NFL Draft 2024: Final one-round mock draft feat. Patriots' surprise non-QB pick

NFL Combine

25. Green Bay Packers – Jackson Powers-Johnson, IOL, Oregon

The Packers are one of those teams whose expectations changed fairly quickly once we saw Jordan Love emerge as a top-10 quarterback over the latter half of this past season. So while they don’t operate in a way that they’d accelerate the clock for themselves, also because they don’t have the benefit of Love being on a true rookie deal, I think it may keep them from drafting another one of these talented defensive players, who may not be ready to contribute right away. Instead, I’m still looking at adding one more weapon in the pass game, but understanding they just don’t do that, I think the guy who can immediately make an impact here is the Oregon center. JPJ is right there with Graham Barton for me in terms of the top interior O-linemen in the class. Excellent zone-blocker in terms of the horizontal movement he provides, the ability to keep his hands latched and willingness to finish defenders. You love the way he flies out in space as part of the screen game. And in the pass game, he plays with busy eyes if unoccupied initially, while having the strong base to anchor against powerful D-tackles, not letting them get away anymore once he establishes control. If he can clean up his placement of snaps, I think he’s an upgrade right away over Josh Myers, and while I like Sean Rhyan, the same is true for right guard. At worst, he’s going to be a premiere backup for all three interior spots right away and once he gets onto the lineup, he’s not going to leave it anymore.

26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State

I’m sure if one of those two top-ranked interior O-linemen is available for the Bucs at 26, they’d strongly consider it for their somewhat open left guard spot, but otherwise this really comes down to edge rusher or corner, since they let Shaq Barrett walk and traded Carlton Davis to Detroit. I went with probably the most divisive defender on the edge, who is expected to go somewhere in this range. A little undersized at 6’3”, flirting with 250 pounds and just 32.5-inch arms, but this guy’s first step and ability to threaten the corner with speed plus bend is as good as anybody in this class. He’s sort of a one-trick pony at this point and doesn’t string together pass-rush moves in a comprehensive fashion yet, but watching him snatch and lift the outside hand of tackle in order to create a softer angle along with some cat-like quicks on up-and-unders make me believe he could still find enough success on third downs to buy him time as the rest of his game develops. I like how low he plays and the strength in his triceps to lock out in the run game, he just need to get his upper and lower body more synchronized. So I think this is the range he should be taken in, but the pay-off could be massive. If Tampa plays with more even fronts basically on early downs, where Joe Tryon-Shoyinka is the only legit outside linebacker and Yaya Diaby is the guy on the opposite end of the line, allowing Chop to come in fresh in dropback settings, that would be an optimal situation.

27. Arizona Cardinals – Darius Robinson, EDGE/IDL, Missouri

And we stick on the defensive front for the Cardinals, who already addressed the number one receiver slot they needed to fill and now need to add difference makers on the opposite side of the ball with the physical presence of Darius Robinson. He’s someone who jumped up into first-round conversations during Senior Bowl week, then the hype cooled off a little bit when he tested poorly in comparison to a lot of the smaller pure EDGEs, but is on the rise again seemingly with how good his on-field workout at the Missouri pro day looked like. Packs incredible vigor in his hands combined with 34.5-inch arms to control the point of attack, work off blocks and create negative plays in the run game. As a pass-rusher, he relies heavily on that power as well, but you do see him opposing linemen with his agility and rapid hands to arm-over them. The Cardinals haven’t had a guy like this, who can mush up the pocket and then push off guys in order to find secondary escape lanes for himself with that inside-out flexibility since Calais Campbell three coaching staffs ago by now. Even with how badly they ultimately performed statistically, in part due to some injuries they were dealing with, we’ve heard a bunch of players mention how tough Arizona’s defense was to prepare for because of all the funky stuff they threw at them. Robinson is another piece in that and someone I don’t think makes it out of the first round.

28. Pittsburgh Steelers (via BUF) – Cooper DeJean, Defensive Back, Iowa

So, I had the Steelers moving back eight spots with the Bills here, punting on the chance to take what is considered the consensus number four receiver and in this scenario neither one of the potential centers is available anymore, which would make a lot of sense. They could go with whoever they believe is the next-best tackle, but we’ve seen the focus of this franchise being the back-end defensively and I think there’s no better fit than the versatile Iowa defensive back. DeJean gets to stay in the black and yellow for another tough-minded organization that prides itself on defense. However, they’ve finished 26th and 21st respectively in net yards per pass attempt these past two seasons, because they’ve been going through athletically limited veterans at those corner spots. Getting Joey Porter Jr. at the top of day two last year gives them someone with legit press-man ability with how much cover-one they like to run on early downs, and they did trade Diontae Johnson for Donte JACKSON from Carolina this offseason, who at least gives you some play-making ability on the far side of the field. DeJean now perfectly fits into the nickel spot. He can match up with Mark Andrews and David Njoku from detached alignments, his spatial awareness and football IQ allow him to get his hands on the ball in zone-coverage and whether he’s moved tighter into the formation or you want him to blitz off the edge, you don’t need a separate big nickel package. DeJean is going to finally fill the void left behind by Mike Hilton – who has been one of the league’s best slot defenders for the division-rival Bengals – and he’s going to also provide consistency in the return game.

