2019 SB Nation writers mock draft

We have come to the conclusion of the 13th annual SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft. The final choice for the third time in these massive mock drafts belongs to the New England Patriots.

Coming off another Super Bowl win, the Patriots have to approach this draft looking toward the future. Tom Brady will be 42 when the season starts. The receiver group is aging. Tight end Rob Gronkowski retired. Defensive end Trey Flowers departed in free agency, as did left tackle Trent Brown. The Patriots will probably be fine — they’re the Patriots after all — but work has to be done in the 2019 NFL Draft.

We’ve arrived at the penultimate selection in the SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft. How dramatic.

The choice, of course, belongs to the Los Angeles Rams. The Super Bowl runners-up were the darlings of the NFL for much of last season with their high-powered offense and boyish head coach Sean McVay. The Rams are a team that checks a lot of boxes for a great NFL team. A young and affordable franchise quarterback? Check. An innovative offensive-minded head coach? Check. A superstar game changer on defense? Check. It’s easy to see why the Rams should be competing for the Super Bowl again this season.

The Oakland Raiders have three first-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft. Believe it or not, that amount of high draft capital isn’t totally rare.

It’s happened two times since in the last seven years. In 2013, the Minnesota Vikings had three first-round picks and took defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, cornerback Xavier Rhodes, and wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson. The latter didn’t work out in Minnesota, but he’s stuck in the NFL, so overall that’s a decent haul.

The Indianapolis Colts have had a bit of a strange offseason thus far. After entering free agency with a massive chunk of salary cap room, the Colts didn’t do much with it. Cornerback Pierre Desir and defensive lineman Margus Hunt were brought back on multi-year deals, and pass rusher Justin Houston was added on a two-year contract. After that, Indianapolis’ moves don’t really make a lot of impact.

But looking over the Colts’ roster, there aren’t a lot of holes. The team needs some players on the defensive line who fit the 4-3 and a receiver to take the pressure off T.Y. Hilton. Fortunately for the Colts, there is depth in those areas of the 2019 NFL Draft.

A year after winning the Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles never really got things going last season. Star quarterback Carson Wentz missed the start of the season while recovering from a torn ACL, and when he did play Philadelphia’s results were middling. Wentz was eventually shut down for the season with a back injury, and the Eagles eked out a 9-7 finish and a loss in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

But if a fully healthy Wentz returns, the Eagles should make another deep run in the playoffs. Part of the reason is that the Eagles added some weapons for Wentz in wide receiver DeSean Jackson and running back Jordan Howard.

What does a team do with three first-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft? It patches holes on the roster with, theoretically, three new starters.

That should be the mentality the Oakland Raiders have with their three first-rounders this year.

It should be easy to figure out the two directions the Houston Texans will go in the 2019 NFL Draft. Just about every mock draft over the last four months has given Houston either an offensive tackle or a cornerback.

It’s with just cause too. Take Houston’s offensive line, for instance. Last season, quarterback Deshaun Watson was sacked 62 times, the most in the NFL. But unfortunately for the Texans, in the SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft, offensive tackles Jawaan Taylor, Jonah Williams, and Andre Dillard are all gone.

Much of this offseason for the Seattle Seahawks has been about retaining their own players. The team wisely used the franchise tag on defensive end Frank Clark. Linebackers K.J. Wright and Mychal Kendricks were re-signed, as was right guard D.J. Fluker.

These were all smart moves the Seahawks had to make because they currently only have four draft picks in the 2019 NFL Draft.

From the outside, the Pittsburgh Steelers look like a team in tumult. After a hot 7-2-1 start last year, the Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Running back Le’Veon Bell never showed up and left the team this offseason for the New York Jets. Wide receiver Antonio Brown essentially talked his way into a trade to Oakland while jabbing at quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

We have our first repeat team in the SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft. The New York Giants are back on the clock after taking LSU linebacker Devin White with the sixth pick.

Not taking a quarterback at No. 6 makes things interesting at No. 17. The Giants can double down on playmakers on defense, and there are several good options. It’s pretty shocking that we’re more than halfway done with the mock and Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins is available, for instance.

We are officially at the halfway point in this year’s SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft. To provide a quick recap, things started with the Arizona Cardinals taking Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray first overall. After that, six of the next seven picks were players on defense. Nine of the first 15 players have been on defense.

Could that continue with pick No. 16 and the Carolina Panthers? The belief much of the offseason is the Panthers’ biggest need is a pass rusher. Carolina is short on edge rushers, with a player like Bruce Irvin being only a stopgap measure.

After two straight seasons of making the playoffs, including an appearance in Super Bowl 51, the Atlanta Falcons took a step back in 2018.

