I love the draft.
I find it so fun to analyze and try to figure out how things will play out. It gives me a much better understanding of how NFL teams are built. It’s fascinating.
Every year, I go through an exercise where when the Packers pick comes up, I jot down who I would pick in their place. You can see the results here: Packers vs PFTW 2020.
This is a high standard and is difficult. For example, I took Benito Jones (my biggest draft crush) in the 5th round and he ended up going undrafted. Likewise, who knows how long Josiah Deguara would have fell if the Packers hadn’t taken him in the 3rd round?
With all this hindsight, I thought it would be fun to go back and say “Oh, if I knew that was going to happen, here’s who I would have taken.”
So I did.
You can get my analysis on these guys at Draft Central and in the Mock Draft Archive, where I give a profile of every player I select, so I won’t repeat it here, I’ll just give a quick rundown of his things would have looked if I knew what was going to happen.
A final note is that this assessment, with full hindsight, is about accumulating the best group of players, not necessarily drafting who I value the most. For example, there are a number of UDFA candidates that I like a lot more than the guys I picked in the 6th and 7th, but I instead chose to sign them as UDFAs rather than use a draft pick.
This meant that since I got cornerbacks Madre Harper, Lamar Jackson, and Essang Bassey without using a draft pick, I didn’t bother taking a cornerback through the seven round draft. This also meant I basically had to work my way backwards to see who would have been available and try to build the best menu of options off of that.
It’s a trickier exercise than it seems like!
In general, I felt offensive playmakers were over-drafted this year, despite their abundance, so I used this as a chance to build an absolutely punishing defense, particularly giving Kenny Clark a beast on either side and adding a fast thumping linebacker behind them.
My 2020 Draft With The Benefit Of Total Hindsight:
- Round 1: Raekwon Davis, DL
- Round 2: Neville Gallimore, DL
- Round 3: Malik Harrison, ILB
- Round 4: Tyler Biadasz, C
- Round 5: Donovan Peoples-Jones, WR
- Round 6a: Jon Runyan, OG
- Round 6b: Prince Tego Wanagho, OT
- Round 6c: Freddie Swain, WR
- Round 7a: TJ Brunson, ILB
- Round 7b: Tyrie Cleveland, WR
Undrafted Free Agents: Benito Jones (DL), Madre Harper (CB), Thaddeus Moss (TE), Quartney Davis (WR), Kalija Lipscomb (WR), Alex Taylor (OT), Zach Shackelford (G/C), Raequan Williams (DL), Joe Bachie (ILB), Lamar Jackson (CB), Essang Bassey (CB), JR Reed (S), Javon Leake (RB), Darius Anderson (RB)
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These exercises are a great way to understand the draft better. When you go back in a year or two and look again, you get an entirely better understanding of how difficult, complex, and fun the NFL Draft is.
If you’re looking for another super fun way to appreciate and understand the draft even more, we’ve got you covered!
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Don’t just watch the draft – understand it and learn why GMs make the moves they do.
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Check out Packers Draft Central 2020 for all our 2020 NFL Draft coverage!
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