Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The 2021 NFL Draft class faces scrutiny as only 12 of 32 first-round picks remain with their original teams.
- Multiple high-profile quarterbacks from that class have faced varying levels of success and instability.
- This analysis highlights the unpredictable nature of rookie contracts and the challenges of developing top-tier talent.
The 2021 NFL Draft was weird. It wasn’t as weird as the 2020 draft, where we had to watch Roger Goodell read names in his basement, but it was still weird. This was the first draft where players who sat out the 2020 college football season were draft eligible, and there was no scouting combine.
It turns out that those two things might be kind of important, because of the 32 guys drafted in the first round, only 12 of them are with their current team, and four of them don’t have a team (currently). Let’s channel our inner Animal House and see where the 2021 draft class is now, and how they got there.
1. Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence, QB
- Current Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
- Current situation: Finally looks like a franchise QB after surviving chaos, injuries and Urban Meyer
It took a minute, but Trevor Lawrence is finally starting to look like a first overall draft pick. That delay isn’t completely his fault, though. He’s had to deal with injuries, a lack of real talent around him, more injuries, Urban Meyer, and even more injuries on top of that.
They like him enough that they gave him a cool $275 million and signed him through 2030. That’s what you’re hoping for when you grab a quarterback at the top of the draft. And hopefully he plays that long, because every one of his highlight reel-worthy plays starts off looking like it’s going to be a disaster. The dude is a human blooper reel.
2. New York Jets: Zach Wilson, QB
- Current team: New Orleans Saints
- Current situation: Still cashing checks despite zero evidence he should be
Did you know the Saints are paying Zach Wilson to be on their roster? I didn’t until right now. That’s wild. He started bad, then he kept being bad, then he was bad when Aaron Rodgers got hurt. He went to Miami last year and never found the field, and now he’s in New Orleans. I’m going to make a prediction: if he plays, he’ll be bad. It’s crazy that he’s still getting a paycheck, but good for him.
3. San Francisco 49ers: Trey Lance, QB
- Current team: Los Angeles Chargers
- Current situation: Former No. 3 pick now firmly in backup purgatory
The 49ers moved mountains to trade up and draft Trey Lance third overall. Turns out, that wasn’t such a great idea. He started a total of four games and threw just over 100 passes for San Francisco before he annihilated his ankle early in the 2022 season. Then Brock Purdy took over, and yada yada yada, they found a franchise quarterback.
Lance was traded to the Cowboys in 2023 (for a fourth-round draft pick), hit free agency in 2025, and now he’s Justin Herbert’s backup with the Los Angeles Chargers.
4. Atlanta Falcons: Kyle Pitts, TE
- Current team: Atlanta Falcons
- Current situation: Elite talent being squandered in Atlanta
It’s tough to say how Kyle Pitts’ career has gone so far. The dude is an athletic specimen and clearly has the tools in his body to be amazing, but he spent his first three seasons in an Arthur Smith offense, where he was locked in a basement and fed metaphorical breadcrumbs.
Now he’s going into his sixth season in the NFL, turning just 26 years old, but the Falcons haven’t given him a contract. They exercised his fifth-year option in 2024 and franchise tagged him this year. The dude should be getting paid big money on a big contract, but it seems like the Falcons are kind of just squandering him.
5. Cincinnati Bengals: Ja’Marr Chase, WR
- Current team: Cincinnati Bengals
- Current situation: Exactly what you dream of when you draft top five, he's a superstar and paid like one
Ja’Marr Chase played his first NFL game on September 12, 2021, and he’s been a top-three wide receiver ever since. He won the Triple Crown in 2024 and then signed a four-year extension for $161 million, making him the (then) highest-paid non-quarterback of all time.
Sometimes players fall straight into your lap in the draft, and the Bengals got extremely lucky that the four guys who were picked before Ja’Marr Chase were picked before Ja’Marr Chase.
6. Miami Dolphins: Jaylen Waddle, WR
- Current team: Denver Broncos
- Current situation: Change-of-scenery candidate trying to get his explosiveness back
Jaylen Waddle must have the patience of a saint. We know that he’s capable of being one of the most dominant downfield threats in the NFL because he showed it during the first three seasons of his career.
Then the wheels fell off of the Dolphins' offense. Their identity started to die, their quarterback couldn’t stay healthy, Tyreek Hill’s attitude was poison. But Waddle was still the same player that he’d been, just with less production. Luckily for him, he was traded to the Broncos and will be playing an offense that hopefully will return him to his rightful role as a home-run hitter.
