As the 2019 NFL Draft is about to get underway, here are five big, crazy predictions that just might be right.
2019 NFL Draft Prospects
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– 2 Round Mock Draft | Top 10 Prop Bets
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Oh sure, like you saw Rashaad Penny going to Seattle with the 27th overall pick last year.
Yeah, you predicted Josh Rosen – remember him? – was going to slide on down to Arizona at the ten after the Bills went after Josh Allen at the seven.
And now way, no how, did you seen Vontae Mack going at the one, no matter what.
Here are five totally batspit insane calls for the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft that have almost no chance of happening, but … oh sure they will.
In the spirt of throwing something at the wall and hoping just one of them sticks, just like all 32 teams are preparing right now to do …
5. Miles Sanders will be the first running back taken, but …
A running back might not go in the first round.
Is Josh Jacobs just that special? Maybe, and teams tend to get a bit nutty as the Thursday night rolls on, but this is a good draft for running backs in the mid-section, and there isn’t a Gurley, Fournette, Zeke or Barkley that screams MUST have in the top ten.
It’s actually going to be a relatively dry draft after around the 15th pick, mainly because all the offensive skill spots will be a fat load of meh.
The quarterbacks still around are going to be just okay. DK Metcalf and Marquise Brown are good NFL receivers, but they’re not franchise-changers, and again, the high-end running back talent just isn’t there.
However, teams still want them.
Take a look at what happened over the last two years. In the 2018 draft, Saquon Barkley, Rashaad Penny, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb – that’s a solid haul of backs in the top 35 before Ronald Jones was taken off the board.
In 2017? Yeeeeeeeeesh.
Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, Alvin Kamara, Kareem Hunt, James Conner, Tarik Cohen. Marlon Mack, Aaron Jones.
The position is valuable again, so even though the value prop bet play is on no running backs going in the first round, watch out for Jacobs – after a workout circuit that was good, but not WOW – to drop, and for one team to have a thing for Penn State’s Miles Sanders in the hopes of getting a knockoff version of Barkley.
He’s been the hot name floating about in the underground world over the last several days. Keep an eye out for the Raiders at the 24.
NEXT: With the third pick in the 2019 NFL Draft …
4. A quarterback is going at the three
And the New York Jets are obviously not going to be the one to make the pick.
Have an offer for New York at that third overall slot? Go. The Jets would love to drop down and get multiple selections in a deep and solid top 50, and that’s where the games begin.
Just how much can Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock sell the world that they’re going to take a quarterback with the fourth overall pick? They might freak out someone move into the three to take its guy.
Watch out for someone like the Giants to leverage their two first round picks – the six and the 17 – to somehow keep one of them, but find a way to move into the three to sneak ahead of the Oakland/Las Vegas/Birmingham/Duluth Raiders.
Or, Miami is bluffing about not caring about the quarterbacks, and it moves up from 13, or Washington busts its way up from the 15, or Cincinnati realizes that Andy Dalton is Andy Dalton, and it packages something from the 11, or …
Arizona comes up with a blockbuster to move out of the 1 to go to the 3 in the hopes that it can get Murray there – because no one other than the Cardinals actually believes that Murray is a better NFL prospect than Nick Bosa, Quinnen Williams, or Josh Allen.
But who’s that second quarterback if Murray does go with the top pick overall?
Will you fall off your chair if Duke’s Daniel Jones is the second quarterback taken? You should, because he’s not that great at football, but he’s been a red-hot prospect throughout the last several months.
Missouri’s Drew Lock is more like a late-first flier than a top five overall pick, but he’s coached up well, and he’s the type of gunslinger who fits the Raiders.
No, the Jets ain’t keepin’ that three, but …
NEXT: One of the star quarterbacks is going to slide on down
3. Dwayne Haskins is going to have a long, long, long night
Either the disinformation world is on its game to the nth degree, or the Ohio State star quarterback is going to sink like a stone.
Of course that’s not the end of the world for him if it happens – he’s still going to go in the first round – but for whatever reason, he’s been the coldest top guy in the rumor mill despite being the best quarterback prospect in the draft.
Why? He’s going to need time and seasoning. If you take Haskins, he’s probably not quite your Day One starter, only because he doesn’t have all that much time logged in – think Mitchell Trubisky and the at-bats needed to figure out what he was doing.
