NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah is one of the most popular and influential guys in the business. On Thursday, Jeremiah held a conference call with the media to field questions and provide insight on next week’s NFL draft.
With one week to go until the first round kicks off in Kansas City, Jeremiah weighed in on several topics in the wide-ranging call. Here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the questions and answers.
Cardinals trading out of No. 3 makes too much sense
It’s been a popular speculation that the Arizona Cardinals are looking to trade out of the No. 3 overall spot and acquire more picks. That’s something Jeremiah would definitely support.
I would think it’s a no-brainer that they would to do it,” Jeremiah said. “The question is whether there’s a market for it. It’s got to be a two-way street. I
think they would love to get out. I don’t want to be overly harsh, but in my
opinion I think they have the worst roster in the league right now.”
Alabama players could go 1-2
Jeremiah was asked about the potential of having two players from Alabama, QB Bryce Young and EDGE Will Anderson, being the first two players to be selected.
“I think it’s a legit possibility more this week than last week,” said Jeremiah. He also added how he thinks it could play out that way,
“The thing with C.J. Stroud and the Texans, I didn’t buy it early on with them
not taking him. I thought, okay, I think Bryce will go 1. I think Stroud will end up going at two. It just makes a lot of sense. I think those were clearly the top two quarterbacks in my opinion. The Texans had the need.
Then all of a sudden the whispers started. My buddy Lance Zierlein is there in Houston, he is plugged in, and he was one of the first, if not the first, to say, ‘hold up, they might go defense here’. They might not go quarterback.
Then, those were kind of the whispers, and now I think that whisper has kind
of turned into a roar.
There’s a lot of people around the league that believe that that’s the case and that they aren’t going to take a quarterback.
Then it comes down to Will Anderson versus Tyree Wilson being the choice. I like Will Anderson over Tyree. I think they’re both good players, but if they
were to go defense there, I think at the end of the day that Will Anderson’s
body of work would be enough to get him over the hump in that scenario.
How he evaluates if a team had a good draft
Jeremiah was asked about how he would evaluate a draft class in time for a particular team. In this case, it was the New Orleans Saints, but he kept the answer general — and smart:
“I always look back at it and try and say, okay, a great draft to me — a good draft, like the goal should be to get three starters. If you can get three starters out of your draft, to me you feel pretty good about your haul. If you get four, it’s an unbelievable draft.”
The Ravens should add another QB as Lamar Jackson insurance
The Lamar Jackson saga in Baltimore was referenced a couple of times. In one instance, Jeremiah was asked about the idea of bringing in another quarterback to Baltimore, just in case.
He was adamant that such an idea would be very smart for the Ravens.
“I think it’s just good business and being smart to bring in another option,” Jeremiah said. “It’s just a matter of where you want to do it. I don’t think it makes as much sense to do it early. I don’t think you need to go — like, that’s almost — I don’t want to say a panic pick, but if you are taking a quarterback, or you’re trading up for a quarterback, you’re all but kicking Lamar Jackson out the door.”
Not much differentiation between the top offensive linemen
His offensive tackle big board is as tightly packed as a parachute. While Jeremiah favors Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski, it’s very close to how he view Tennessee’s Darnell Wright and then the next grouping.
“My order there would be Skoronski and then Wright, but I have in my final
ranking I have Paris Johnson, Darnell Wright, Broderick Jones,” Jeremiah revealed. “They’re literally 16, 17, 18 on my list.”
Read that as: it’s going to be up to team preference for player and schematic fit more than it’s about one guy being better than the others.
