NFL Sets Order for 2021 Draft; Jaguars With 10 Picks Overall
The National Football League has officially set the order for the 2021 NFL Draft and as expected, the Jacksonville Jaguars own the number one overall pick. In total, the club owns 10 picks in the upcoming draft, five of which were acquired through trades.
The full list is as follows:
- First round, first pick, No. 1 overall
- First round, 25th pick, No. 25 overall (from Los Angeles Rams)
- Second round, first pick, No. 33 overall
- Second round, 13th pick, No. 45 overall (from Minnesota Vikings)
- Third round, first pick, No. 65 overall
- Fourth round, first pick, No. 106 overall
- Fourth round, 25th pick, No. 130 overall (from Los Angeles Rams)
- Fifth round, first pick, No. 145 overall
- Fifth round, 26th overall, No. 170 overall (from Cleveland Browns)
- Seventh round, 22nd pick, No. 249 overall (from Tennessee Titans)
The 25th pick in the first round and the 25th pick in the fourth round (130 overall) are both a result of the 2019 deal with the Los Angeles Rams which sent corner Jalen Ramsey to the Rams. The Jaguars also received a first round pick in that deal for the 2020 draft. That pick was used on defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson.
The 13th pick in the second round from the Minnesota Vikings was part of the deal for Yannick Ngakoue. The 26th pick in the fifth round from the Cleveland Browns is a result of the trade that sent safety Ronnie Harrison up north. And the 22nd pick in the seventh round from the Kamalei Correa trade with the Tennessee Titans.
The Jaguars own seventh round pick was sent to the New Orleans Saints this week for defensive tackle Malcom Brown. The club’s sixth round pick was originally sent to the Tennessee Titans and is now owned by the Los Angeles Chargers.
Head Coach Urban Meyer has said repeatedly that this is the most important offseason in franchise history. Meyer outlined his process to building a roster a week and a half ago saying, “You always start at the quarterback position. Obviously, Gardner [Minshew II] was a guy that had some success early here. I’ve spent a little bit of time with him, not a lot of time with him. But you always start at the quarterback position and we have the number one pick. There’s a lot of speculation out there that [a quarterback] will be the first pick so number one is just making sure we have the quarterback room exactly the way we want it.
“From there, you look at a defense that really struggled in a lot of areas and I always believe you build your team around the defensive line and you move backwards, so that’s what we’re going to do. Our defensive line, we feel good about it, a few of our players are pretty good. I just don’t want to go into names right now. I don’t think that’s fair to the players. But the defensive line will be solidified first and then we move to the back of the defense and our defensive secondary needs to be revamped in a few spots.
“Offensively, I think we have some really good receivers. We’re not done with that room, however. If you’ve covered our teams over the years, the need for speed, the big play opportunity was not the Jaguars last year and we’re searching for the big play hit at the receiver position. Running back, James [Robinson], we feel pretty good about him. He had a good year, so we want to build a room with him being an integral part of it. The tight end room, that’s a room that’s going to have to be rebuilt in some ways. Offensive line, especially the interior line, I feel really good about them, [OL Andrew] Norwell, [OL Brandon] Linder, and [OL] A.J. [Cann]. Those guys are good and our right tackle, I feel like his future’s ahead of him too. So, the offensive line, they should be better than a year [ago]. The expectation is that the offensive line will be much better next year.”
The club signed a bevy of secondary members and defensive linemen in free agency this week. And now with the height of free agency over, attention turns to the draft. The NFL Draft begins on Thursday, April 29 and runs through Saturday, May 1.
