National Football League

Stellar QB class, offensive depth headline uncertain 2021 NFL Draft

Updated Jul. 20, 2021 7:11 p.m. ET

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Rob Rang

By Rob Rang
FOX Sports NFL Draft Analyst

The 2021 NFL Draft will be like no other.

The cancellation of the NFL’s annual scouting combine and the disruption of the typical slate of pro-day workouts guarantee more uncertainty than we've ever seen in the draft.

While every general manager and scouting director will happily stand at a podium and announce his club’s commitment to drafting players based on "the tape," the reality is teams place a lot of emphasis on the in-person interviews, apples-to-apples athletic testing and, of course, extensive medical, psychological and intelligence testing the combine normally provides.

Teams will receive some of this information before the April 29 draft, but neither as completely nor as uniformly as in the past.

No one knows for sure how the 32 teams will react to the unique disparity of information and challenges that this year’s draft provides. Or, more specifically, no one knows how teams will respond to the players who opted out of the 2020 season.

Conversations with scouts have revealed varying thoughts on the matter. Some viewed opt-outs as a positive, with a year removed from the physicality of the game potentially giving athletes more time in the NFL. Others were quick to raise concerns about commitment and competitiveness.

That could lead to a wide variance in player grades among teams, including for some of the most talented players in the class. For example, Oregon left tackle Penei Sewell, LSU wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons are easily among the 10 best players in this class and would be among the top five non-quarterbacks selected in most drafts.

But this year, it should surprise no one if each is supplanted at the top of the class by a player who played last fall.

Every club in the league, of course, will have plenty of information on these first-round locks, but that will not be the case for some of the lower-rated players. Consciously or not, some teams will ding players who were unable to create "complete" scouting reports.

Even though the challenges of the 2021 NFL draft are different, we’ve seen how NFL teams can react when there is a gap in their reports, such as when Laremy Tunsil (the gas-mask incident in 2016) or Montez Sweat (medical concerns in 2019) suffered dramatic tumbles down the board as teams opted for safer picks.    

The gulf in opinion on players should make for an awfully entertaining draft, with long positional runs and shocking "reaches." Unfortunately, there are also likely to be more "fallers" this year, with some unfortunate college stars learning that Twitter big boards don't always match the NFL scouts' versions.

It is easy to sympathize with those struggling to piece together the complete details on a prospect when you consider the plight of NFL fans, who have grown quite accustomed to the barrage of information from head coaches and general managers speaking to the media at the combine.

Among the comments and updates on veteran players already on their rosters, the league’s decision-makers typically share generalized thoughts on the upcoming draft. While the coaches and top scouts are too cagey to give away their feelings on individual players, their collective comments usually illustrate many of the themes of a particular draft class.

That’s the goal here: to get you caught up on what, exactly, makes the 2021 NFL Draft class so unique.

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The quarterbacks are special

Folks, I’ve been covering the NFL Draft for 20 years, and this is one of my favorite quarterback classes.

In my eyes, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is the No. 1 quarterback and the top prospect of the draft. In terms of size, athleticism, arm and intangibles, Lawrence reminds me of the young John Elway I watched from the Kingdome seats in Seattle. There have been only a couple of consensus No. 1 quarterbacks like Lawrence since Elway – guys such as Michael Vick, Carson Palmer, Cam Newton and perhaps Andrew Luck. Lawrence is in their class.

This isn’t to say that I don’t love the upside of Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Buckeyes' star is my No. 2 quarterback in large part because I believe he is a clearly ascending talent, in many ways similar to how I felt three years ago about a quarterback out of Wyoming named Josh Allen.

Meanwhile, BYU’s Zach Wilson happens to be the most accurate passer of the bunch, which I maintain remains the simplest and most important element for a QB to have success in the NFL. Questions about Wilson's durability and level of competition concern me enough to keep him third among quarterbacks, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he went No. 2 overall to the Jets (or another team in a trade-up) after the Jaguars, presumably, take Lawrence.

