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NFL Draft 2021: Winners and Losers After Days 1 and 2
The Bears were shrewd, Tyrod Taylor has competition, the Rams have rough vibes and more on the first three rounds of the draft.
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May 1, 2021
After all of the posturing before Round 1 of the NFL Draft about where the top five quarterbacks would go, it was freeing to go into night two talking mostly about safeties, running backs and offensive linemen. Round 1 might have all the glitz and glamour, but Rounds 2 and 3 are the real meat of the NFL Draft, where teams’ preferences diverge, steals are to be had and pick announcements begin to be met with quizzical-but-polite applause from even the most fervent fans. Aside from the fact that we don’t know if Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love got a new receiver on Friday, here are our picks for the night’s winners and losers.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
From
Troy Greene (@troyDgreene):
You’re probably going to get a lot of J.J. Watt questions, but here I go anyway: Why Arizona? Are they really Super Bowl contenders?
Let’s start with this perspective: On March 3, 2020, no one saw the Buccaneers as Super Bowl contenders. Maybe, coming off a 7–9 season with a lot of brand-name players on the roster, you thought the Bucs could sneak into the playoffs. But no one was planning the parade route, boat or otherwise, the same way no one could fathom what was coming in our country in general over the year to follow.
Tuesday is the first milepost in the NFL offseason. Let’s jump into it …
Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images (Caserio); Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports (Newton); Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports (Prescott)
• That’s right, starting Tuesday, teams can apply the franchise tag to players. We don’t have the official numbers yet, because those are based on where the cap lands. But here are projections for a $180 million cap, a $183 million cap (that’s been the working number for some teams) and a $185 million cap.
Position by position for 180/183/185, all figures in millions:
QB: $24.76/$25.17/$25.45
S: $10.47/$10.64/$10.76
Because the cap will be lower, and even with inflation factored in, all those numbers are down (and some significantly so) from 2020. Which puts first-time tag candidates in different situations from those who might be tagged for a second time (like Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, Broncos S Justin Simmons, and Washington G Brandon Scherff), since those gu
It might have been inevitable. But it also seems to say something about a franchise trying to imitate the Patriots, but lacking the pieces to make it work.