7. Detroit Lions: Penei Sewell, OT
- Current team: Detroit Lions
- Current situation: Dominant All-Pro who somehow made offensive line play fun
Drafting offensive linemen isn’t fun. It’s the one position group that doesn’t get to make plays, in a traditional sense. But Penei Sewell is different. The Lions have used him as a weapon. He completely shuts down the right side of a pass rush, and he’s dominant as a run blocker on the line and even more so in space.
He’s been a first-team All-Pro for the past three seasons, and he’s earned at least two of those (probably should’ve been second-team behind Lane Johnson in 2024).
8. Carolina Panthers: Jaycee Horn, CB
- Current team: Carolina Panthers
- Current situation: High-end corner when healthy, which is the whole question
When Jaycee Horn is healthy, he’s a pretty special cornerback, but he’s not always healthy. He missed a bunch of time in his first three seasons with a handful of different injuries. Fortunately, he’s been on the right track for the past two seasons, and he’s had a pretty clean bill of health.
The Panthers gave him a four-year contract extension for an even $100 million before the 2025 season, so if he can keep his body in one piece, he’ll be a staple in that defense for the foreseeable future.
9. Denver Broncos: Pat Surtain II, CB
- Current team: Denver Broncos
- Current situation: One of the best defensive players in football, full stop
It’s really got to stink to be Jaycee Horn and have Pat Surtain be the guy drafted immediately after you. That means Horn is always going to be compared to a guy who is not just a perennial top-three cornerback but also a perennial top-10 defensive player.
Surtain might not have had a Defensive Player of the Year-worthy season in 2025 like he did in 2024, but he’s been amazing, is amazing, and will continue to be amazing for as long as he’s with the Broncos… which will be for at least two more seasons.
10. Philadelphia Eagles: DeVonta Smith, WR
- Current team: Philadelphia Eagles
- Current situation: Proven winner who could slide back into WR1 role at any moment
Did you know that DeVonta Smith is the only non-retired first-round pick from the 2021 draft class who has won a Super Bowl? Now you do.
Playstyle-wise, personality-wise, and fashion-wise, there might not be a smoother wide receiver in the NFL than DeVonta Smith. When the Eagles drafted the Heisman winner in 2021, he slid right in as the team’s WR1 and broke the franchise record for receptions by a rookie wide receiver.
If they do trade A.J. Brown come June, Smitty will take back the mantle as WR1, carry a full workload, and he’ll keep doing that probably for the rest of his career.
11. Chicago Bears: Justin Fields, QB
- Current team: Kansas City Chiefs
- Current situation: Last chance, best chance under Andy Reid
Justin Fields has had a hell of a six-year career. He got drafted by the Bears, and they tried to do the thing where he rides the bench for all (or most) of his rookie season. But in Week 2, Andy Dalton got hurt, and Fields came in to be the guy for the rest of the season (except for three games that he missed with cracked ribs).
Would sitting that season have helped him in the long run? Maybe, maybe not. He’s an elite runner, but he has not grown as a thrower even a little bit. He’s gone from the Bears to the Steelers to the Jets, and now he’s with the Chiefs and Andy Reid.
If there’s a coach who can get him to turn into something, it’d be Reid… And if Patrick Mahomes isn’t ready to go by Week 1, it’ll be Fields that gets QB1 snaps to start the season. No pressure.
12. Dallas Cowboys: Micah Parsons, LB
- Current team: Green Bay Packers
- Current situation: Still a defensive wrecking ball, just doing it somewhere much more likable
It feels like forever ago when the Cowboys were using Micah Parsons as a linebacker/edge hybrid in his rookie season. The next season, they tossed him primarily on the defensive line and never really looked back.
He came into the NFL, was a Pro-Bowler, All-Pro, and Defensive Rookie of the Year… and then just kept repeating that production every single year. So obviously, the Cowboys did the only logical thing: they traded him to the Packers, who have been a source of exceptional postseason pain for Dallas over the past decade.
For everyone who dislikes the Cowboys, it’s been fantastic to finally be able to root for Parsons. It turns out that it’s actually a lot of fun because he’s awesome.
13. Los Angeles Chargers: Rashawn Slater, OT
- Current team: Los Angeles Chargers
- Current situation: Elite tackle trying to come back from a brutal injury
On July 27, 2025, Rashawn Slater signed a four-year $114 million contract extension with the Chargers. 11 days later, on August 7, 2025, he tore his patellar tendon and missed the entire season. The Chargers would then go on to have arguably the worst offensive line in the entire NFL.
