2021 NFL Draft: Washington Redskins get top pick in new mock draft

2021 NFL Draft preview with NFL schedule released.

The NFL released the schedule for the 2020 season last week and once again commanded the attention of the sports world, and even created buzz for the 2021 NFL Draft. Although teams and fans knew the opponents for each team and which games would be played at home or away, the full layout of the schedule was still unknown up until the release, which is when bye weeks can create advantages as well as games on prime time.

Now, with byes and the full schedule known, we can start to pick apart the schedule and come up with more clear predictions for how the season will unfold, and with that a more clear 2021 NFL Draft order. So, over the last few weeks since the schedule was released, I did just that. I broke down the schedule week by week and then the playoffs round by round to come up with what I currently believe will be the 2021 NFL Draft order.

One thing that will be new this year from previous years is the new playoff format. Adding another seed in each conference changes the way the draft picks will fall, now seeing the first 18 picks set when the regular season ends and the final 14 throughout the playoffs.

Previously, the first 20 were set after week 17 while the final 12 were determined by the playoffs. Although this most likely won’t change much for the first 18 picks, it will certainly have an impact on how the last 14 picks fall.