Touchdown Wire’s pre-combine mock draft: Chase Young, Jerry Jeudy are pivot points

Everybody does mock drafts, most everybody does more than one, and every mock draft is done for different reasons. To get clicks? Well, duh. That would be reason No. 1, dear reader. Let’s not be arch about this. That aside, what we’re trying to do …

14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9): Javon Kinlaw, DT, South Carolina

(AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

Last season, no defense improved more against the run than Tampa Bay’s. Under coordinator Todd Bowles, the Bucs went from 31st to first in Football Outsiders’ run defense metrics. However, there are all kinds of potential departures along the defensive line, with Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul, Carl Nassib and Beau Allen among the team’s upcoming free agents. Kinlaw, who really came on during Senior Bowl week, has the frame (6-foot-5, 315 pounds), the intensity and the penetrative ability to create tackles for loss against both the run and the pass. When he receives coaching at the next level to refine his hand use and pad level, he’ll be an illegal force on whatever team is lucky enough to have him. Kinlaw is the kind of player who could be very good but under the radar in his first NFL season — and a perennial All-Pro from then on.

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