With the first overall pick in their possession last month, the Jacksonville Jaguars knew they had to knock the 2021 NFL Draft out of the park, and though they won’t know how they fared until later, it appears they were happy with the results. Of course, with the first overall pick, they took Trevor Lawrence, who many have deemed a generational prospect, but it appears they at least viewed one player on the same level (or close) as the Clemson star.
In their monthly video series called “The Hunt,” the Jags let fans get a preview of how the war room process went down. As each selection was made, a member of the front office placed that prospect’s name on the Jags’ board. This is important because those who were paying close attention noticed that the grades of certain prospects were visible. That included the grade of Alabama receiver Jaylen Waddle, who interestingly enough, had a similar grade as Lawrence (8.0), though it appears the Jags might have been mindful of his injury history (explaining the red highlight).
Looking at this Jags documentary, they had a higher grade on AVT over Wilson and Waddle+Phillips were extremely highly ranked pic.twitter.com/6RKKJKqCwq
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) May 20, 2021
Here are the grades the #Jaguars had for the #Dolphins first 4 picks.
Waddle – 8 (perfect prospect)
Philips – 7.5 (perennial all pro)
Holland – 6.8 (Year 1 quality starter)
Eichenberg – 6.8 (Yr 1 quality starter)Also added the grading scale and what those grades mean. pic.twitter.com/7AF24r4aCB
— D (@DiegoVill) May 21, 2021
Of course, the dynamic receiver ended up going to the Miami Dolphins with the No. six overall pick. With that being the case, he’ll get to play against the Jags as they take on the Dolphins in London, which could put him against Jags second-round pick Tyson Campbell (6.9 grade) and the Jags’ secondary.
Some of the other grades that could be seen were as follows:
Selected leaked player draft grades from the #Jaguars docuseries.
T Lawrence 8.0 #Jaguars
J Waddle 8.0 #Dolphins
A Vera Tucker 7.5 #Jets
J Phillips 7.5 #Dolphins
Z Wilson 7.0 #Jets
E Moore 6.9 #Jets
T Campbell 6.9 #Jaguars
W Little 6.8 #Jaguars
A Cisco 6.9 #Jaguars— Ankit Vohra (@vohra_a) May 21, 2021
Although the draft process is over, it’s certainly interesting to see how the Jags viewed some of the prospects. And while it’s unknown if the grading scale above perfectly matches the Jags’ scale, it may be at least close.