‘Twas the night before the NFL Draft, when all through the house, Times News sportswriter Jason Boris is pacing about.

All of his picks are chosen with diligent care, as he decides which players will fall, or surprisingly could still be there.

And when Boris finally sends in his mock draft to the Times News, and he is all snuggled in his bed, all he hears is the NFL draft selection chime over and over in his head.

The NFL Draft is like Christmas day for Jason Boris, and in 2024 he got just what he wanted under the tree.

Boris was crowned best in the mock draft business.

According to The Huddle Report (www.thehuddlereport.com) - which is considered the most respected NFL mock draft grading service in the nation - Boris ranked No. 1 with a score of 59 points. The total not only gave Boris this season’s title, but it tied for the highest score in The Huddle Report’s history (since 2002).

King of the Hill

This year, Boris correctly predicted 29 of the 32 players chosen in the first round and matched 15 of those players with the team that actually selected them.

“I can honestly say when I submitted this year’s mock draft that I felt really good about it. I usually don’t have that feeling,” said Boris, a Tamaqua resident. “This is something I have a tremendous amount of passion for, and I put a lot of time and effort into the process.

“To get 59 points and to match 15 picks does not happen very often, so I’m definitely proud of what I was able to achieve this year.”

Boris not only was this year’s mock draft champion, but he also acquired the position of The Huddle Report’s “Mock Draft King of the Hill,” which is a designation given to the draftee who has the best five-year average of mock draft scores. Boris’ average of 46.2 from 2020-24 is two points above the average for the second-place person.

As impressive as the title is, it’s not new to Boris - who previously held the moniker “King of the Hill” title for six consecutive years from 2012 until 2017.

“I was really happy to get back to the top spot with my five-year average. It has been a few years since I was at No. 1. Obviously, my score this year had a lot to do with that, but I think my consistency over the years speaks volumes,” said Boris.

Since 2009, Boris has finished in the top 5 six times, including three runner-up finishes in 2011, 2013 and 2015. This year was the first year that his mock draft finished in first place.

“Everyone who does this has their own process, but what I do is I put together a list of about 35 or so players that I think have the best shot of going in the first round. That becomes my pool of players to choose from,” explained Boris. “Then I create a short-list of players that I think could go to each of the 32 teams, before finally trying to match a player to a specific team. It’s almost like trying to assemble a giant jigsaw puzzle with players instead of pieces.

“I certainly don’t have all the contacts and sources that the big television personalities have or the writers from the bigger media outlets do, so I just have to rely on my own knowledge and research, and I have to kind of weed through the information that is out there.”

National Respect

Robby Esch, who founded The Huddle Report in 2001 always looks forward to Boris’ mock draft submission. Esch started his career working for a scouting service, but then decided he wanted to build a website to grade top 100 player boards, and then a year later mock drafts (starting in 2002). In the site’s first year, it graded 35 mock drafts and it’s now up to 171.

In order to be a part of The Huddle Report mock draft scoring process, an individual must be invited, and also must be a contributor to a reputable media outlet. Boris’ debut in The Huddle Report mock draft scoring system was in 2009. Well-known broadcasters and journalists that are scored by the Huddle Report include Peter Schrager (NFL Network), Albert Breer (Sports Illustrated), Lance Zierlein (NFL Network), Daniel Jeremiah (NFL Network), Jimmy Kempski (Philly Voice) and Jason McIntyre (Fox Sports) just to name a few.

“Jason has obviously been really good since we started scoring his drafts. I always say when we’re inputting his information that I can’t wait to see how “The Great Jason Boris” does in this year’s draft,” said Esch. “Getting 15 matches like he did this season is very rare. That’s almost half of the draft that he got exactly right of what player was going to go to which team. I honestly think that because he doesn’t have a lot of contacts with teams, it’s kind of beneficial to him. He doesn’t have to worry about if a person is telling him the truth or not.

“I am proud of what we have built at The Huddle Report. I think we have a strong group of mock drafters that we score. I always say, I think our site is a good consumer report for what the draft is going to look like, and NFL teams like to take a look at that.”

The Best of the Best

Boris has a tremendous amount of respect for the famous mock drafters of the world like, Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay, Daniel Jeremiah and many others, but the mock drafter he has always revered the most is former Kansas City Star and Dallas Morning News sportswriter Rick Gosselin. Gosselin, who is now retired, covered the NFL and other sports for 50 years and was one of the most well-respected sports journalists throughout the country during his career.

In his career, Gosselin has covered many premier sporting events, but some of the highlights include both the winter and summer Olympics, five World Series, five NCAA Final Fours, 37 Super Bowls and 20 NFL drafts.

Gosselin was elite when it came to putting together both the top 100 player board and NFL mock drafts and possessed an extensive network of contacts throughout the NFL that included coaches, scouts, general managers and other team personnel. From 2006-2011, Gosselin served as the “Mock Draft King of the Hill” for The Huddle Report and has been the mock draft champ three times - which is tied for the most wins. Gosselin also has the all-time best five-year average at an impressive 49.6. Gosselin put together his last mock draft in 2011.

“Rick set the standard, and he was the best in the business,” said Boris. “I wanted to follow in his footsteps, and I was fortunate enough to have the best five-year average for the next six years after he stopped. I have so much admiration and respect for him and what he was able to do.”

Gosselin still has a strong pulse on the mock drafting community, and has been impressed with what Boris has been able to accomplish over the years as well.

“What Jason has been able to do is very impressive. There’s no doubt that year-in and year-out he knows the board. When you’re able to match that many draft picks you know the board, plain and simple.” said Gosselin, who is the Dallas representative on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee and also serves on the Hall’s senior sub-committee. “I spent about two months of my life every year gathering information and putting together the draft board for both my top 100 list and my mock draft.

“I built a significant network of contacts, and I would talk to every single team, but I never once asked them who they were going to take. If you want to be good, you have to invest a lot of time. I certainly know what it takes, and obviously Jason is doing a great job.”

Getting Started

The NFL seed was planted for Boris all the way back in 1985 when he was seven years old watching professional football on television for the first time. He was immediately drawn to the Cincinnati Bengals because of the design and color of their uniforms, and he remains a diehard fan to this day.

From there, he then took an interest in the NFL draft process and would even take days off from school to watch the draft because in those days it was held on weekday afternoons. His first mock drafts consisted of a notebook and a homemade draft board that he would hang on his bedroom wall.

As he got older and his hobby continued to evolve, he started to push out his mock drafts to his friends, with his first published mock draft being showcased in the Tamaqua Junior High School student newspaper. Then came the email age, which made it much easier to distribute his mock draft to friends and contacts. Boris was hired as a part-time sportswriter by the Times News in 2000, and his first mock draft was published in the Times News in 2001. It has run in the newspaper on the first day of the draft every year since.

Throughout the years, Boris’ success doing mock drafts has gained him national attention and recognition. He has been featured in the New York Times and Forbes Magazine, and has been a guest on many sports podcasts and radio shows all across the country.

“I am very grateful for the support of the Times News Sports Department in publishing my mock draft every single year, and I will continue to distribute my mock draft through the Times News until they tell me no,” said Boris. “The Times News provided me the opportunity to be represented in The Huddle Report, and it has opened some doors for me that I would have never dreamed possible.

“I’m already starting my prep work for the 2025 draft, and I’m just really excited to continue on this crazy journey and to see what the future holds.”