Eight Potential Busts From The 2020 NFL Draft
The NFL draft is now concluded, and we saw our fair share of both sleepers and busts. I am personally all about the late round sleepers. However, today I am going to dive into eight potential first and second round busts. Be sure to check out Ben the Pen's draft grades part one, part two and part three as well.
1 - Jordan Love - QB, Green Bay Packers
Let's start with one of the more obvious choices for this list shall we? We'll just ignore the fact that the Packers already have not only one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL today, but potentially one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time on their roster. This was Green Bay's first time drafting an offensive skill position player in the first round since Aaron Rodgers was taken back in 2005. Unless Rodgers will be on the move to a new team, the Packers completely wasted their first round pick.
2 - Jalen Reagor - WR, Philadelphia Eagles
Speaking of out of place draft picks, this selection had me scratching my head. The Eagles passed on Baylor stud wide out Denzel Mims to take the TCU product Reagor with the 21st pick. He had a great 2018 season with 1,061 yards and nine touchdowns. However, he had a major setback last season with only 611 yards and five touchdowns. I may be wrong here, but I believe that Philadelphia whiffed when they skipped the opportunity to take Mims.
3 - Javon Kinlaw - DT, San Francisco 49ers
Yes, the 49ers had an obvious glaring need at defensive tackle after losing DeForest Buckner. However, I don't believe that Kinlaw was the guy they needed this early. He hasn't been anything overly outstanding during his college career. Kinlaw's tackles have been there as he had 30 in 2018 followed by 35 this previous season, but he doesn't get a ton of sacks with only ten in two years throughout college. I don't see Kinlaw having enough output for San Francisco to warrant spending a first-round pick for him.
4 - Brandon Aiyuk - WR, San Francisco 49ers
While I'm on the subject of San Francisco, I might as well mention their other first-round pick. Aiyuk is coming off a terrific season for Arizona State with 1,192 yards and eight touchdowns. This one outstanding season isn't enough to convince me that he's going to be a big-time contributor though. Sure, there's some potential in this selection, but one season of great production just isn't enough for me. This is another example of a team passing up the better receiver in my opinion in Mims, and it may come back to haunt them.
5 - Damon Arnette - CB, Las Vegas Raiders
This first-round selection had me really surprised. The Raiders drew a lot of questioning from both fans and the media when they picked this Ohio State product with the 19th pick in the first round. Arnette was never a flashy player during his tenure in college, and Jon Gruden may have whiffed terribly here. He only has five interceptions in four years of college and only 140 career tackles. Unless Las Vegas's upper management sees something that I don't, the Raiders jumped the gun with this pick.
6 - Kyle Dugger - S, New England Patriots
This second-round selection from Division II school Lenoir-Rhyne was the Patriots' first pick of the draft and had the majority of New England fans asking the question, "Who??". Dugger was one of the best players at the Division II level, but this is a big step-up in competition. He's battled with injuries throughout his college career, which is scary. The Patriots chose to avoid the glaring issue at quarterback and go with this boom or bust pick instead, and I'm leaning much more heavily to the side of bust.
7 - Cole Kmet - TE, Chicago Bears
I am seriously starting to question whether or not the Bears even want to win ballgames. Chicago has so many other issues at hand, but they chose to spend their first pick of the draft which was in the second round on a tight end instead. There is nothing about Kmet that should have warranted being drafted second round. He's injury-prone, and he's only accumulated 691 yards on 60 catches and six touchdowns through three partial years of service at the collegiate level.
8 - Jalen Hurts - QB, Philadelphia Eagles
Let's wrap things up by dipping back into the interesting pool of draft picks for Philadelphia. The only thing that I can even possibly begin to think would warrant the Eagles to select Hurts this early in the draft was visions of a Taysom Hill-like scheme. There were much better options available such as Jake Fromm or Jacob Eason that could have potentially been ready from day one. Instead, they took the highly inconsistent Jalen Hurts with their second-round selection. Hurts may have great leadership skills, but he is still a good two years away from being NFL-ready.