When I wrote the traditional “What every team needs before free agency starts” article that Touchdown Wire published on March 11, it really stood out just how many NFL teams are in desperate need of top-level cornerbacks. Or second-level cornerbacks who might develop into top-level cornerbacks over time. The more I reviewed cornerback play at the NFL level both in-season and in the lead-up to free agency and the draft, the more I realized the severity of the shortage at that position.
I tend to think NFL teams are thinking about this as well, and it could upend what we think about the 2020 draft.
In this case, the run on cornerbacks (which, given overall team needs and the structure of the modern passing game, I absolutely believe could happen) creates a domino effect in which some very talented players (LSU safety Grant Delpit, LSU receiver Justin Jefferson, and Iowa edge-rusher A.J. Epenesa among them) miss the first round, and quarterbacks with physical potential but volatile results (Oregon’s Justin Herbert, Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts) could find themselves outside the top 32 picks as well.
I should put a side note here that Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa are the only quarterbacks in this draft class I think are worthy of first-round grades, so that affects my mock with one exception — the team that now has to replace the greatest quarterback ever. And that’s more in the abstract than anything else.
Having the Colts move out of the first round after trading for 49ers defensive lineman DeForest Bucker also adds to a new quarterback picture, as the Colts seemed likely to pick a quarterback with the 13th overall selection. With Philip Rivers around in the short term, that probably has changed.
With all that said, here’s one way the draft could shake out in the post-free agency landscape: