2017 NFL Draft: 5 Wild Card Teams Impossible to Predict

One of the things that makes this time of year so thrilling is its unpredictability. The pro football offseason can often be more fun to watch than actual sports.

That’s why the lead up to the 2017 NFL draft is going to be gigantic. Free agency has begun to set the stage for what will follow next month. Big names switched uniforms and teams will be picking in the top five who haven’t done so for years. People love unknowns when it comes to such things because it throws everything out of whack. Teams that should do this end up doing that instead and chaos ensues. Often the best way to refer to them is “wild cards.”

Teams that just don’t appear to have plan from the outside point of view. Here are five such examples and why they are so difficult to get a bead on.

San Francisco 49ers (#2)

Any team with a completely revamped front office will be hard to predict. Nobody knows for sure what new GM John Lynch will prioritize in the draft. In fact none are certain whether he’s even in charge of building the roster. That may be the job of Kyle Shanahan. To top it off the 49ers have a laundry list of needs with quarterback being at the top. They can’t possibly think Brian Hoyer is their man going into next season right? It’s difficult to imagine they pass on one at #2, but the uncertainty surrounding the class makes it impossible to know for sure.

New York Jets (#6)

At the start of the offseason it was fairly simple to figure out what the New York Jets needed. That was a quarterback. This hasn’t changed. However the team went ahead and decided to muddy the waters by cutting almost every notable veteran on their roster. This included three starting offensive linemen, receiver Brandon Marshall and cornerback Darrelle Revis. To top it off rumors insist quarterback is not on their radar for the #6 pick even though they have no definitive answer at the position. Thus it’s all guesswork until something changes.

Arizona Cardinals (#13)

What makes this situation for the Cardinals so interesting is they’re now torn. There is no doubt that they need to think about finding a successor for Carson Palmer who creeps closer to his 40th birthday. At the same time their defense was just decimated by free agency. Calaise Campbell, Tony Jefferson and Marcus Cooper are all gone. It’s going to be tough replacing those losses without the use of their most valuable pick. No doubt it’s going to be quite a debate on what to do leading up to draft night.

Washington Redskins (#17)

Many around the NFL are still in shock at the dismissal of Redskins GM Scot McCloughan just two years through his tenure. It looked like he had the team pointed in the right direction. Now nothing is certain. Kirk Cousins has requested a trade. Their two best wide receivers left in free agency and they still have major question marks across the entire defense. With it being unclear who’s even making the personnel decisions, it’s impossible to know for sure which way the team is leaning.

Kansas City Chiefs (#27)

This comes down to how much the Chiefs trust Alex Smith. He got them to the playoffs again in 2016 but again they failed to go deeper than the divisional round. Many are getting anxious. Super Bowl windows don’t stay open for very long. This has led to speculation it might be time for the team to consider seeking out their next quarterback. At the same time holes have begun to appear on defense. Given its vital importance to their success, that’s an area they can’t ignore. Thus it will be a tug-of-war to determine which area they can survive another year without immediate attention.