JIM LANG’S 10 NFL POST-DRAFT THINGS

The 2021 NFL Draft is over. Thank you, Cleveland, and thank you Roger Goodell’s chair. The crowds and the trades and the surprise picks were great, Roger’s chair from his basement, not so much.

Whatever, it was all worth it as the countdown to the start of the next regular season is now underway.

With that in mind, here are 10 Things on my mind from the draft.

1 – The best of the best

The new era of the Jacksonville Jaguars is now underway after their selection of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence with the first pick overall. When Lawrence was in Grade 11, he threw 51 touchdowns. As a Freshman at Clemson, Lawrence passed for 347 yards and three touchdowns as Clemson crushed Alabama in the National Championship game. This kid has been a great athlete and a great quarterback for years. As long as he is surrounded with the right talent, Lawrence is the kind of quarterback to lead your franchise for years to come. Now the real work begins for Urban Meyer, Lawrence and the rest of the Jaguars.

2 – New York, New York

Zach Wilson, welcome to New York. New Jersey to be exact, since the Jets practice facility is in New Jersey and their home field, MetLife Stadium, is also in New Jersey. Anyway, BYU quarterback Zach Wilson is a special talent. However, the New York/New Jersey media has a unique ability of picking apart special talents and reducing them to ash. Wilson will need to take a page from the Eli Manning school of dealing with the New York Media to survive his first years in New York. If Wilson plays hard, makes plays and has a thick skin when it comes to dealing with the media and the fans, then he will be fine. To help Wilson, the Jets wisely selected USC Guard Alijah Vera-Tucker with their second pick of the first round. Then they took a receiver in the second round. At least the Jets are trying to surround Wilson with the talent he needs to succeed and survive in New York.

3 – Liar, Liar

I told you that teams spread misinformation leading up to the draft. Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers tried to make everyone think that they had five quarterbacks they were thinking about drafting in the first round. Afterwards, we found out that they had decided on Trey Lance a long time ago! Even though Shanahan knew, he even kept it a secret from members of his own organization! Shanahan also said that Jimmy Garoppolo is his starter and Lance will be a very good back-up. Technically, he is correct. But we should wait and see what Lance does at training camp and in the pre-season before believing him. If Lance has a good camp and performs well in the pre-season, how long will he sit on the bench if Garoppolo struggles early in the season? NFL teams have a habit of telling everyone they are going to groom their rookie quarterback, then suddenly half-way through the season, they name them the starter. But as far as keeping a giant secret for weeks leading up to the draft, Shanahan gets an A+.

4 – Oh, Atlanta

Yes, Florida Tight End Kyle Pitts is a high-end talent, and he will be an exceptionally good offensive player in the NFL. However, the Falcons have one of the worst defences in the NFL and they were dead last defending the pass last year. I don’t understand why they did not trade down, and select one of the two stud cornerbacks that were available? But that’s Atlanta for you. The Falcons did pick a safety in the second round, then went for an offensive lineman in the third round. Compare that to the Dallas Cowboys, who spent their first six picks on defensive players. The Cowboys needed to rebuild their defence and they went into the draft with a serious game plan to get it done. The Falcons saw Pitts on the board and just couldn’t help themselves.

5 – The Bengals or the Bungles?

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked 32 times in 10 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury. So of course, the Bengals drafted a receiver in the first round. Now Ja’Marr Chase is a darn good receiver. However, he isn’t being paid for pass protection. Two picks later the Lions drafted OL Penei Sewell, a mammoth, road grader of a human being. (By the way, after drafting Sewell, the Lions drafted two giant defensive linemen in the second and the third round.) The Bengals made up for it by drafting an offensive lineman in the second round. Then they surprised everyone by drafting a kicker in the fifth round. Evan McPherson was the only kicker taken in the draft this year. Chase is a great player; I just hope that Burrow can stay healthy enough for the pair to work some magic together.  

6 – Sweet Home Chicago

The Bears did something their fans haven’t seen a lot of lately; they made some smart moves in the first round of the draft. They traded up and selected quarterback Justin Fields from Ohio State. This is a great pick, the steal of the first round as far as I am concerned. Then the Bears drafted highly rated Offensive lineman Teven Jenkins from Oklahoma State in the second round. By the end of the weekend, the Bears had completed an excellent draft and they will be an interesting team to watch this year. The love affair between the City of Chicago and Fields has already begun. After Trevor Lawrence, Fields’ Number 1 Bears jersey was the second most sold jersey after draft night.

7 – Bill Belichick is a Warlock

The Patriots needed a quarterback that they can groom and develop to lead their franchise for years to come. Not many thought a quarterback of Mac Jones’ pedigree would still be sitting there when the Patriots made their selection with the 15^th pick. But somehow these things always seem to work out for Belichick and the Patriots, and Jones is headed to New England. A former defensive coordinator, Belichick drafted defensive linemen in the second and third rounds. Alabama coach Nick Saban and Belichick are close friends and share a lot of the same coaching philosophies. I doubt any coach had better intel on Jones going into the draft than Belichick. 

8 – Beware of the Dolphins

Coming off a 10-6 season, the emerging Dolphins loaded up at the draft with some impressive talent. Tua now has Alabama receiver Jaylen Waddle to work with and the addition of Miami defensive end Jaelan Phillips on the other side of the ball is a great move by the Dolphins. Loaded with draft picks, the Dolphins then grabbed a Safety (B.C.’s Jevon Holland), an Offensive lineman and a Tight End in the second and third round. General Manager Chris Grier should be proud of himself, he put together if not the best, then one of the top drafts of 2021. Watch out for the battles between the Dolphins and the Bills this year, they should be intense!

9 – That is my son!

I know I have been around the sports world a few years. That being said, it was wild to see the sons of so many former NFL players get drafted this year. From Jaycee Horn (Joe’s son) to Patrick Surtain II to Asante Samuel Jr, there will be a crop of rookies entering the NFL with some impressive pedigree behind their name. Listening to Surtain II speak to reporters Thursday evening, he already looked and sounded like a seasoned pro. On day two, Asante Samuel Jr was selected by the Chargers. I covered his dad at Eagles training camp back in August of 2010. This is a wild stat, Asante Samuel and Asante Samuel Jr are both listed as five feet 10 inches tall and they both weigh 185 pounds. Talk about a chip off the old block!

10 – Oh Canada

Once upon a time, it was a big deal for a Canadian born player to be drafted in the NFL. Not anymore. There is so much top quality talent coming out of Canadian High Schools now, that Canadians moving on to the NCAA to excelling at the U Sports level is commonplace. There were a number of Canadians taken this weekend including Edmonton’s Chuba Hubbard. After a solid career at Oklahoma State, the Carolina Panthers selected Hubbard in the fourth round. He will come into training camp as the number two running back behind Christian McCaffery. While McCaffery is as star, he only played three games last year. Even if McCaffery stays healthy, Hubbard will still get a lot of work as a rookie.

Interesting note: Only 18 running backs were taken in this year’s draft, nine of them were selected in the 6^th and 7^th round. That just shows you how much the NFL has changed over the years and outside of quarterbacks, how the focus in the upper rounds is more on receivers and tight ends.

Now that the draft is done for another year teams will get busy negotiating contracts with the respective players.

After that, teams will start to integrate their rookies and their new players with a series of OTA’s and mini camps.

By the end of July, players will start arriving for training camp.

(Jim Lang is Canada’s Foremost Expert on the NFL. Follow him on Twitter at @JimLangSports)