The point is that while it’s been a minute since Slater has played, and if he can come back off this injury (which isn’t easy to do) and then get back to the Pro-Bowl and All-Pro caliber that he’s played at (which is even harder to do), everything will be peachy… But, you know… That’s just really hard to do.
14. New York Jets: Alijah Vera-Tucker, OG
- Current team: New England Patriots
- Current situation: Talented but constantly injured, and now a high-risk investment
Nothing has gone right in Alijah Vera-Tucker’s professional career until free agency this year, when he signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Patriots. In 2021, he played 16 games. In 2022, he tore his triceps in Week 7. In 2023, he popped his Achilles. He was healthy in 2024. In 2025, he tore his triceps in his other arm.
We’ve seen good stuff from Vera-Tucker in the past, but the Patriots made a hell of a gamble paying an oft-jacked-up offensive lineman real money.
15. New England Patriots: Mac Jones, QB
- Current team: San Francisco 49ers
- Current situation: Career backup who could become trade bait
You don’t want to be the guy after the guy. Fortunately for Mac Jones, that wasn’t the case. After Tom Brady left New England, they did a season of Cam Newton. Unfortunately for Jones, he wasn’t any good… despite that Pro-Bowl season his rookie year.
He stuck around through 2023 before he was traded to the Jaguars for a sixth-round draft pick in 2024. After a year there, he went to San Francisco in 2025, which was kind of a ‘this is his destiny’ situation.
All through the 2021 pre-draft process, it seemed like Jones was Kyle Shanahan’s guy. Then they did the whole ‘trade the future for Trey Lance’ thing. Jones started eight games last season while Brock Purdy was dealing with a turf toe, and now Mac Jones feels like a guy who could be traded if a starting quarterback goes down during training camp. It’s been a roller coaster for ol’ McCrockle Jones.
16. Arizona Cardinals: Zaven Collins, EDGE
- Current team: Arizona Cardinals
- Current situation: First-rounder who settled into just a guy territory
When you draft an edge guy in the first round (or anyone for that matter), you’re hoping for at least some Pro Bowl potential. That hasn’t been Zaven Collins’ calling card. He’s a perfectly fine rotational player… But at the end of the day, he’s just a guy who can get pressure, but doesn’t get a whole lot of production.
The Cardinals didn’t exercise his fifth-year option but gave him a two-year contract that will keep him with the team through the end of the 2026 season. As far as first-round picks go, this is a bad outcome, but definitely not the worst.
17: Las Vegas Raiders: Alex Leatherwood, OT
- Current team: Out of the league
- Current situation: One of the biggest whiffs of the class
Bad teams draft bad players, and the Raiders drafted Alex Leatherwood. They had him for the 2021 season and waived him before the 2022 season. In 2022, he went to the Bears and got released. In 2023, he went to the Browns, and his contract expired. In 2024, he was with the Chargers and hung out on their practice squad…
And then he wasn’t in the NFL in 2025. He kind of just vanished. Of the 17 guys that we’ve looked at so far, he’s probably had the least successful career. Woof.
18: Miami Dolphins: Jaelan Phillips, EDGE
- Current team: Carolina Panthers
- Current situation: Injury survivor who turned it into a payday
Laughingstock teams like the Dolphins serve one purpose: they cull the herd. Jaelan Phillips is a guy who survived. He had a great rookie season and a solid second season… but then he had the tough stuff.
In 2023, he popped his Achilles during the Week 12 Black Friday game against the Jets, and then in 2024, he tore his ACL in a Week 4 game against the Titans.
Against all odds, he came back and had a solid 2025 season. At the trade deadline, Miami traded him to Philadelphia. He came into a depleted edge rusher room and immediately became a force, which ended up being wildly lucrative.
He entered free agency in 2026, and the Panthers, who were clearly not wanting to get out-bid for a defensive lineman for a second straight year, put a $30 million contract in his lap.
19: Washington Football Team: Jamin Davis, LB
- Current team: Las Vegas Raiders
- Current situation: Fighting just to stay on an NFL roster
If you’re drafting a linebacker in the first round, you are banking on that guy being a franchise-changing player. Jamin Davis wasn’t that.
He never became the force of nature that Washington wanted, and after having a loose hold on the starting job in 2022 and 2023, the Commanders waived him in October of 2024. After that, he went to the Packers, the Vikings, and the Jets. Then in 2025, he joined the abysmal Raiders’ defense, where he signed a futures contract for the 2026 season.
With the additions that team has made in free agency, Davis is going to be fighting for a spot on the practice squad this offseason. Let this be a lesson to everyone: You don’t want to be a guy that Daniel Snyder likes.
