NFL Draft 2013 results: Manti Te’o, Geno Smith, Tyrann Mathieu headline Day 2 picks

Almost half of the NFL Draft is done, and the most valuable players in the class of 2013 are already off the board. How are teams stacking up in the early going?

Depends who you ask, obviously. We’re personally partial to Dan Kadar, editor of SB Nation’s Mocking the Draft, who has NFL Draft Grades for the first three rounds, but we took a division-by-division look at how various draft experts are grading the NFL Draft through the first few days.

With teams focusing on offense in the first round, the AFC South took a sharp turn towards defense on the draft’s second day. Only three of the division’s nine picks were used on the offensive side of the ball, as each team plays chess, looking for ways to stop high-powered offenses in Houston and Indianapolis.

Dan Kadar re-graded each team’s draft class, while Pete Prisco elected to give a breakdown of each pick as it happened on Friday.

However, there’s still a bunch of talent left at this position on the final day of the draft. Let’s see who they are.

2012 stats: 136 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, 2 interceptions

On Friday night in the second and third rounds of the 2013 NFL Draft, the NFC East teams decided to get offensive.

General manager Jerry Reese always has a plan. This year he went with the big uglies in the trenches.

Wilcox played running back and wide receiver for his first three seasons at Georgia Southern, but he became a pro prospect in his one season at strong safety in 2012. He had 88 tackles, three pass break-ups and two interceptions in his only season on defense, and he also averaged 25.2 yards as the team’s primary kick returner. He caught eyes at the Senior Bowl, and his performance at the Combine helped solidify his reputation with limited exposure in one season at an FCS school. With Barry Church coming off of an achilles injury, the Cowboys needed a bit more depth in their secondary.

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Former New Orleans Saints defensive back Steve Gleason made an appearance on the stage at Radio City Music Hall on Friday night. He was there to announce his former team’s third-round pick, offensive tackle Terron Armstead.

Gleason took the stage to a staggering round of applause.

Mathieu is one of the most enigmatic prospects in this year’s draft. After finishing the 2011 season as a Heisman Trophy finalist, he was kicked off the LSU football program for testing positive for synthetic marijuana. Ignoring the baggage for a moment, there is plenty to like about Mathieu as a prospect. He has natural instincts, tremendous athleticism and is fearless on the field.

That said, the baggage is present, and Mathieu’s size is less than ideal. Though he is willing to take on all comers, NFL scouts are right to worry whether Mathieu’s 5’9, 186-pound frame will be an issue when he goes up against larger receivers at the next level. He may be relegated to covering the slot exclusively in the NFL.

Unfortunately, scouts were unable to get as good a look at Lacy as they would have liked. He was forced to sit out workouts at the NFL Combine and during Alabama pro day due to a hamstring injury he suffered in February. That said, his combined size and athleticism, and relatively little wear at the college level should allow him to make an immediate impact as a rookie.

It’s likely that Lacy will come in and compete for the starting role from day one and him seeing a healthy amount of carries in his rookie season, provided he’s healthy, seems like a safe bet.

The Atlanta Falcons selected Southeastern Louisiana cornerback Robert Alford with the No. 60 overall pick in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Alford is rated as the 11th-best cornerback prospect in this year’s draft class by SB Nation’s Dan Kadar.

Alford was a fast riser up draft boards in recent months thanks to impressive performances at the 2013 NFL Combine and at Southeastern Louisiana’s pro day. His 4.39 in the 40-yard dash and 40” vertical leap were each tied for the fourth-best among all cornerbacks in Indianapolis. Scouts have praised Alford for his fluid cover skills and tenacity as a tackler.

Big Blue View wrote a prospect profile on Banks, and had this to say about his weaknesses:

Combine Results

Watson, 24, is a native of Machester, England who wasn’t introduced to football until after he arrived in America to play college basketball. After playing the sport for the first time at Saddleback College in California, he transferred to FSU in January 2012 and earned a spot in the team’s starting lineup right away before foregoing his senior season with the Seminoles to enter the 2013 NFL Draft.

In a prospect profile on SB Nation, the following were listed as positives for Watson:

Someone sure was excited about the Chargers picking Manti Te’o.

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Ertz was the top-rated tight end recruit coming out of high school and chose to play for Jim Harbaugh at Stanford. He came on late in his redshirt freshman season, catching touchdown passes in the Cardinal’s last three games before Harbaugh left for the NFL. While an injury wiped out much of his sophomore season, Ertz shined in his junior year, leading the Cardinal in just about every receiving category to shoot up draft boards. Now it appears as if he may be reunited with Harbaugh in San Francisco.

The 49ers use a lot of two tight end sets and Ertz is a solid blocker to go along with his pass-catching prowess, so San Francisco should be able to use him plenty despite also having Davis in the fold. With the two, Kaepernick would surely be a happy man.