2020 Nfl Draft Guide Contents
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® 2020 NFL DRAFT GUIDE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 SENIOR BOWL REPORTS 74 2020 All-Senior Bowl Team – Offense 75 FEATURED ARTICLES 4 2020 All Senior Bowl Team – Defense 78 NFL Draft Strategy 5 Mock Draft using Senior Bowl Prospects 81 2020 NFL Draft Offensive Breakdown 11 2020 NFL Draft Defensive Breakdown 15 PLAYER INTERVIEWS 84 Bradlee Anae 85 FINAL BIG BOARD 18 Ben Bartch 87 PLAYER RANKINGS 43 Lloyd Cushenberry III 89 Quarterbacks 44 Akeem Davis-Gaither 93 Running Backs 46 Malik Harrison 95 Wide Receivers 48 Matt Hennessy 97 Tight End 51 Jordan Love 99 Offensive Tackle 53 Matt Peart 101 Guard 55 7-ROUND MOCK DRAFT 103 Center 57 Round 1 104 Defensive Linemen 59 Round 2 106 Edge 63 Round 3 109 Linebacker 66 Round 4 112 Corner back 69 Round 5 116 Safety 72 Round 6 118 Round 7 121 FANSPEAK.COM 2 THE NFL EXPECTS THE MAJORITY OF THEIR PICKS TO CONTRIBUTE EARLY ON. While the 4 major sports all have some form of the draft to bring in young talent, the NFL probably has the greatest balance. The NFL draft is 7 rounds, in comparison to the MLB (40), and NBA (2), which allows for a nice influx of talent without being too cumbersome, or too bare. While the NHL draft is 7 rounds as well, their draft is far closer to the MLB draft in the sense that the vast majority of their prospects will go through the minor league process, and not make an impact for 3-5 years. The NFL on the other hand expects the majority of their draft picks to not only make the team, but be able to contribute in at least some way early on. In addition, whereas most of the top performers come from the early rounds in other leagues (or round 1 in the NBA), the NFL draft unearths plenty of later round talent that develops into top level starting talent. Well that of course is what makes the NFL Draft unique, but the real question you are asking is what makes this Guide unique, and what do I bring to the table? Allow me to answer the 2nd part of that question first. I’ve been a “draftnik” since 1992, watching/reading/studying anything I could get my hands on related to the NFL Draft. Since that time I’ve grown from an obsessed fan, to forming my own concepts and strategies in evaluating talent for drafting players. Through watching between 5-8 college football games a week, watching every minute of Combine coverage, and covering the Senior Bowl live from Mobile, Alabama, I feel that I have the knowledge and basis to share my thoughts with my fellow “draftniks”. As for what separates this guide and evaluation from others, it will be really a matter of your opinion. It is one though that I hope to win over, by sharing my thoughts and strategies about the draft and players, through articles, histories, and much more. This is Fanspeak’s 9th year producing this comprehensive NFL Draft Guide and we hope you enjoy it and find it useful! – Steve Shoup, Content Manager and NFL Draft Expert About Steve Shoup, NFL/NFL Draft Resident Expert Steve has been a diehard football fan and obsessively watching the NFL Draft since 1992 (when he was just 9 years-old). But Steve is more than just a fan who likes to follow the draft. He studies tape, analyzes players and has truly made this his calling. Besides being the Content Manager for Fanspeak.com and our resident NFL Draft expert, Steve has been credentialed to 3 East West Shrine games and 9 Senior Bowls, so he’s had an up-close look at these players and was able to interview several of them. Steve has also been a guest on several The FAN and ESPN Sports Talk Radio affiliates around the country. So Steve is the perfect candidate to get you ready for the NFLDraft! FANSPEAK.COM 3 FEATURED ARTICLES NFL DRAFT STRATEGY This is the time of year where you hear a lot about how teams should either draft for need or draft the “best player available” (BPA), as they approach the draft. On paper both strategies make some amount of sense, but do they make sense in general? A drafting for need approach ostensibly should fill the 2 or 3 biggest needs of the team with early round picks who can hopefully come in and contribute year one filling those major holes on the team. The problem with that approach is two-fold. First, you are presumably ignoring better talents at possibly even more important positions. Secondly, this approach assumes that the team is accurately understanding both their short and long term needs. A lot of times teams focus too much on the short term needs and ignore the bigger picture. With drafting the best player available approach, the benefit is you are bringing in as much high-end talent as possible (at least on paper). The problem is it can still lead to glaring needs on your team, as well as the potential for a logjam of talent at a particular position. The other major issue this approach faces is it is completely dependent on having an infallible draft board. The reality is even the best talent evaluators in the league will miss on a number of picks, so to rely entirely on your board you open yourself up to major mistakes of not only failing to address a positional need, but completely missing on a player. FANSPEAK.COM 5 Now most teams employ some sort of hybrid approach of balancing need vs. best player available and in general that can be a good temporary fix. They may group players together and when their pick comes up take the highest rated player from that group at one of their top needs. This is good because it allows for fluidity in the approach to the draft and doesn’t pigeonhole a team into a particular category. The question remains, is this hybrid approach a good enough solution, or can teams do a better job of executing the draft? I think there is a better way to approach the draft and teams can help mitigate the risks that come with the draft by following a few general concepts: Understanding how each player would be used on that team On the surface this almost sounds like drafting for “need”, but really it is more about ensuring that you have a plan for each selection and you know how they will fit into your team. Drafting a guy who doesn’t fit your scheme particularly well, or who will have trouble seeing the field due to it being a crowded position is going to negate the value of the player. With every draft selection (but in particular early round picks) you should have a general understanding of their short and long term role on your team. Properly weighing the importance of each position in your evaluations and the depth of that position in the draft While it’s generally acknowledged that quarterbacks are the most important position on a football team, after that there isn’t a real consensus on the value hierarchy of the rest of the positions on an NFL team. Now it should be noted that each team should value positions differently depending on what system they run and what they are looking for in players. A team that throws the ball 650 times a year will value receivers, receiving tight ends, and offensive linemen who excel at pass blocking more, than a team that throws the ball more like 500 times and is more run centric. The important thing is that you come up with a proper valuation of each position with how they work in your system and you prioritize locking up the more valuable positions. The other component is understanding the depth of a particular draft and knowing when FANSPEAK.COM 6 you can get a similarly valued player a round or two later at a particular position. This doesn’t mean you reach on a position just because it is more scarce, but if you have two players ranked similarly at positions of roughly the same value, but one is at a position that has little depth in the draft, then that should be the top target. Don’t ignore the importance of mid-to-late round selections One of the biggest factors that separate a team that is good at drafting to a team that is great at drafting is their ability to find talent and value in the 4th-7th rounds of the draft. If you have a good scouting department, you will probably hit and reach value on the majority of your 1st-3rd round picks. The key is to extend that further throughout the draft. Now this isn’t just talking about finding the next Tom Brady or Antonio Brown in the sixth round of the draft, this is just simply about finding guys who can return value for those selections. It may be just finding a key special teamer or solid back-up type of player with these selections. If you are consistently turning that into starting production that is great, but the key is you are getting something out of that pick. Too often teams churn through these late round picks and go a number of years with a limited return from these selections. While you aren’t going to hit on these picks at a high level, the sheer number of them over the long term should be bringing back a positive net value.