After a remarkable Super Bowl, all 32 teams can now put their focus on the offseason. The NFL Scouting Combine is only a few weeks away (March 3-6 on NFL Network) and I can’t wait to see all of the talent on display in Indianapolis. Some draft classes have elite players at the top, while other classes offer tremendous depth and value in the middle rounds. The 2017 NFL Draft will offer both quality and quantity at several positions. I reached out to five NFL personnel executives and asked them which position they thought was the deepest in the upcoming draft. Here are their answers.
2017 NFL DRAFT
Executive 1: Tight end
"This is the best group of tight ends I’ve seen in a long time. There are 7 guys at the position that are going to come in and be major contributors in Year One. I think the safety group is a close second. You are going to see some really good players still on the board in the fourth and fifth rounds."
Executive 2: Safety
"Overall, this is the best group of DBs we’ve had in several years. Specifically, I love the safety depth. I keep watching one good player after another. The UConn kid (Obi Melifonwu) was a revelation at the Senior Bowl. The safety at Utah (Marcus Williams) is a great player and he isn’t even one of the five best safeties in the draft."
Executive 3: Cornerback
"This draft is loaded with corners. There are some elite guys at the top of the draft, but I think there are some excellent value guys in the middle rounds and a bunch of sleepers I really like on Day 3 (Rounds 4-7)."
Executive 4: Cornerback
"I think it’s a very deep draft at several positions, but cornerback is the deepest, followed closely by the running back group. I think we could see a major run on cornerbacks in the first three rounds. I think we could see 20 of them go off the board in the top 100 picks."
Executive 5: Cornerback
"I love the corners in this draft. I think every team has them in a different order and I’m fascinated to see how they come off the board."
Summary: That’s three votes for cornerback and one apiece for safety and tight end.
Conclusion: I think you can make a case for several positions being the deepest in the upcoming draft, but I believe cornerback belongs at the top of the list. I currently have 10 cornerbacks in my top 50 players and I felt guilty for leaving a handful of other cornerbacks off my list. The running back and tight end groups are also loaded with quality depth. Although I’m not in love with the top-tier talent at the position, I believe there is some depth in the quarterback class as well.
Follow Daniel Jeremiah on Twitter @MoveTheSticks.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
