The 2020 regular season of the NFL is complete. There is only one college football game to be played – Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship between Alabama and Ohio State. Eighteen of the 32 NFL teams know where they will select in the 2021 NFL draft and have turned their attention there. So it certainly looks like a good time to predict what the first round will look like in April.
It is still too early. This month’s Senior Bowl will give scouts a chance to see players who haven’t had much tape this year in a shorter season, and the NFL scout combination will be the first time teams have looked in more than a year at numerous contenders highly praised recruits who opted for the 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic. The evaluators, including me, still have a lot of tapes to watch and a lot of interviews to conduct. The ratings will change, as will the previous half of the draft order used here – which was determined by ESPN’s Football Power Index projections.
But that’s true at this point, just under four months later: The class is full of talent. I currently have 22 players with a score higher than 90 – which I use to identify real potential customers in the first round – including a handful of defenders. So, how is everything going to happen? We will predict the first 32 choices of the 2021 draft of the NFL, starting with a Jaguars team of one win. And be sure to check out our special simulated draft, live on ESPN + at 5 pm Eastern time.
Note: the preliminary order is defined for choice numbers 1-18. For the choices in us. 19-32, we use ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) projections. Minors in the class are indicated with an asterisk.
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Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson *
Did you expect anyone else? I haven’t seen a quarterback prospect like Lawrence in almost a decade, and the Jaguars are certainly on the market for one. Gardner Minshew II, Mike Glennon and Jake Luton combined for the second worst NFL Total CBR in 2020 (43.7). Jacksonville will have a new general manager and a new coach after losing 15 games, and the six-foot Lawrence – who has a huge arm, good mobility in his pocket and all the intangible items you could ask for – would give the new direction of team a starting quarterback who will soon be among the best in the NFL. Lawrence declared himself in favor of the project on Wednesday.
