The NFL draft represents hope for every NFL franchise that they can add that missing piece to reach the Super Bowl. For the ten veterans listed below the NFL draft represents the potential end of their NFL career.
- Eli Manning: Let’s start with the low hanging fruit here. The Giants are in a perfect position to draft a quarterback during the draft and let a two-time Super Bowl winner teach the young passer the ins and outs of the NFL and how to handle the New York media.
- Kevin White: Since being drafted out of West Virginia in 2015 White has struggled to stay on the field not even accumulating two-hundred yards receiving in his career. With the 8th overall pick the Bears could go in any number of directions, but Chicago goes with Calvin Ridley out of Alabama to help out Mitchell Trubisky. By drafting Ridley and the Allen Robinson signing the end of White’s tenure in the Windy City appears to be over.
- Reuben Foster: Foster is not technically a veteran, but his time in San Francisco could be over due to his most recent arrest (his second since January) and that the 49ers own the 9th overall pick and could select Linebacker Roquan Smith from Georgia or Tremaine Edmunds of Virginia Tech spelling the end of Foster before his career could have a chance to take off.
- Marshawn Lynch:
After the Raiders signed Running Back Doug Martin I was surprised that Oakland did not release the veteran running back. With new Head Coach Jon Gruden implementing a more West coast/zone blocking scheme as opposed to a power/gap blocking scheme does not fit the power back skill set that Beast-mode brings to the table. With so many talented runners available in the draft and the ability of a zone blocking scheme to manufacture thousand yard rushers this could be the end of Beast Mode in Oakland. - Shaq Lawson/Jerry Hughes: Several mock drafts are predicting that the Bills are going to package both of their first round picks to move up to select a quarterback. That would contradict Buffalo’s offseason plan of acquiring picks and shedding large salaries. While I believe that the Bills have a need at quarterback they stand pat and use both picks to continue to build deeper roster. At twelve overall Buffalo is in a great position to select a pass rusher. Harold Landry of Boston College or Marcus Davenport of UTSA would be available to add to a young Buffalo defens.
- Clay Matthews: The run on quarterbacks early in the draft will leave talented pass rushers like Davenport, Landry, Georgia’s Lorenzo Carter, and Leighton Vander Esch of Boise State with mid-round picks. Landing one of these talented pass rushers could have Matthews bumped to a back up role.
- Melvin Gordon: The Chargers are one of the more complete teams in the NFL without any glaring needs. Los Angeles would love Nose Tackle, Vita Vea to fall to them at 17th overall, but with Buffalo, Green Bay, and Washington all needing defensive line help the odds that Vea are available are slim. Gordon is a free agent at the end of the season and has only topped a thousand yards once in his career; as with 2015 (when Gordon was drafted) LA drafts Derrius Guice of LSU or Roland Jones II of USC to replace Gordon with their first round pick.
- Seattle’s offensive line: I included a whole position group for the Seahawks because their offensive line was just awful last year. Seattle needs to draft the first lineman available either at tackles: Mike McGlinchey of Notre Dame, Connor Williams of Texas, Kolton Miller, UCLA or guards: Isiah Winn of Georgia or Will Hernandez of UTEP (I excluded Quinton Nelson of Notre Dame due to him being projected as a top ten pick).
- Delanie Walker: With Mike Vrabel taking over as head coach of the Tennessee Titans expect him to shift the offense into a more spread like team that utilizes zone reads and RPO’s to help get Marcus Mariota back on track in terms of his development. Tennessee could select a tight end 25th overall. All the tight ends are projected to be selected at the end of round one or go in the second round, so Tennessee can have their pick of the litter to pair with second year wide out Corey Davis.
- Devin McCourty/Patrick Chung: Both McCourty and Chung are getting older and will be 31 when the season starts. While Fitzpatrick and James will both be off the board by the time New England selects. Ronnie Harrison of Alabama and Justin Reid of Stanford will most likely be available when New England selects at twenty-three of thirty-one.
After the Raiders signed Running Back Doug Martin I was surprised that Oakland did not release the veteran running back. With new Head Coach Jon Gruden implementing a more West coast/zone blocking scheme as opposed to a power/gap blocking scheme does not fit the power back skill set that Beast-mode brings to the table. With so many talented runners available in the draft and the ability of a zone blocking scheme to manufacture thousand yard rushers this could be the end of Beast Mode in Oakland.
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