MLS Mock Draft 2015: Real Salt Lake picks Eric Bird with 16th pick

Real Salt Lake has a growing need for creative box-to-box midfielders following the absences of key figure Ned Grabavoy this season, and with that in mind, Eric Bird was our man.

Graduating from the University of Virginia, Bird was captain of this year's NCAA College Cup winners and 2013 semifinalists. He played 73 matches across the five years, and in 2013, he led the team in goals (7) and tied RSL midfielder Jordan Allen in assists (5).

He's a crafty kid, but he's also not the sort to provoke a highlight reel of stepovers and Cruyff turns — or at least that's the impression one gets from watching Virginia match highlights. (Scouting these players is difficult. It's more that he legitimately fits the Grabavoy mold: He's a little on the shorter side, but his control is excellent and he seems to have a good awareness of what's happening around him. He sits a little deeper in the midfield, dictating play more than anything, but he also shows well with late runs.

Bird, however, might not be quite ready for the big time. It's difficult to tell how skills like this translate, but it's no less difficult than figuring out how a purely creative player works out. It's unclear whether he'd be the best pick for Real Salt Lake, but with defenders starting to line up, Bird's midfield play wouldn't go amiss for a team needing midfield reinforcements.

Our selection wasn't because he has experience with Allen, although that doesn't really hurt anything. And it's not because we're hoping he'll bring Riggs Lennon along with him, a Real Salt Lake academy graduate and a player we've had our eye on — but so have Aston Villa. (That's tangential at best to this, of course.) But hey, those things are nice to think about, and Bird ticks a lot of boxes for us.

Below: Complete SB Nation mock draft selections.