Schefter Draft Predictions - 3/31

[Essex Johnson]

(03-31-2021, 11:19 AM)shanebo Wrote: ESPN's Adam Schefter was on local Philly radio this morning talking about the draft, and he predicted that, based on what he's hearing right now, QBs will go 1-4 in the draft.  Which would leave us with our choice of the top non-QBs (presumably Sewell/Chase/Pitts) if we stay at 5.  AKA the "catbird seat."

BUT he also said there's a chance that the Bengals trade back and that QBs will go 1-5 ...  Didn't give any specific support for this, but said that either the Panthers or Broncos were looking to get ahead of the Lions for the 5th QB (Mac Jones) and the Dolphins are done trading until draft day.  As an aside, he praised the Dolphins' trade from 3 to 12 and back to 6 as "genius" because he said they had three non-QBs rated equally (presumably Pitts, Chase, and Smith?) and at least one will still be available at 6, plus they picked up an extra 1 and 3.

As of now, the Falcons are the wild card.  He said they really like one QB and will take him if he's available (didn't say who), but if not they will take Sewell.  

Obviously one man's opinion one month before the draft, but I found it an interesting take from someone who's pretty dialed in.

It seems our best case scenario would be if the Falcons take a QB.  Then we would have the option to take our top guy at 5 OR possibly trade with Panthers/Broncos.  Preferably with the Panthers at 8, as we'd be pretty much guaranteed to get one of our top three guys a la Miami (e.g., assuming our top 3 is Sewell/Pitts/Chase -- QBs go 1-5, Miami takes Pitts, Detroit takes Sewell, leaving us with Chase).  Could also do Broncos at 9, but we'd have to be comfortable with the possibility of Slater/Smith/Parsons (or someone else).  If the Falcons go Sewell at 4, however, our pick becomes less valuable as the Panthers could afford to wait and see if the fifth QB drops to them.

Best case to trade back is if Falcons don;t take a QB... leaving Carolina worried about that #4 QB they might want for someone else to jump in.. I don;t see many teams jumping up for the #5 ranked QB in top 5 picks.. I don;t see Falcons taking a QB to be honest, they actually might be the team to trade back and add more to their roster...