Of course, Murray hasn’t seen that much game action, either, compared to some of the top quarterback picks of the past, but don’t let that stop Arizona from going Arizona.
Going back to Wacky Call No. 4, expect Daniel Jones to be the second quarterback off the board, and then a bit of a freeze for a while. Remember, there aren’t that many teams that need a quarterback.
Arizona doesn’t need one, but it thinks it does. The Raiders are actually fine with Derek Carr, but they want to upgrade. The Giants have to get one, and so do the Dolphins and Redskins, but that’s it.
Miami at the 13 or Washington at the 15 would be perfect for Haskins. Both teams have mediocre veterans to step in for a bit – a suddenly pudge Ryan Fitzpatrick at Miami, and Case Keenum at Washington – but don’t be shocked of both of them go with the better value at defense with their picks.
The Giants should be able to wait until the 17 to take Haskins, or Denver could trade down from the 10 to get its man, orrrrrrrrr …
With the 27th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the Raiders select, Dwayne ….
You don’t think Mike Mayock remembers who went with the 27th pick in the 1983 NFL Draft? Dan Marino did just fine after his slide.
2019 NFL Draft Prospects
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | OGs & Cs | OTs
DTs | DEs | Edge Rush | LBs | CB | Safs
– 2 Round Mock Draft | Top 10 Prop Bets
Every College Team’s 3 Greatest Draft Picks
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC
32 Greatest Draft Picks of All-Time
NEXT: Part of your fantasy football life for the next ten years …
2. TJ Hockenson will go in the top six
Kyler Murray, Nick Bosa, Quinnen Williams, Josh Allen, Ed Oliver. If I’m being pressed, that’s how I think the top five might go in some way, shape or form, with the possibility of LSU LB Devin White going with the fifth overall pick to Tampa Bay and Oliver going to the six …
If everyone stays put.
However, in this draft, Iowa TE TJ Hockenson is getting enough love to be considered one of those Best Player Available guys who might just be worth a top five overall selection. But who takes him?
It won’t be Arizona at the one, and the two to San Francisco is too early. Going back to Wacky Call No. 4, this might be where the Jets move, so they can drop down a few spots to give Sam Darnold a toy to play with.
They move down to six, the Giants move up to three, the Giants take their quarterback ahead of the Raiders, the Raiders select Williams or Allen, Tampa Bay takes White, and sneaking right in front of Jacksonville – who’ll take Hockenson at the seven if everyone stays put – will be the Jets to take their franchise tight end.
Easy peasy.
NEXT: Oh this would work out GREAAAAT …
1. Josh Rosen will be a New England Patriot
I’m just silly enough to stick with my original call that Joshua Ballinger Lippincott Rosen is and was the best quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft.
He needs seasoning, but if he gets time in the right system and with the right coaching, the upside is enormous as the best pure passer among last year’s rookie crop.
But he needs the right fit.
He’s not going to mesh quite right at Miami, and Washington doesn’t have any interest in trading for him. He’ll fit best at a place where he respects the overall program and totally buys into the head coach.
Hello, Bill Belichick.
Brian Hoyer might be a capable backup, but he’s not the guy who’ll step in and two years from now and keep this all going once Tom Brady decides he’s ready to do the avocado ice cream thing full-time.
Best of all, it wouldn’t cost all that much to get last year’s No. 10 pick and the quarterback of the future.
The Patriots have the last pick in the first round at 32. They also have the 56th overall selection, and the 64th – both in the second round – and they have three third round picks and a fourth.
Arizona needs more picks, but it has the first selection in each of the first six rounds to play around with.
New England’s three third round picks are a fantastic bargaining chip, and there are four seventh round picks to give away, too.
Why toy around with any of the second round quarterbacks in this draft like a Ryan Finley or a Will Grier if Rosen is better?
If Belichick thinks Rosen is better.
2019 NFL Draft Prospects
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | OGs & Cs | OTs
DTs | DEs | Edge Rush | LBs | CB | Safs
– 2 Round Mock Draft | Top 10 Prop Bets
Every College Team’s 3 Greatest Draft Picks
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC
32 Greatest Draft Picks of All-Time
