The Buccaneers’ dominant Super Bowl victory on Sunday concluded the 2020 NFL season and swung the door open for what promises to be an eventful and unusually low season – including, of course, the 2021 NFL draft. The Tampa Bay defense showed what smart drafting can do for a team, with recent early picks Devin White and Antoine Winfield Jr. each bringing in an interception. Which team will make smart moves in this year’s design to take the next step? Let’s predict how all 32 selections from the first round will go on April 29.
Despite the lack of a traditional combine this year, there is still plenty of time for movement on draft boards. Interviews, medications, professional day workouts and more digging into the game tape are just around the corner. Likewise, a lot has changed in just a month since my last mock after an exciting College Football Playoff national title game and the annual Senior Bowl week. We are still more than two months off and have a lot to learn about this talented class – including how the quarterbacks and playmakers are doing.
But with the draft assignment locked after Game No. 269 of the season and plenty of talent in this year’s class to rave about, here’s my post-Super Bowl projection of the opening 32 picks of the 2021 NFL draft, starting with a no-brainer at No. 1. And surprise – we have two fake transactions in this edition.
See more: Rankings
Jump to a trade: No. 3 | No. 12
Note: For more information, check out our SportsCenter Special on Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. ET (ESPN2) where I’ll be discussing each team’s picks.
Trevor Lawrence QB Clemson
Another fake design, another Lawrence-to-Jacksonville projection. You won’t see anything else, and for good reason. The six-foot quarterback with big arms has all the qualities you want in a franchiseman, and he would be the centerpiece of what new coach Urban Meyer hopes to build. Only Washington has a lower overall QBR than the Jaguars’ 41.6 for the past three seasons, but Lawrence has finished in the top 10 of all FBS quarterbacks in that category in every season of his college career. He will pitch to scouts on Friday prior to surgery on his non-throwing shoulder this spring, but consider him a slot for the best pick at this point.