The NFL Draft

I've been getting into the draft in recent years, focusing of course on my 49ers, but more and more it's an interesting mental exercise to try and think of what each team needs and what players they might be targeting. It's an odd thing for me in particular, because I don't really follow college football at ALL (having gone to two universities with no D-1 football team, I have no real team to root for and so, I only see the biggest games and hear about the top 5-10 players during the football season.)

So, it's an entire learning process and a bit of a puzzle, but it's also more interesting to draft these guys even earlier when they enter the league.

I figured I'd take a stab at predicting the first round, so that I can check back in the lead-up to the draft and afterwards.

This should be fun.

A FEW OVERALL THOUGHTS:

The consensus seems to be that the draft is incredibly deep at Defensive Line - both for 3-4 and 4-3 defensive schemes. While the truly elite guys are going to still go highly, I think that many GMs may utilize that depth to go after other positions that are in shorter supply at the higher levels.

While defensive line is plenty, there don't appear to be a ton of Edge rushers, be it at defensive end or outside linebacker. This is a bummer for a lot of teams as that's a major need across the league.

In regards to team needs, it's hard to find a ton of teams that can't use help on either offensive or defensive lines - or both. Sure, the St. Louis Los Angeles Rams have a great defensive line, but their offensive line - despite attention in recent years in the draft and free agency - still needs help. Dallas has a great offensive line but could add several players to their defensive line, especially with Greg Hardy and Randy Gregory having their issues. And so on.

California QB Jared Goff is one of the two top QBs, sure to go in the top-10 in this years draft.Skill position players may be somewhat deep, but there's basically at maximum four players in Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Zeke Elliott and Laquon Treadwell, and you might even get questions about Wentz and Treadwell in that regard.

So, I have my work cut out for me.

Next up, the Tennessee Titans, picking first.