20: New York Giants: Kadarius Toney, WR
- Current team: Retired
- Current situation: Career derailed, now out of the league entirely
Kadarius Toney doesn’t deserve more than a paragraph because in February of 2025, he was charged with assault of a woman. He was too much of a lunatic for the New York Giants, won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs in 2022, was a healthy scratch when the Chiefs won a Super Bowl the following year. Then he was cut by the Browns in 2024 after he muffed a punt and got called for taunting against the Steelers. He announced his retirement and said that he was going to focus on his musical career. Whatever.
21: Indianapolis Colts: Kwity Paye, EDGE
- Current team: Las Vegas Raiders
- Current situation: Solid but limited, and paid like more than he is
When the Colts drafted Kwity Paye, they knew he was much more of an edge setter, and getting after the quarterback was never really in his bag. If he was going to turn into a pass rusher, they were going to have to develop him into one.
They never really did, and he just became a pretty solid run defender. That’s totally fine, and the Colts did exercise his fifth-year option, but you have to imagine that they would’ve liked it if their first-round pick had been more versatile.
It doesn’t really matter to them anymore because he went to Las Vegas in free agency this year, and they’re paying him a cool $16 million per year.
22: Tennessee Titans: Caleb Farley, CB
- Current Team: Free agent
- Current situation: Career completely undone by injuries
Woof. The Titans knew that Caleb Farley had back problems when they drafted him, but still went with him anyway. It kind of made sense because he had the physical tools to be a solid cornerback. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in Week 6 of 2021.
He came back in 2022 and was healthy for nine-ish games until he jacked up his back in Week 10. That caused him to miss the rest of the season and the entire 2023 season. The Titans released him before the 2024 season, the Panthers picked him up, and he never really saw the field.
It was just a cacophony of bad things. One after another, after another.
23: Minnesota Vikings: Christian Darrisaw, OT
- Current team: Minnesota Vikings
- Current situation: Key piece when healthy, but health is a real concern
Thursday, October 24, 2024: With 42 seconds left in the first half, the Rams punt from a fourth-and-6 from the 50-yard line. It was a great punt that got downed at the three. The Vikings just needed to kill the clock and go into halftime, but they couldn’t just take a knee because of how far back they were pinned.
So Sam Darnold handed the ball off to Aaron Jones, who got tackled by Jaylen McCollough… But on McCollough’s way down, he whipped around and caught the side of Christian Darrisaw’s knee.
That tore Darrisaw’s ACL and MCL, and took him out for the rest of the season. He came back in 2025, but his knee was still giving him problems, and he went back on the IR after playing only 10 games.
Hopefully it’s a different story in 2026, because that Vikings offensive line needs all the help it can get.
24: Pittsburgh Steelers: Najee Harris, RB
- Current team: Free Agent
- Current situation: Productive back now trying to bounce back from an Achilles tear
After Saquon Barkley’s killer season in 2024, I thought that teams were going to seriously overpay veteran free agent running backs in the offseason… specifically Najee Harris, who was the best one available. That didn’t happen, and he ended up signing a one-year deal with the Chargers for $9.5 million.
It ended up being a short season for him because he tore his Achilles in Week 3. He’s a free agent now, and given how thin the 2026 draft class is at running back, it sure feels like he’ll end up getting signed by someone before too long.
25: Jacksonville Jaguars: Travis Etienne Jr., RB
- Current team: New Orleans Saints
- Current situation: Proven production, now starting fresh elsewhere
The Jaguars had two first-round picks in the 2021 draft from when they traded Jalen Ramsey to the Rams. With that second pick, they made Trevor Lawrence comfortable by drafting his teammate from Clemson, Travis Etienne…
But that comfort was short-lived. He ended up having a Lisfranc (foot) injury in a preseason game and didn’t play a snap all season.
When he came back in 2022, he was awesome. He dropped a cool 1,125 rushing yards and followed it up with 1,008 yards in 2023. He split carries with Tank Bigsby and had a down year in 2024, but picked it right back up in 2025 when he became the true RB1 again.
Jacksonville did pick up his fifth-year option but didn’t give him a contract, so he hit free agency this year and signed with the New Orleans Saints. It’s been a journey for the guy, but at least he didn’t have to deal with Urban Meyer during his rookie season.
26: Cleveland Browns: Greg Newsome II, CB
- Current team: New York Giants
- Current situation: Former starter trending toward journeyman status
The Browns already had Denzel Ward on one side of the field and were looking to get another lockdown guy to play opposite him, so they drafted Greg Newsome… but it never really worked out.
