The NFL draft, as of right now, really starts at pick No. 4 in my mind.
You figure the top-three picks are pretty much set to some extent — the Jacksonville Jaguars will take Trevor Lawrence, the New York Jets are probably selecting another QB in BYU’s Zach Wilson. The San Francisco 49ers will likely take a quarterback as well (is it Mac Jones? Trey Lance? Justin Fields?).
The Atlanta Falcons are fourth, and in Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest ESPN NFL mock draft, he’s got a move that will have fans buzzing if it happens: he has the Miami Dolphins trading up two spots and taking … Kyle Pitts, the stud tight end out of Florida whose pro day cemented his elite status:
You didn’t see this one coming, did you? All along we’ve talked about the Dolphins adding weapons for Tua Tagovailoa, and Pitts is the ultimate weapon in this class. Why couldn’t they take him? This gives Miami four really good pass-catchers around Tagovailoa in Pitts, Will Fuller V, DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki. Pitts and Gesicki are versatile enough to play inline or out wide. They’re matchup nightmares for defenses. Another thing to note: Several teams have Pitts at No. 2 overall on their boards. Miami also gets to keep its pick at No. 18 to get help on defense.
My knee-jerk reaction was to say, “… but they have Gesicki!” No matter. You pair up the two of them, along with their improved receiving corps and Tagovailoa will have quite an arsenal to throw to.
For the Falcons? They got more picks AND they get to choose their QB of the future in this scenario — Kiper has them taking Lance out of North Dakota State. That’d be a pretty perfect move, wouldn’t it?
