Monday, April 17, 2017

All-Draft Prospect Team

This qualifies as one of those "the draft just needs to get here" exercises. A team made up of the best players that will be spread across the league in just over a week.

Offense

WR Corey Davis
WR John Ross
T Garrett Bolles
G Forrest Lamp
C Pat Elflein
G Dion Dawkins
T Ryan Ramczyk
TE O.J. Howard
WR Mike Williams
QB DeShaun Watson
RB Leonard Fournette

Defense

DE Myles Garrett
DT Solomon Thomas
DT Jonathan Allen
DE Derek Barnett
LB Haason Reddick
LB Rueben Foster
LB Jarrad Davis
CB Marshon Lattimore
CB Gareon Conley
S Jamal Adams
S Malik Hooker

The 2017 draft class is impressive. However, each draft exercise, such as this All-Draft Prospect Team, further reveals a weakness at offensive line and defensive tackle. Solomon Thomas and Jonathan Allen are two of the best players in the draft. Their versatility is one of their strengths. Each has the ability to move inside or outside to take advantage of situational matchups. That is an asset. One that has them penciled in as top-10 picks. Pigeon-holing them as defensive tackles, as they are here, would be a mistake. There is talent at the offensive line and defensive tackle positions but not much in the way of "top of the draft" talent. The sort of talent that has people drooling now but sometimes disappoints later. Pre-draft attention doesn't guarantee NFL success. So much changes when the players get to the NFL and experience NFL coaching as well as NFL pressures. Unexpected players always emerge. Maybe 5-10 years from now the offensive linemen and defensive tackles turn out to be this draft's stars. 

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