He was a starter for his first three seasons, but got bumped down the depth chart in 2024 (after his fifth-year option got exercised). In 2025, the Browns traded him to the Jaguars, and he didn’t really gel there either.
He hit free agency in March and signed a one-year deal with the Giants. It seems like he might just be one of those guys who floats around from here on out.
27: Baltimore Ravens: Rashod Bateman, WR
- Current team: Baltimore Ravens
- Current situation: Flashes never turned into consistency
Rashod Bateman is a ‘Oh yeah, I remember when I drafted him in fantasy. He didn’t get me any points,’ kind of guy.
His best season was in 2024 when he had 759 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. The Ravens gave him a three-year contract after that, and I would imagine that it’s because they thought it was a breakout season for him.
It wasn’t. In 2025, he had just 19 catches for 224 yards and two touchdowns. In other words, he’s just another Ravens wide receiver.
28: New Orleans Saints: Payton Turner, DE
- Current team: Detroit Lions
- Current situation: Injuries stalled everything, now a low-risk flyer
I don’t know if anyone thought that Payton Turner should’ve been a first-round pick, but he was… and buddy, it did not work out at all. He’s been a perpetually hurt guy who has played in only 31 games in his career (16 of those were in 2024).
He was picked up by the Cowboys in 2025, after the Saints let him walk in free agency. He ended up hurting his ribs in the offseason and didn’t play a snap.
The Lions picked him up in free agency this year on a teensy $1 million deal. They need pass rushers, and if Turner can stay healthy, maybe he can do something. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
29: Green Bay Packers: Eric Stokes, CB
- Current team: Las Vegas Raiders
- Current situation: Change of scenery actually worked
Every year, a guy gets signed to a new team, and someone will say, “He just needs a change of scenery.” Eric Stokes is a prime example of that actually being true.
Aside from his rookie season, he was kind of stinky during his four-year run with the Packers (injuries played a part in that). Then he went to the Raiders in 2025, and he was actually pretty solid.
You would never know because that defense was straight-up terrible, but it was a good year for him. Because of that, they gave him a three-year contract for $30 million. Good for him.
30: Buffalo Bills: Greg Rousseau, DE
- Current team: Buffalo Bills
- Current situation: Reliable, steady edge presence worth the extension
Greg Rousseau is a perfectly good defensive end. He’s not going to blow you away by constantly embarrassing the guy across from him, wrecking game plans, or staying on the field for all three downs every drive. But he stays healthy, gets pressures, and turns those pressures into QB hits and sacks at a pretty decent rate.
The Bills gave him a four-year contract extension in 2025, which means he’ll be sticking around Buffalo until 2029.
31: Baltimore Ravens: Odafe Oweh, EDGE
- Current team: Washington Commanders
- Current situation: Late bloomer who turned a hot stretch into a massive payday
Odafe Oweh had a slow start to his career. It wasn't until 2024 when he came alive with a 10-sack season. Now, to be fair, six of those were on Gardner Minshew, Russell Wilson and Bailey Zappe. But sacks are sacks.
In the first five games of the 2025 season, he was a non-factor. Then the Ravens traded him to the Chargers, and Jesse Minter, the Chargers’ defensive coordinator, unlocked something in him. Oweh became an absolute force and racked up a cool 7.5 sacks in the final 12 games.
Free agency came around in March, and it really seemed like Oweh had two options: to stay with the Chargers and the guys he played well with, or follow Minter (who is the Ravens' new head coach) back to Baltimore.
We didn’t think about the third option: Get paid dump truck loads of money by the Commanders. That’s the one he chose when he signed a four-year, $100 million contract to play in Washington.
32: Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, EDGE
- Current team: Philadelphia Eagles
- Current situation: Bouncing around the league trying to stick
The Buccaneers were feeling themselves going into the 2021 draft. They had Tom Brady, a new Lombardi trophy, and had crushed it over the past three drafts.
Drafting Joe Tryon-Shoyinka might’ve been a little bit of a heat check. In their defense, if you’re picking at the 32nd spot, you’re probably not going to get someone who has a first-round draft grade.
He didn't do a lot in Tampa, didn’t have his fifth-year option exercised, and he hit free agency in 2025. The Browns picked him up for $4.75 million and then traded him to the very pass-rush-needy Bears for a seventh-round pick. He hit free agency again in 2026, and the Eagles picked him up. We know it’s a one-year deal, but we don’t know how much it’s for. You have to think it’s less than $4.75 million.