2021 NFL Draft Big Board features Trevor Lawrence at No. 1, Alabama having the most prospects in the first round and three quarterbacks mocked in the first.
The 2020 NFL Draft is over so it’s time to talk about the 2021 NFL Draft. Finally, we can talk about Trevor Lawrence as an NFL Draft prospect and not prefacing everything with “when he’s eligible for the draft…” but the hype is real for the Clemson quarterback who has a chance to be the best prospect at the position ever.
That type of hyperbole isn’t just limited to Lawrence. Oregon offensive tackle Penei Sewell is a rising junior who is coming off a season that saw him become the first sophomore to win the Outland Trophy. He’ll likely make it back-to-back wins, joining former Nebraska center Dave Rimington as the only players do that since the award’s inception in 1946. He’s going to be compared to Hall of Famers just like Lawrence during the college season and pre-draft process.
After tying a record with 14 draft picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, LSU receiver Ja’Marr Chase should be the first Tigers player off the board next year as the top receiver in the class. After winning the Biletnikoff as a sophomore, Chase has a chance to be the rare receiver taken in the first three picks.
Alabama had nine players picked in the 2020 NFL Draft but if my 2021 NFL Draft Big Board is any indication, the Crimson Tide could contend for a record for first-round picks. I have seven Alabama football players in the top 27. Chances are they won’t have seven first-round picks, but as always, the talent is rich in Tuscaloosa.
2021 NFL Draft Big Board: Trevor Lawrence tops class
Players by position
- QB: 3
- RB: 2
- WR: 6
- OT: 6
- OG/C: 2
- TE: 1
- DE/Edge: 2
- DT: 3
- LB: 2
- CB: 3
- S: 2
Most players by conference
- SEC: 11
- Big Ten: 8
- ACC: 5
- Big 12: 3
- Pac-12: 3
- Notre Dame: 1
- FCS: 1 (North Dakota State)
Most players by school
- Alabama: 7
- Clemson: 3
- Ohio State: 3
- LSU: 2
- Penn State: 2
- Texas: 2
- Stanford: 2
- Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Purdue, Tennessee (10)
Lawrence would have been the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft over Kyler Murray and potentially ahead of Joe Burrow in the 2020 Draft if the Clemson star was eligible. He’ll be eligible for the 2021 NFL Draft and will be the No. 1 pick barring catastrophic injury. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Lawrence is the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck and perhaps ahead of the likes of Peyton Manning and John Elway when he’s announced as the top pick next spring.
Lawrence’s college production speaks for itself. After breaking the freshman record with 30 touchdown passes and leading Clemson to the national championship, he had a sophomore slump in the first half of 20219. He quickly broke out of that and looked just like the wunderkind that torched secondaries in 2018.
The lack of a full offseason plan, including spring practice and what could be a truncated training camp and potentially an altered regular season, isn’t ideal for a developing prospect, but it’s not like Lawrence is sitting on the couch watching Netflix either. After losing for the first time since high school in the title game to Burrow and LSU last season, expect Lawrence to be laser-focused and get Clemson back to the title game and for him to be one of the leading Heisman contenders, if not the outright favorite.
Lawrence combines prototypical size with a strong and accurate arm and improved athleticism and mobility. He is the most talented but also very tough, smart and works as hard as anyone.
He is the total package and absolutely worth tanking for in order to get the top pick.
The 2020 NFL Draft class at offensive tackle was pretty strong with five picked in the top 18 picks and six in the first round. None was as good as Sewell. The rising junior would have been a top-five pick this year if eligible. Thankfully, for Ducks fans, they get him for one more year before he’ll be a top pick.
The 6-foot-5-335-pound Sewell is a dominating run blocker and a dominating pass blocker. He moves like a tight end but is built like a vending machine. He’s a mauler with incredible strength but the quick feet to handle speedy edge rushers and advance to the second level and take on linebackers and players charging downhill from the secondary.
Sewell’s best game last year came vs. Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game when he helped pace the way for 239 yards and 5.8 yards per carry against one of the top defenses in the nation. That defense just had three defensive linemen drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft. Sewell was undaunted. It was just another game.
He comes from a football family where his dad was a high school coach in American Samoa before the family relocated to Utah, his two older brothers play(ed) at Utah State, and his youngest brother, Noah, is a five-star linebacker signee with Oregon.
Sewell might be the best offensive tackle prospect since Joe Thomas. He’s going to get Heisman votes this year. It’s early in the process still, but the same lofty expectations on Lawrence apply to Sewell who could carry a similar draft grade as Hall of Famers Walter Jones, Orlando Pace, Jonathan Ogden and Tony Boselli from the Golden Age of 90s tackles.