29. Kansas City Chiefs (via DET) – Adonai Mitchell, WR, Texas

Alright, this brings up to the final four teams from last season, with the Lions being on the clock after giving away the NFC title game in heartbreaking fashion, but they actually get a call from the reigning Super Bowl champs in the Chiefs, who want to avoid the Ravens or 49ers snatching up their guy, which I believe Adonai Mitchell. I personally think Detroit should select him themselves to round out their receiving corp with a legit outside threat, but KC gives up their fourth-rounder (131st overall) for that right. I understand that this is somewhat of a divisive name, because the fantasy football community and data nerds talk about his highly concerning statistical profile, but the film truthers love his game – and that’s the corner I’m in. I see some of the plays, where people might call it a lack of effort and I agree with them to some degree as a blocker at least, but this is one of the more skilled route-runners I’ve evaluated. The term I’ve used to describe it is that he paints a picture with the way he sets up defenders, attacks their blindspots and is able to make adjustments on the fly based on the technique of the guy in front of him. The foot quickness and elusiveness off the line pairs up beautifully with that, to win as a legit X in isolated coverage and while he doesn’t always play up to it, you do see the 4.35 speed and ball-tracking skills to win down the field. He’s not a dynamic YAC threat – in part because of his high depth of target – but he snatches the ball with defenders converging on him and I think is exactly what the Chiefs need here. Now you have him on the backside of the formation, Hollywood Brown clearing out space, Travis Kelce taking advantage of that free real estate and we’ll see what happens with the Rashee Rice situation, with him being their run-after-catch specialist.

30. Baltimore Ravens – Jordan Morgan, OT, Arizona

If Mitchell were available here, I would love that as an Odell Beckham Jr. replacement and now you’d really be cooking with three first-round picks at receiver around the reigning MVP, but I think they very much have their eyes set on the offensive tackle position. The traded away long-time veteran Morgan Moses for a day-three pick swap, Ronnie Stanley on the left side is still in and out of the lineup and while I think Josh Jones was a sneaky signing in free agency, I’d be surprised if they don’t address this group in the first two rounds. Jordan Morgan is someone I think hasn’t been talked about enough throughout this process. Coming off a torn ACL in the year prior, the voters still snuck him into first-team All-Pac-12 despite the amount of talent they had in that conference this past season. Tremendous athleticism for the zone run game, being able to execute back-side cut-offs or gliding to the second level, great burst out to the corner when Baltimore wants to run those sweep plays with Lamar Jackson with impressive reactionary skills on the fly. Smooth in his kick-slide with the mental capacity to change up his technique in accordance to his matchups. Not like an overpowering drive-blocker and the length will be a question, with his arms being an eighth short of 33 inches, but he regularly is first to establish meaningful contact with rushers and the agility to mirror cross-face moves is excellent.

31. San Francisco 49ers – Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma

And we actually stick with that position group, since the Niners couldn’t finish the job in the Super Bowl because of their issues on the right side of the offensive line. They take the guy that is regularly mocked ahead of Morgan, even though I personally have them stacked up this way, with OU’s big right tackle Tyler Guyton. He created a lot of buzz early on during Senior Bowl week, because you saw the athletic traits on his tape, but his ability to anchor was what stood out on day one at least. That went away a little bit, as edge rushers started to figure out that they could win the outside shoulder will well-timed swipes at that near-arm and because he’s tall in his pass-sets, he tends to widen his base too much, making him vulnerable to lateral movement. However, there’s still a lot to like with this guy at 6’8”, 320 pounds, some of the dominant reps you see on tape in the run game when his hands and feet are connected, to toss people out of the club, along with the length and recovery tools in pass-protection. He'll be taken under the wings of another former Oklahoma tackle, who had some things to work on in order to reach his sky-high potential in Trent Williams.

32. Detroit Lions (via KC) – Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson

Which brings us to the end of the first round, where the hometown team hosting this event finally gets to make their selection, which is always fun, as we think back to the Chiefs doing the same a year ago. It would’ve been cool if it was another nearby product like Darius Robinson, who grew up in Michigan and would a lot of sense for them, but I’m addressing their other big need on defense with the Clemson standout cover corner. Wiggins is my personal CB2 and I think someone with the physical ability to be a legit shutdown number one corner – which is rare in today’s game. He is so incredibly loose, has instant explosiveness in his ability to plant-and-drive from off-alignment, 4.28 speed and you see the elite recovery skills, where his footwork isn’t by the book a lot of times, but he somehow makes it work. The eyes and range to make plays on routes in his vicinity, combined with the awareness to identify route-combination as a zone-defender is special, and then he can really climb the ladder and competes for the ball in the air. There’s some fine-tuning needed where he gets just a little too aggressive driving on the initial break, which makes him vulnerable to double-moves, and the big question of course is the frame at six foot and just 175 pounds, but he’s more than willing to race up and attack bigger ball-carriers down low and his effort combined with the speed in pursuit led to some tremendous chase-down plays. The Lions want to run so much man- or match-coverage, where they’ve added Carlton Davis who can battle with those bigger bodies, but now Wiggins is your de-facto number two as a rookie at least, he could be a star with major ball-production if targeted frequently.