Sports Time Radio

Well we are just one day away from the 1st round of the NFL draft and it’s clear that beyond the first three or maybe four picks no one has any idea what’s going to actually happen.

The Jacksonville Jaquars will pick first and barring any major trade or something clearly out of the ordinary it looks like they’ll take quarterback Trevor Lawrence with that pick.

The New York Jets are still at #2 and after giving up on Sam Darnold it looks like the Jets will also be selecting a quarterback. It seems as New York will go with Zack Wilson with their pick.

That bring us to the third pick which belongs to the San Francisco 49ers after they traded into that spot. Now it seems to be another case of a team taking what they hope will be their franchise quarterback, but which one will San Francisco actually take. It seems like Mac Jones the soon to be former University of Alabama quarterback is the odds on favorite to be selected by the 49ers with this pick. Now as of late there seems to be more talk that San Francisco might go another direction and grab either Justin Fields or Trey Lance with this pick. One way or another San Francisco is going to take a quarterback, but the question is which one will it actually be.

Then we roll into the fourth pick which is currently held by the Atlanta Falcons. Now there’s always the chance that the Falcons get blown away by a trade offer from a team that’s looking to grab one of the remaining quarterbacks, but if they keep the pick they have their choice and would probably grab the best player in this draft and that appears to be tight end Kyle Pitts.

As we get to five and six we have the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins in these spots. Now neither of these teams looks to be in the quarterback market; so if a team is interested in moving up to try and grab one of the remaining quarterbacks this may be the spot where we see a trade; especially with Miami.

Don’t forget that the Dolphins actually started with the 3rd pick in this draft, but they dealt that to San Francisco as part of a three-team deal that included the Philadelphia Eagles. I don’t think it would be a very big surprise to see the Dolphins move back again in this draft and stockpile some more draft picks.

I really think the drama here is how far will the two remaining quarterbacks fall in this draft be it Jones, Field or Lance. There are teams like the New England Patriots and the Chicago Bears that should have some interest in a young quarterback. New England is sitting at #15 while the Bears have the 20th pick.

Could one of the two remaining quarterbacks fall to them? Or are they going to have to try and move up into the Top 10 or just outside it to get one of them?

It would really be out of New England’s character to move up in the 1st round, but this entire off season the Patriots did things no one was expecting; so maybe they have one more surprise move in them.

Now the Bears on the other hand have moved up to get a quarterback before. Remember they overpaid to move up from the 3rd pick to the 2nd pick to draft Mitchell Trubisky because somehow San Francisco was able to convince them that their where other teams willing to move up to draft Trubisky. Is it possible that another team might be able to take advantage of the Bears gullibility and get them to overpay again to move up in this draft?

You do have to wonder if a team like the Washington Football Team would take a quarterback if there was one on the board when their pick came around at #19. Washington did sign veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick this off season, but he’s just on a one year deal; so drafting his successor wouldn’t be a terrible idea. If Washington takes a quarterback he could sit for a year and learn the NFL game while Fitzpatrick plays.

There is a very interesting wild card team as we get to the bottom of the 1st round. I would be really interested to see what the New Orleans Saints would do if one of these quarterbacks where sit on the draft board when their pick came up at #28. For years now the Saints have tried to sell Taysom Hill as a legitimate starting quarterback in the NFL, but instead of turning the team over to him when Drew Brees retired they resigned Jameis Winston to either compete for the starting quarterback job or be the #1 QB while Hill continues as a gadget quarterback. I seriously doubt that the Saints would give up the draft capital to move up even minimal spots to grab whichever quarterback might be remaining, but if that aid quarterback fell into their lap at #28 could they pass him up?

It appears as we’re going to have five quarterbacks drafted in the 1st round one way or another and then the questions can start about how they’ll work out with the team that drafted them. What’s always humorous to me is how fast the media turns on these guys after pushing them so hard since the end of the NFL season. It’s like they forget that it takes some time for these young quarterbacks to develop and very few of them actually led their teams into the playoffs their first year with them.

I’m almost to the point where I’m glad the draft is here just so I don’t have to hear people who know as much as I do about who’s going to be drafted where talk about it. How about you?

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