Brandon Jackson

Tomorrow’s finally the day.

Months of reading scouting reports. Hundreds of mock drafts have been read. An unhealthy amount of speculation about trades and picks. And tomorrow all the guesswork and speculation comes to an end. It’s finally time to make some picks.

The NFL draft is usually more of a highlight for some fan bases more than the actual season. (Browns fans, Jaguar Fans, Texans fans, Bills fans, etc.) But this year, the stories going into the draft aren’t really about the teams specifically, but how teams are generally going to react to one another.

There are major questions that will be answered over the next 3 nights of the draft that center around players already in the league, like Richard Sherman, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kirk Cousins, and Malcolm Butler. But as far as the prospects go, the main questions are:

• Are teams willing to sacrifice everything to take a chance on a B-plus at best quarterback?

• Can you really justify taking a safety in the top ten? Or even the top five?

• Does the NFL really want to make a stand against violence against women, or does talent trump all?

• How will the Browns mess this draft up?

I think we have time for just a little bit more speculation.

Are teams willing to sacrifice everything to take a chance on a B-plus at best quarterback?

In a word, yes. Of course they are. We all know the rhetoric. “Quarterback is the most important position,” and “You can’t win in this league without a quarterback.” Both statements are 100% true. But what is also true, is that if you pick a bad quarterback in the first round, not only do you still not have a quarterback, but you missed out on filling another need with a good player.

I’ve already discussed how I feel about these QB’s.  They can be good, but there needs to be a lot in place for all of them to be able to succeed. None of them should be 1st-round picks, but maybe up to 5 of them will be. And that just shows how desperate these teams are and will continue to be to find a quarterback.

Can you really justify taking a safety in the top ten? Or even the top five?

In 2017 you can. With prospects like Jamal Adams and Malik Hooker, you absolutely can. And in my opinion, you absolutely should. I have seen mock drafts where Adams falls to #7 and Hooker is available at #11. That is unbelievable to me. If Hooker is available at even #10, 31 teams should be trying to trade up for him because that would be a steal.

The argument against these two is the fact the safety position hasn’t been valued high in the draft for many years. But safety has become one of the most important positions on the field now. Just ask Seattle about how they did when Earl Thomas wasn’t in the lineup.

If you are a team drafting the best player available, after Myles Garrett is off the board, one of these two should be heading to the stage to shake Roger Goodell’s hand.

Does the NFL really want to make a stand against violence against women, or does talent trump all?

This question will be answered pretty much by how early or how late Joe Mixon gets selected. This question can be its own story obviously. I am of the belief that Joe Mixon is the #1 Running back in the class, and he will still get taken in the first round. NFL teams can’t help themselves, and they don’t really care about domestic violence. They just want to look like they care about domestic violence.

How will the Browns mess this draft up?

Honest to God, the only way they can mess up is if they don’t take Myles Garrett first overall. It doesn’t matter what happens with the other 96 picks they have in the rest of the draft because we won’t know how that turns out until the season starts. If they take a quarterback at #12, so be it. But if there is any name other than Myles Garrett called when the Browns are on the clock, it is a failure.

Even if Warren Sapp turns out to be right and Garrett is a bust, he is still the right pick. Picking Garrett will show that the team is interested in building this team the right way, instead of hoping for a miracle at quarterback that isn’t there.

Even though the draft is tomorrow, and the guesswork will be over on Saturday, the NFL never stops and we will continue to speculate about the picks that were made until August.