The 4 best late-round picks in the NFL draft

The third and final day of the NFL Draft is the most interesting of the entire weekend. There’s a greater level of uncertainty than the first few rounds, and it invokes a certain joy to see some of your favorite college players end up getting drafted.

Within that, there are also sneaky good picks that teams make. That’s not only from an X’s and O’s standpoint, but also because of circumstance in some cases, in part due to which players a team had already selected in the early rounds.

Here are four of my favorite picks from the later rounds of the draft — one of which doesn’t require too much explanation.

The long snapper is secretly one of the most important positions on a football field, and the Vikings selected one with the fifth-to-last pick in the draft. I hadn’t heard of Cutting before his name was called, but he’s going to be a vital piece for the Vikings.

A year ago, 49ers GM John Lynch told SB Nation’s Alex Kirshner, “I’ve watched teams when they lose [their long snapper] in-game, and it is panic mode.” The job doesn’t look hard, but snaps require an incredibly accurate zip and spiral:

Chris Rubio is the country’s preeminent trainer of long snappers. He estimates he’s worked with about 1,000 college snappers and eight who are in the NFL. He says a well-executed snap on a field goal takes no more than 1.25 seconds from the snapper’s first flinch to the ball leaving the kicker’s foot. On a punt, it shouldn’t take more than 1.9 for the ball to be airborne, with 0.75 allocated for the snap itself.

Hopefully Cutting stays healthy, and the Vikings don’t worry about having to go to an emergency backup, considering that’s gone terrifyingly bad for others in the past.

There’s a couple of reasons for Falcons fans like myself to love this pick. The first is simply that it wasn’t another offensive lineman, and the team addressed one of its glaring needs on defense. Better late than never, I suppose.

Sheffield is a track athlete who set a school record with a 6.63-second 60m dash time. He couldn’t run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine because of a pectoral injury, but the guy can scoot:

The second reason is that the team prevented another Ohio State defensive back from making his way to New Orleans. Eli Apple, Vonn Bell, and Marshon Lattimore have been recent additions to a Saints defense that isn’t the laughingstock that it used to be, and Sheffield could have added a layer of depth to that. Instead, the Falcons add a cornerback from the school with the strongest claim to “DBU” in recent years.

The flip side of this is that Saints fans can, and will, mock Falcons fans for trying to draft like their team. The rivalry continues.

There’s an old football saying about how the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town. That has more to do with fans wanting to replace the starter the very second that something goes even slightly wrong, but there’s more to love with Minshew.

Minshew was beloved in Pullman, where he transferred for his senior year after two seasons at East Carolina. He was a perfect fit in Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense, throwing for 38 touchdowns and more than 4,700 yards. He helped make the Cougars one of the easiest college football teams to root for last season.

He was also a fan favorite because of his signature mustache:

Minshew is immediately a better backup option than ... [checks notes] ... Tanner Lee. If Nick Foles turns into a big ol’ pumpkin again, we might be seeing some fake mustaches, in the crowd at TIAA Bank Field at some point during the 2019 season.

Statistically speaking, Finley was a better college quarterback in the state of North Carolina than the guy drafted 98 picks earlier by the New York Giants: Daniel Jones, this year’s sixth overall selection.

What’s not to like about this pick? New head coach Zac Taylor, who worked last season for the Rams under Sean McVay, is committing for the time being to incumbent starter Andy Dalton, who has struggled in recent seasons. But Finley gives Taylor a young passer to develop, and a potential insurance policy if things don’t go well with Dalton this year.