With the Detroit Lions earning their first win of the 2021 season on Sunday, the 2-10 Jacksonville Jaguars — currently projected to pick second overall in the 2022 NFL draft — are one step closer to securing the first overall pick for the second straight season.
If they do manage to become the first team to have the top pick in back-to-back drafts, they’ll have the opportunity to draft Kayvon Thibodeaux, an elite edge rushing prospect from Oregon. Thibodeaux, a junior, made things official on Monday when he announced that he will be declaring for the draft and skipping the Alamo Bowl matchup against Oklahoma in what will be a battle between interim coaches.
“Thank you for embracing a kid from South Central, Los Angeles and giving me the opportunity to transition into a man ready to take on the world,” Thibodeaux wrote in an Instagram post.
The former No. 1 recruit in the 2019 class, Thibodeaux was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019 and earned first team all-conference honors last year. He was limited by an ankle injury in 2021, but he still appeared in 10 games, earning seven sacks and 49 tackles while being named a finalist for the Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy.
He finishes his career with the Ducks with 136 total tackles (35.5 for loss) and 19 sacks. He’s considered one of two elite edge-rushing prospects in the draft, alongside Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson, who is a Heisman finalist. Considering they are both projected to go in the top two picks, Jacksonville has a pretty good chance of landing one of them.