The 2020 wide receiver class was one of the best we’ve ever seen and that didn’t include Chase who would have been the best if he was eligible. The rising junior won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver when he was on the receiving end of Joe Burrow’s passes.
Chase finished with 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns. At 6-foot-1, 200-pounds, Chase already has NFL size. He’s yoked up and looks like he could catch 80 balls in the NFL right now if he didn’t have to catch passes for free one more year at LSU.
If he was two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier, Chase could make an argument to be the next Julio Jones and could be a candidate to be a top-3 pick. Wide receivers traditionally don’t get drafted that high, but Chase is the rare prospect who could crack that territory. Depending on what he runs the 40 in, he still may do that.
Chase may see a big drop in production after losing Burrow to the Cincinnati Bengals as well as every starting offensive lineman, Justin Jefferson — who led the nation in receiving and running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire and offensive coordinator Joe Brady to the Carolina Panthers. That said, I’m not going to be worried because his skills, past production and traits have him comfortably as the top receiver prospect in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The first year at Ohio State went exceedingly well for Justin Fields who was a Heisman finalist and led the Buckeyes to the Fiesta Bowl in the College Football Playoff. This year, Fields looks to finish what he started last year and get to the National Championship Game and add some more hardware to the Ohio State trophy room.
Fields showed a nice arm, great touch, exceptional decision-making and the ability to scramble and pick up yards with his feet when necessary. He’s a quarterback who can run, but he’s not a running quarterback. He can manipulate the pocket with his feet but is usually looking downfield with the intention of throwing if he can rather than run.
He battled through some nagging injuries late in the year due to taking some hits as a runner so I’m interested in seeing if he runs a little less as a third-year junior in 2020 or if he uses his feet to have a better rushing season. Last year was just scratching the surface of what he can do and what he was asked to do in Ryan Day’s offense.
Fields is safely behind Lawrence as the No. 2 quarterback prospect but there’s a big gap between him and Lawrence. Still, he should be a top-five pick when he comes out. He’s not the prospect that Tua Tagovailoa is (without the injury concerns) but he’s a much better prospect than Justin Herbert.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Justyn Ross has been one of the top two leading targets for Lawrence the last two years at Clemson. After splitting targets with Tee Higgins, the first pick in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Ross will get his biggest target share of his career.
With 112 receptions, 1,865 yards and 17 touchdowns in his first two years, look for the third-year junior to approach those numbers this season alone.
Ross has the prototypical size for a wide receiver. He’s taller and longer than Chase but he isn’t as thick and muscular as Chase. It’s just a different style of receiver. This could shape up as the best receiver debate since the A.J. Green-Julio Jones debate in the famed 2011 NFL Draft that saw the former Georgia and Alabama receivers go No. 4 and No. 6, respectively.
The time in the 40 will tell whether Ross is a top-five pick or if he’s more picked in the 10-15 range, but he enters his junior year with a resume befitting a potential Pro Bowler at the next level.
The only players in college football with more sacks than Gregory Rousseau’s 15.5 were Ohio State’s Chase Young who was the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Seven of his 15.5 sacks came against Pittsburgh and Florida State.
That’s the type of high-end projection that could fit for Rousseau if he backs up his 2019 season with another standout season in 2020.
Miami will once again be a trendy team in the preseason with the arrival of Houston transfer quarterback D’Eriq King so there could be a lot more eyeballs on the Canes this fall and winter. A big beneficiary of that attention will be Rousseau who can put himself in consideration to be a top-five pick with an All-American season and another double-digit sack season.
The 6-foot-6, 251-pound Rousseau is the type of long edge rusher that teams covet at the top of the draft. A former three-star recruit who was the No. 485 overall recruit in his class, per 247Sports Composite Rankings, he would be the latest example of unheralded recruits who blossom into top draft picks.
It’s an annual tradition now at the draft where the first cornerback off the board is from Ohio State. Expect that to continue in 2021 with Shaun Wade. The former five-star recruit was the No. 2 corner in his class to fellow Buckeye and No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Jeffrey Okudah.
Wade may not be drafted as high as his former teammate, but he should be the first corner off the board. The 6-foot-1, 194-pound Wade has great size, speed and length for the position. Plus, he’s coming from a program that may have taken the DBU moniker from LSU so he’s going to be well-coached and competitive just as all the previous Buckeye corners before him.
With 14 passes defended and four interceptions in his career, Wade may not get too many opportunities to add to that interception total because opposing quarterbacks may be afraid of throwing in his vicinity for fear of him taking it back the other way for a pick-six.
