2020 NFL Draft: Consensus First-Round Picks for all 32 Teams

This one is all but written in stone. With the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals will draft Joe Burrow.

It just makes too much sense to not happen. Burrow was the best quarterback in the NCAA in 2019. He blew everyone away with his 60 touchdowns, 76 percent completion rate season, culminating in an undefeated season for LSU and a College National Playoff Championship. There is a lot to like about how he plays on film.

Something pretty serious would have to happen to derail this pick. The Bengals have already indicated they have no intention of trading the first overall pick away, which is pretty understandable. It’s not every year your team gets to draft first.

Plus it is clear the Bengals coaching staff and front office have lost faith in Andy Dalton. Players may accept that one season must be sacrificed to become better down the road. But two seasons in a row and we’re talking about a team that is susceptible to developing a losing culture.

In the 2020 NFL Draft, one of the only sure things will be Burrow drafted first overall. SI.com has reported that the Bengals have maxed out their allotted phone time with Burrow in the lead up to the draft. With a potentially abridged preseason in 2020, having as much time to talk with their future franchise quarterback can’t be a bad thing.

Just like Burrow is a lock to be drafted by the Bengals, the Washington Redskins should be locked into drafting Chase Young. He is by far the best player in the draft, bar none. He looked like an NFL player who snuck onto the field at Ohio State.

While edge rusher may not be the most important position for the Redskins to address in the 2020 NFL Draft, the value added to the team’s defense makes its importance inconsequential. Teams in the NFC East will now have to contend with a defensive line that sports a pass-rushing attack of Young, Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan.

Kerrigan is 32-years old and is in the last year of his contract, per Spotrac. He has been with the team since 2011 and had never missed a regular-season game until 2019, according to Pro Football Reference. If the Redskins are inclined to move on from Kerrigan after 2020, they will still have a formidable pass-rush with Sweat and Young on the line.

It may be tempting for the team to trade back and get extra draft capital at this spot. But Young is one of the few “sure thing” prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft. Unless a team is willing to trade multiple early-round picks to move up, Dan Snyder and the rest of the team’s front office should be content to bring in the Buckeye pass-rusher.

With Darius Slay leaving in free agency, the Detroit Lions will still need a new man-to-man coverage expert on the outside. Free-agent pickup Desmond Trufant was a good addition for the team, but he missed seven games in 2019 and is turning 30-years old this September.

By drafting Ohio State cornerback Jeffrey Okudah, the Lions add a proven cornerback who can lock down opponents and move around the field when needed. At 6-foot-1, 200-pounds Okudah is the ideal size for an NFL cornerback. He is rarely beaten downfield and has the speed to keep up with wide receivers no matter where they run on the field.

Okudah is sticky in coverage and can pack a punch at the line of scrimmage that will make most NFL wide receivers think twice about challenging him body-to-body in the contact zone. By keeping the secondary a prohibitive place to get yards in 2020, the Lions defense will be able to keep most of the action upfield with the defensive front seven.

The Lions added multiple high-end players to the defense’s front seven during free agency this offseason. Most notable of these was former New England Patriots players Danny Shelton and Jamie Collins. With Trufant and Okudah in the secondary and a solid front seven roster in 2020, the Lions could have a top-five defense ready to push for an NFC North title.