Wilson and his Alabama counterpart, Mac Jones, are as quick and accurate mentally as they are precise with the football. Those attributes project very well to today’s up-tempo offenses.

Oh, did I mention that North Dakota State’s Trey Lance has some of the most highlight-reel-worthy plays of the bunch? With just 17 career starts (all against FCS teams), Lance is unquestionably a project. However, scouts are rightly as excited about Lance’s raw tools as they are about those of any other quarterback in this class.

Barring a colossal flurry of veteran quarterback moves prior to the draft, I believe all five of these quarterbacks could wind up being first-round picks. That would mark the third time five quarterbacks have gone that high, joining Allen’s 2018 class and the 1999 group headlined by Donovan McNabb. Elway's legendary 1983 class set the "modern-day" NFL record with six. 

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Don’t be dumb. This whole class is offensive!

As the unquestioned most important player in team sports, the quarterback is always going to get the most attention. Still, the 2021 draft class isn’t just loaded at that key position. The entire group is tilted toward offense, with back-to-back stellar classes at wide receiver and offensive tackle that are almost as noteworthy as the class of signal-callers.

One year after NFL teams used a quarter of the first 34 picks on eight wide receivers, the 2021 crop looks nearly as strong.

I stamped first- or early second-round grades on five receivers (Chase of LSU, Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith of Alabama, Kadarius Toney of Florida and Rashod Bateman of Minnesota), as well as on the Gators' blue-chip tight end Kyle Pitts, a future Pro Bowler. Those six might wind up matching last year’s much ballyhooed pass-catcher class – at least in terms of first-round picks.

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Although it didn’t receive nearly as much attention as the quarterback and receiver classes a year ago, the bumper crop of offensive linemen was certainly recognized by the purists of the game.

Six offensive tackles went in the top 32 last year, the most since 2011. This year’s class might be even better, with the aforementioned Sewell, a super-elite talent, along with the likes of Orlando Pace, Joe Thomas, Jake Long and Trent Williams.

There is also a unique talent at center in Alabama’s Landon Dickerson. In an era when most centers check in relatively small (by NFL offensive line standards), at around 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds, Dickerson is a verified 6-foot-6, 326 pounds of runaway locomotive. If not for his maddening propensity for getting off the tracks (as in injuries), Dickerson would qualify as the rare center worthy of top-20 consideration. 

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As good as the top-end talent is up front, the depth is better.

Also, for the seventh consecutive year, you can expect at least one running back to be drafted in the first round. That will most likely be Alabama’s Najee Harris, who is equal parts salamander and sledgehammer. At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Harris projects as the latest Tide back to roll into immediate NFL success.

Glimpse into the future? Watch the wideouts

It will be fascinating to watch how NFL teams perceive this year’s equally dynamic veteran and rookie options at wide receiver. As I mentioned earlier, this year’s crop of prospects is dynamic, with a red-zone maven such as Chase and the latest batch of ‘Bama burners among the pass-catchers who appear ready to light up NFL scoreboards.

As many have previously noted, however, this year’s class of free-agent wide receivers is also loaded. It is easily the most talented and deepest position of this year’s veteran crop, with Kenny Golladay, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Will Fuller and Curtis Samuel among the already proven 20-somethings eager to show they are No. 1 targets.

While more and more NFL teams are looking to stock an entire stable of speedy receivers, most clubs will look to solve other needs early in the draft if they pony up the big dollars and commit to one of the aforementioned soon-to-be free agents.

We all know free agency is going to help some teams fill holes before the draft. Take note of where the veteran receivers go – and which teams woo them but lose out. Doing so will give you a strong hint as to how many pass-catchers will go in the first round of the draft and where.

This might wind up being as good of an indicator of what will transpire on draft day as we are likely to get from this bizarre NFL offseason – other than where the veteran quarterbacks (always, the quarterbacks!) wind up, of course!

One of the most recognized names in the industry, Rob Rang has been covering the NFL Draft for more than 20 years, with work at FOX, Sports Illustrated, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Yahoo, NFL.com and NFLDraftScout.com, among others.

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