Micah Parsons is going to be the Isaiah Simmons of the 2021 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-3, 245-pounder is bigger and stronger than the former Clemson star who was the No. 8 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft of the Arizona Cardinals.
Parsons is a sideline-to-sideline tackler for Linebacker U and can rush the passer and live in the backfield. He can cover the deep half of the field and run with tight ends and some receivers on shallow crossers. He may not be the same type of coverage linebacker than Simmons projects to be, but he’s a similar type of chess piece for defensive coordinators and shouldn’t be limited to one position.
For now, I’ll refer to Parsons as a linebacker, but he could be a middle linebacker in an odd or even front, an outside linebacker in an even front or an all-around defensive weapon for the creative coach who is smart enough to move him all over the field to neutralize threats from running back, tight end, receiver or mobile quarterbacks.
He’s one of the biggest physical freaks in the nation and will blow up the combine next fall.
Parsons is coming off a Cotton Bowl performance vs. Memphis where he had 14 total tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, two forced fumbles and two passes defensed.
Walker Little was projected to be a top-15 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft entering last season but suffered a dislocated knee in the opener vs. Northwestern and subsequently missed the rest of the year. Initially, Little was projected to miss a month but after missing the entire year, Little elected to return to Stanford.
Little became the first freshman at left tackle to start since 1980 when he earned Freshman All-American honors. He backed that up with First-Team All-Pac-12 honors as a sophomore in 2018.
Provided Little returns to health and form he showed his first two years at Stanford, the 6-foot-7, 320-pound Houston native has all the makings of a top-10 pick. The medical will be the biggest determining factor for Little.
A former five-star recruit, Little was the No. 9 overall recruit in his class, one spot below Okudah and two spots below Young. That’s the type of potential Little has and if he’s fully recovered from his injury, there’s no denying his spot near the top of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Patrick Surtain II is the son of former Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain. The Alabama cornerback is a former five-star recruit who was the No. 1 cornerback in his class and No. 6 overall recruit behind Lawrence, Fields and Parsons who were 1,2 and 5, respectively.
The 6-foot-2, 202-pound corner has exceptional size and length for the position. Rarely will you see corners this tall, and when you do, they are picked very high in the NFL Draft.
Surtain, like Wade, may not have many opportunities to add to his three career interceptions as a junior at Alabama because teams aren’t going to challenge him. That won’t hurt his draft stock because the number of interceptions doesn’t tell the whole story about how well a corner covers and plays.
Surtain comes from a program that develops corners as well as any program this side of Ohio State and LSU so package that with his bloodlines and size and skills, this is a player who won’t likely fall out of the top 10 picks.
Jaylen Waddle will get his chance to be the No. 1 receiver at Alabama with Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III off to the NFL. Waddle has 78 career receptions for 1,408 yards and 13 touchdowns despite playing behind those top-15 picks. He brings extra value as a game-changing returner. Averaged 24.4 yards per punt return, including a 77-yard punt return vs. LSU, the second of his career. Waddle also returned a kick for a score vs. Auburn.
Trey Lance helped guide North Dakota State to another FCS National Championship last season as a redshirt freshman when he threw 28 touchdowns and not a single interception. The 6-foot-3, 221-pounder also completed 66.9 percent of his passes and ran for 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns on 6.5 yards per carry. He was the first freshman to win the Walter Payton Award, the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. He could be one of the more tantalizing prospects who keeps moving up boards as more and more see him dominate on the FCS level. He is the best quarterback prospect outside of Lawrence and Fields.
DeVonta Smith had moments last year when he outplayed Ruggs, Jeudy and Waddle, but there was just so much talent for him to be a weekly threat. Now, he’ll get his chance opposite Waddle to thrive and put up monster numbers.
Alex Leatherwood stepped in as a true freshman when injuries struck and looked comfortable at left tackle ever since. There’s a chance Leatherwood is the second offensive tackle drafted behind Sewell if Little is unable to return to his pre-injury form.
Samuel Cosmi should have a chance to get Texas back in the first round. The Longhorns had to wait until pick No. 70 in the NFL Draft to get off the board. Texas shouldn’t have to wait too long to hear Cosmi’s name called in the middle of the first next year.
Travis Etienne returned to Clemson after bypassing the 2020 NFL Draft when he could have been a top-50 pick. Already holding almost every meaningful Clemson rushing record, Etienne needs less than 600 rushing yards to become the ACC’s all-time leading rusher, eclipsing the 4,602 that NC State back Ted Brown had from 1975-1978. He could be the best back out of the ACC since Florida State’s Dalvin Cook.