The Falcons finished 7-9, and had a stretch of five consecutive losses. Sitting at 4-9, the Falcons could have gone into a complete tailspin. Instead, a three-game win streak to close the season brought Atlanta to 7-9 and the middle of the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Are they tanking, or not tanking? That is the question facing the Miami Dolphins in the lead up to the 2019 NFL Draft. The idea of Miami tanking the 2019 season first popped up in January. Since then, Miami has torched its roster. Gone are wide receiver Danny Amendola, running back Frank Gore, offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James, quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and defensive ends Andre Branch, William Hayes, and Cameron Wake.

While several of those players have declined in play, Miami did little to replace them. Tight end Dwayne Allen, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, and cornerback Eric Rowe were all signed to small deals.

The Green Bay Packers are a team in a state of upheaval. After 13 seasons, Mike McCarthy is out as head coach and in is Matt LaFleur. Gone is longtime pass pusher Clay Matthews, replaced by a couple of free agents. There’s very public drama with Aaron Rodgers. General manager Brian Gutekunst, in just his second year in charge, is still unproven.

The Packers might not be a team on the brink, but after two consecutive losing seasons, things in Green Bay are a little off.

The Cincinnati Bengals seem to be stagnating. Over the past three seasons, the Bengals have a combined 19-28-1 record after five straight seasons of making the playoffs.

In free agency, most of the team’s signings were their own players. Linebacker Preston Brown, cornerback Darqueze Dennard, tight end Tyler Eifert, right tackle Bobby Hart, and tight end C.J. Uzomah all re-signed with the Bengals. The team’s biggest splash was signing guard John Miller to a three-year contract. None of this is very exciting. Oh, and the Bengals are continuing to roll with Andy Dalton at quarterback.

For the second year in a row, the Denver Broncos find themselves picking in the top 10 of the NFL Draft. Last year, Denver smartly took defensive end Bradley Chubb. Twelve sacks later, and Chubb had one of the best seasons for a rookie in the NFL.

Denver overall had arguably the best rookie class in the NFL last season. Undrafted free agent running back Phillip Lindsay had 1,278 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns. Linebacker Josey Jewell looks like a starter, as do wide receivers DaeSean Hamilton and Courtland Sutton.

In last year’s draft, the Buffalo Bills made a big trade to get up to No. 7 overall to take quarterback Josh Allen. It was a calculated risk to get the big-armed Wyoming quarterback.

The problem for Buffalo was the talent around him. These were Buffalo’s leading receivers in 2018: Zay Jones (652 yards), Robert Foster (541 yards), Kelvin Benjamin (354 yards), and Jason Croom (259 yards). That’s not exactly Andre Reed and James Lofton.

Matt Patricia’s first season as head coach of the Detroit Lions was a rough one. Detroit struggled through a 6-10 season that included losing four of the last six games. Even worse, starting quarterback Matthew Stafford took a step backward in his 10th season in the NFL.

Part of the problem was an offense featuring few top targets for Stafford. After Kenny Golladay’s 1,063 yards, no Lions receiver caught more than 517 yards on the season. Worse yet, Detroit’s top tight end, Levine Toilolo, only had 263 yards receiving.

After five years of futility, save for a 10-6 season in 2017, the Jacksonville Jaguars are free of Blake Bortles. The former first-round pick left Jacksonville mired in NFL purgatory. The Jaguars never quite bottomed out fully, but never had a season good enough to push them to a Super Bowl run.

That 2017 season is the only exception. That year the Jaguars fielded one of the NFL’s best defenses and advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game. But otherwise, Jacksonville has played poorly. Not helping matters is taking running back Leonard Fournette with the fourth overall pick in 2017, or a lackluster rookie season from 2018 first-rounder Taven Bryan.

If you’re just joining us, we’re in the midst of the SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft. Now in its 13th year, a small handful of people have been around for every single mock. One of them is Ed Valentine of Big Blue View, who is up now making the pick at No. 6 for the New York Giants.

The Giants are a team at the crossroads. Controversially, veteran Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning returns for another season in New York. General manager Dave Gettleman traded away star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. for what looks like just a decent deal considering what they could’ve received for him.

Our final pick of the day in the 13th annual SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft belongs to John B of Gang Green Nation and the New York Jets.

This year marks the fourth year out of five where the Jets have a pick in the top six of the draft. It’s not a good look for general manager Mike Maccagnan, who somewhat surprisingly held onto his job after the Jets finished 4-12 last season. Maccagnan got aggressive in the lead up to last year’s draft, trading up from the sixth pick to the third to get quarterback Sam Darnold.