Iowa football: Tristan Wirfs ahead of AJ Epenesa in latest mock draft

For the first time in any mock drafts we’ve seen, Iowa football player Tristan Wirfs is projected ahead of teammate AJ Epenesa. Here’s why.

It’s mock draft season, which means we are likely to get so many varying opinions about who needs what and who should go where over the course of the next eight months it’ll make your head spin. And while there ultimately isn’t much truth to any of these mock drafts, they do help paint a picture of a prospect’s rise and fall throughout the football season as well as what could be the most highly valued positions in the upcoming draft. With so much talent on this Iowa football team, we are going to see 3, possibly 4 guys on any given first-round mock draft so there will be a lot to cover this season.

So far the trends have basically painted this picture for the Iowa football players AJ Epenesa, Tristan Wirfs, Alaric Jackson, and Nate Stanley.

Epenesa is widely regarded as the number one or two defensive ends in college football and a likely top-10, even top-5 pick. Wirfs is an absolute freak who has a great chance to be the best tackle in this class, but he is young and not as sure of a thing as Epenesa. Jackson plays a coveted position, left tackle, and has massive size and strength, but isn’t as highly touted as Wirfs, and their quarterback Nate Stanley has the build, but not all the intangibles of a first-round prospect yet.

Pretty much every list has included Epenesa and Wirfs. A few have included Jackson and just one or two have included Stanley, and the draft spot projections almost always go in that order. Except for today.

In one of the latest mock drafts we’ve seen, Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner has Iowa football players Tristan Wirfs and AJ Epenesa flipped. Wirfs is projected to go 9th to the New York Giants while Epenesa is projected to go 11th to the Buccaneers and join another former Iowa football defensive end in Anthony Nelson.

Again, considering the college football season hasn’t even started yet, we can’t read too much into this, except for one key takeaway: tackles will be a hot commodity in this year’s draft. Tackle is one of the most important positions on offense, yet in the past few years, there haven’t been nearly enough talented tackles to enter the NFL Draft leaving teams grasping for anything.

This year’s crop of tackles though will be a breath of fresh air for NFL talent evaluators, and that combined with the influx of great defensive ends in the 2019 NFL Draft could result in a flip-flop of Epenesa and Wirfs going forward.