With the scarcity of talent compared to teams in need, clubs almost always reach for quarterbacks during the NFL Draft. That figures to continue to be the case this year, with yet another QB in the running for the first-overall pick. Still, there are certainly other positions and players that teams reach for depending on that year’s draft class. Beyond the signal callers, we’ve asked our writers for prospects that are most likely to be over-drafted in the 2019 NFL Draft.
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Which non-QB prospect is most likely to be over-drafted?
Christian Wilkins (DL – Clemson)
“He’s not a terrible prospect, but I don’t see the ceiling that some do. There are some players who make everyone around them better, while there are others who look better because of those around them. Wilkins is that latter to me. Clelin Ferrell is phenomenal on the edge, Dexter Lawrence sure took up a lot of space, and Tre Lamar was solid in his own right. I believe there are five defensive tackles who are better than Wilkins, though he’ll be drafted before a few of them.”
– Mike Tagliere (@MikeTagliereNFL)
D.K. Metcalf (WR – Ole Miss)
“NFL fans fall in love with NFL Combine warriors that make us dream of adding an unstoppable talent to our favorite football team. NFL Front Offices are no different. It is easy to be mesmerized by a 6’3″, 228-pound receiver that can run the 40-yard dash in 4.33 seconds, post a 40.5″ vertical jump, a 134” broad jump, and bench 225 pounds 27 times. This receiver is about the same size as Atlanta Falcons WR Julio Jones, but Metcalf is faster, stronger and jumps higher than him based on their NFL Combine performances. One has to wonder why a receiver with that much height, size, and physical ability had only 67 receptions for 1,228 yards and 14 touchdowns in 21 games. It is amazing that he had only four 100-yard games and only two games with multiple touchdowns. I am not saying that he could not develop into a solid NFL wide receiver, but I worry about a player coming off a neck injury whose NFL Combine Performance is making people forget that he runs poor routes. He is probably going to go in the top 15 in the NFL Draft, but he will probably need a couple of years of development to be a solid NFL wide receiver. That is hard for a top 15 pick. People will expect instant results in 2019, and I think NFL teams will be very disappointed when his route running and production do not match his insane physical gifts.”
– Derek Lofland (@DerekLofland)
Hakeem Butler (WR – Iowa State)
“Butler is rising up a lot of draft boards pretty quickly, and for lots of good reasons. He had a strong final year at Iowa State, has size and athleticism that NFL GMs and Fantasy Football GMs alike should appreciate, and is getting buzz about being highly drafted. All of those indicators point toward success in the NFL. However, the Hakeem Butler fan club likes to ignore the fact that 2017 happened, where Butler was overshadowed by one of my favorite undrafted free agents last year, Allen Lazard. If you haven’t heard of Lazard, you’re not alone. No one outside of degenerate dynasty leaguers and a few NFL practice squads took any interest. Lazard initially landed with the Jaguars (one of the thinnest WR depth charts in the league at the time) and never surfaced. He’s already since moved to a new team, and will almost certainly never make a splash at the NFL level. Hakeem Butler, though he was younger at the time, still could not overtake Lazard as the WR1 in the Iowa State passing attack, and that is a major red flag. As nothing more than a late-blooming, developmental wide receiver, Butler is very likely to be over-drafted.”
– Mark Leipold (@LeipoldNFL)
Jawaan Taylor (OL – Florida)
“I simply do not get the hype around Jawaan Taylor. He tested well and may be one of the best athletes of the offensive line prospects, but his tape leaves one wanting. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Jawaan was not even the most talented draft-eligible tackle on his own team. He may present the best combination of upside and floor, but it was left tackle Martez Ivey and not Taylor who received All-SEC honors this past season. Right tackle has become increasingly important in recent years so it is not far fetched that someone from the right side goes before someone from the left. With that said, Taylor’s best position in the pros and one he may play to start his career is right guard. Taylor is definitely a first-round prospect, but considering him a top-12 type of talent seems like a reach for a player who struggled when matched up against the NFL-level talents he faced this season.”
– Raju Byfield (@FantasyContext)
Riley Ridley (WR – Georgia)
“Earlier this offseason, I studied wide receivers whose athleticism grades out well ahead of their relative college dominance (e.g., percentage of team receiving yards and touchdowns). Even wide receivers with high-end athleticism marks almost never become dominant or even reliable NFL producers unless they also showed some dominance (or at least competence) at the college level — with the glaring exception being Tyreek Hill. Ridley wasn’t actually athletic, though, but relative to other incoming rookies, his athleticism compared to the class still outpaced his college dominance relative to the class. In other words, he was essentially a non-factor in college, all while not being athletic. However, the film grinders love all of the aspects of his game that can’t be quantified, he went to an SEC school, and he’s Calvin Ridley’s brother (who thanks to only a few good games, turned in a solid cumulative rookie season stat line), so he’s bound to be over-drafted (meaning drafted at all).”
– Mark Leipold (@LeipoldNFL)
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