*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
The NFL Draft is where Super Bowls are won. At least they are for me, because it’s the closest my team will ever get to it.
What it really does is set teams up for the long-term or knock them back years upon years if they make a mistake.
Are you a quarterback away from going on a run like the Bears?
Do you have a quarterback and need everything else like the Chargers?
Which absolute freak athlete is somehow going to drop to #32 and give the Chiefs another edge for the next half-decade?
Let the fun begin.
Number Four Pick Overall: J.J. McCarthy
If you’re the GM of a QB-needy team and you’re outside the top five, you’ve got a decision to make.
There’s a few of like that – looking at the Raiders, the Vikings, Broncos and the Giants here.
We expect Caleb Williams to go #1. We expect Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels to then go #2 and #3.
The draft really begins with the fourth quarterback and that will be J.J. McCarthy. But where does he go?
Well, you either pay the price to climb up and secure him, or you run the risk of missing out altogether.
In theory, Arizona who own the fourth pick won’t take a quarterback, but they will absolutely take a trade back for value – and you don’t want to be the team missing out on your franchise signal-caller because you dawdled.
Someone will call the Cardinals and pull the trigger here.
Number Five Overall Pick: Joe Alt
Presuming that J.J. McCarthy does go at #4, the Chargers are in a prime position to take Marvin Harrison Jr. But Jim Harbaugh never cares for elite-level receivers, and his entire philosophy is around beefing up the trenches.
This pick will either traded back, in which case Harrison Jr. is definitely the play, or the Chargers stick and take Joe Alt – who is by far and a distance the best offensive lineman in this class.
I’d bank on the latter.
To Be a Top-Ten Pick: Laiatu Latu
There’s a lot of guaranteed best-player-at-their-position prospects in this draft, but edge rusher is not one of them by any stretch.
A lot of people think Dallas Turner is the best, but the Alabama tax is clearly working well, and he’s far from a fit for every defensive scheme.
Latu is traits-based and has a higher motor. That’s going to be more attractive to teams than the dice-roll nature of Turner whose ceiling is much lower than Latu’s.
To Be a First Round Pick: Xavier Legette
First of all, Legette is a genuine X receiver. He’s not a slot player. That alone puts him above some of the more average pass-catchers at the beginning of the second round.
He’s six-foot-one, 221lbs and ran a 4.39 in the 40-yard dash. His only real issue is his nous when it comes to route running and teams will consider that totally fixable.
To Be a First Round Pick: Junior Colson
There are two positions in the league where everyone is sure who the #1 is: offensive tackle and linebacker.
Linebacker might not be sexy whatsoever, but if you want the only sure-to-be NFL starter in the class, you have to take Colson.
For that and that alone, a la Jack Campbell last year, he’s got a chance of being snagged by a team trading back into the back of the first round.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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