ve been through the past of many NFL players and NFL prospects and I can tell you with all the honesty in my bones that what most of them tweet about during high school and college are the same things you did or would have tweeted about:
School sucks
LeBron James rules
“Happy Birthday!” and “Thanks for the birthday wishes!”
Their favorite wide receivers (Chad Ochocinco, Dez Bryant, OBJ)
They’re gonna work hard to prove the skeptics wrong
And everyone you’ll find in this article and the next, for obvious reasons, worked hard and proved the skeptics, the doubters, and the haters wrong. (While also probably overemphasizing how many “haters” there actually are, as everyone does.)
This year’s NFL Draft prospects run the gamut of Twitter accounts, from the very active (Kayvon Thibodeaux) to the completely inactive (Derek Stingley, Kenyon Green, Trevor Penning); from guys who had accounts in middle school to those who didn’t start tweeting until very recently; from the legitimately funny jokers (Garrett Wilson, Kyle Hamilton) to the no-nonsense pure footballers (Icky)… the 2022 NFL Draft has it all.
Their history also says it all. Including maybe where they will be drafted?
I don’t approach Twitter in the same way as most NFL writers. I won’t approach this mock draft like most NFL Mock Drafters. Below is a mock draft that connects a 2022 prospect’s old tweets with a current team in the first round who might make sense for him in the near future. But first, because “How to help a newsletter” isn’t quite so clear yet in this era of media…
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Now onto part ONE of the 2022 NFL Mock Draft featuring Old Tweets!
1. Jacksonville Jaguars - OT Evan Neal, Alabama
Joined Twitter: October, 2018
First Tweet: “Boomer Sooner”
Positives: Ready for pancakes
Why Jaguars: Because they’ll see perfection
Also he can do this:
2. Detroit Lions - DE Aidan Hutchinson, Michigan
Twitter account started: July, 2014
First Tweet - He gets his homework in EARLY
Positives: Let’s his coach know when he’s late (on twitter)
Why Lions: He likes the local team, at least a tiny bit
3. Houston Texans - CB Derek Stingley, LSU
Twitter since: No Twitter
Positives: No Twitter
Why Texans: The NFL’s quietest team picks the draft’s quietest tweeter
4. New York Jets - S Kyle Hamilton, Notre Dame
Twitter since: August, 2013
First tweet: Geaux Tigers
(Keep in mind about “first tweets”… Sometimes a player might have deleted old tweets and that could explain the gap in time. Who knows? Their deleted tweets aren’t of interest to me, I’m just looking at what I can see.)
Positives: Perceptive
Positives: Insightful
Why Jets: Ready to handle the New York media
5. New York Giants - OT Ikem “Ickey” Ekwonu, NC State
Twitter since: June, 2016
Positives: Doesn’t tweet very often, but when he does it’s gold
Why Giants: If he can’t slot in at tackle or guard, he can replace Saquon
6. Carolina Panthers - OT Charles Cross, Mississippi State
Since: January, 2017
First Tweet:
Positives: Not active on Twitter
Why Panthers: Well, he did once say he needs a new CAR
7. New York Giants - DE Kayvon Thibodeaux, Oregon
Twitter since: October, 2015
First tweet: Check the spelling
Positives: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation
Positives: Takes practice seriously
Why Giants: Time for Manhattan
8. Atlanta Falcons - DE Travon Walker, Georgia
Twitter since: March, 2020
Positives: On Twitter for less than two years
Why Falcons: Well, he’s there already.
9. Denver Broncos - CB Sauce Gardner, Cincinnati
Twitter since: February, 2016
First Tweet: Letting ‘em know the name right off the bat
First Tweet (non reply edition)
Positives: Versatility since he was 6
Why Broncos draft a top-10 CB again? (They still need one): Change locations
10. New York Jets - WR Chris Olave, Ohio State
Twitter since: December, 2012
First tweet:
Positives: Knows who he is
Knows what he wants
Knows the truth about Twitter
Why Jets: Picked Seahawks to make Super Bowl at MetLife, now could be headed to MetLife via a Seahawks pick
11. Washington Commanders - G Kenyon Green, Texas A&M
No Twitter
Why Commanders: If he’s on Twitter, it’s through a burner account. Washington also sort of has a fake name, if anything.
12. Minnesota Vikings - C Tyler Linderbaum, Iowa
Twitter since: March, 2013
First Tweet:
Positives: Isn’t verified
One of the biggest scams in social media is the blue checkmark. I understand why certain people have them—I have one, which is another red flag for the blue check—but begging for Twitter for verification (as almost any media member who has one had to do behind closed doors at one point) is not something to be proud of.
In Linderbaum’s case, Twitter will probably go ahead and verify him one day without his request, but shout outs to one of the few first round prospects who didn’t follow “Twitter Verified” on Twitter in the hopes to get a blue check.
Why Vikings: Because he’ll have a sense of humor about it
13. Philadelphia Eagles - QB Kenny Pickett, Pitt
Twitter since: April, 2013
First Tweet: And they said Pickett doesn’t have QB athleticism?
Positives: Knows where he wants to go back to one day
Has stared terror in the face and survived
Why Eagles: It’s pretty obvious
14. Baltimore Ravens - OT Trevor Penning, Northern Iowa
Not on Twitter: Just seems like a reasonable pick for the Ravens
15. Cleveland Browns - WR Garrett Wilson, Ohio State
Twitter since: August, 2013
First Tweet:
Positives: Knows what he wants, gets after it, including the #2
Negatives: He’s actually worn the #5 since high school
Positives: Knows the meaning of productive procrastination
And nobody beats him in roast offs
Not even Skip Bayless
Why Browns: He called it
16. Philadelphia Eagles - LB Nakobe Dean, Georgia
Twitter since: October, 2015
First Tweet: Not quite 100
Positives: Man knows a good fit
Positives: Tiger Blood
Why Eagles:
That’s part one. Whose tweets get uncovered in part two? There are literally HUNDREDS* of prospects left to go through!!! Find out soon by hitting subscribe.
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