Najee Harris came to Alabama as the No. 1 overall recruit but took him a couple of years before he got a featured role. After waiting his turn, he also saw the advent of the wide-open passing game behind Tua Tagovailoa. With Tua now in the NFL and Alabama breaking in either a true freshman in Bryce Young or game-manager Mac Jones, look for Harris to shoulder a Derrick Henry-like workload.
Trey Smith arrived at Tennessee as a five-star offensive tackle prospect. He’ll leave Tennessee as perhaps the top offensive guard in the nation. After dealing with blood clots that jeopardized his career, Smith returned with a vengeance last year. If Smith has an All-American year and has no health issues, and dominates the combine, he may be the rare guard to crack the top-10. There may be some teams who view the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder as a tackle, and if that’s the case, it’ll only help his draft value.
Rashod Bateman was one of the breakout stars for one of the biggest breakout teams last year. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder should approach 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns after having 1,219 and 11 as a sophomore last year.
The 6-foot-4, 330-pound Marvin Wilson was the No. 1 defensive tackle in the nation and No. 6 overall recruit, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Florida State has struggled during his time in Tallahassee, but he’s a stud who can be next year’s version of Derrick Brown.
Labryan Ray is the next interior defensive linemen to come out of Alabama and hear his name called in the first round. May not be quite the explosive athlete that Daron Payne or Jonathan Allen were coming out of Alabama who had their names called at this point of the draft, but a strong 2020 season could alleviate some of those questions.
Jalen Mayfield could join Cesar Ruiz to give Big Blue a pair of offensive linemen in the first round in back-to-back years. The 6-foot-5, 320-Mayfield might be a better guard at the next level than tackle, but the 2020 season will go a long way in determining if he has the speed, ability and length to handle the position at the next level.
Rondale Moore was injured for most of last year but with a healthy 2020, the Purdue star should be a first-round talent. He’s only 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds but his speed and acceleration may be among the best in the receiver class. As a freshman All-American, Moore caught 112 passes for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns. He had 1,471 scrimmage yards and 14 touchdowns and averaged 20.1 yards on kick returns. I don’t care how tall he is. He’s going to run in the 4.3’s and be a nightmare for teams to defend.
Liam Eichenberg is 6-foot-6 and 305 pounds. Notre Dame always seems to churn out NFL offensive linemen and he projects as the next first-rounder after starting the last two years at left tackle. He looks like more of a right tackle than a left tackle at the next level.
Paulson Adebo had a really disappointing 2019 season which led to his return to Stanford. A bounce-back season is in order for the Cardinal overall who struggled all season and had a number of players lost due to injury. When he’s right, Adebo is one of the top corners in the nation.
Tyler Shelvin could have been a Day 2 pick if he was in the 2020 NFL Draft. As one of the top returning stars at LSU, look for Shelvin to have a monster season for the reigning national champions.
Dylan Moses was a potential, if not a likely first round pick entering last season before he suffered a torn ACL right before the start of the college season. He likely would have been a mid-second round pick even with the injury last year but returns to Alabama for his senior season and a chance to show he’s healthy and still a difference-maker in the second wave of the defense.
Pat Freiermuth may have challenged Cole Kmet to be the first tight end off the board this year. He has 15 career touchdowns on 69 career receptions at Penn State. The 6-foot-5, 256-pound Freiermuth could be a first-round pick with another strong season and a fast 40 at the Combine.
Richard Lecounte III had a career-high four interceptions last year as a junior. At 5-foot-11 and 190-pounds, he’s going to need to show centerfield range and speed to be a first-rounder, but the opportunity is there with a strong senior season.
Caden Sterns looked like a future superstar after his freshman season at Texas two years ago when he had four interceptions and 62 tackles. After missing some time due to injury as a sophomore, his numbers and overall production dipped, but with a healthy junior season, he can put himself back in position to be a first-rounder.
Baron Browning’s got next. The former five-star recruit who was the No. 11 overall recruit and No. 1 outside linebacker looks like the next great defensive star for the Buckeyes. At 6-foot-3 and 248 pounds, Browning may be more of an outside linebacker in a 3-4 system than a defensive end in a 4-3. He had 11 tackles for loss and five sacks behind Young last year. Now, it’s his turn to be unleashed and get double-digit sacks.
Creed Humphrey arrived at Oklahoma as a heralded four-star recruit and high school All-American before redshirting as a freshman. He was All-Big 12 in 2018 and a Freshman All-American when Oklahoma won the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s top offensive line. Last year, he was a 2nd-Team All-American and finalist for the Rimington as a redshirt sophomore last year.
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