2020 NFL Draft: What if the 2019 college season was never played?
It’s a bizarre rabbit hole to go down, but what if the 2019 college football season had never been played?
The 2020 NFL Draft, as we know it, would be completely different.
It feels like the 2020 NFL Draft was already impacted pretty significantly with such a substantial number of players unable to take part in a pro day because schools were forced to cancel them due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but what if the 2019 season had never happened?
Assuming the 2020 NFL Draft order would have remained the same, it’s impossible to make any sort of accurate projection of this because the 2020 NFL Draft class and whatever players would be available in such a scenario would have also impacted 2020 free agency in the NFL. Let’s just assume for the moment that everything else was the same.
The way things currently are in the United States, pessimism is growing that a college football season will be played normally, if at all. Conferences are already announcing they will be doing conference-only schedules if games are played because they will be able to keep their schools in controlled environments with conference-sanctioned testing.
It’s possible that COVID-19 in 2020 is taking us to an alternate football universe in 2021, and to illustrate just how substantial not having a college season in 2020 would be, I want to look at what the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft might have looked like if the 2019 college season was canceled.
No Joe Burrow, at least not Heisman Joe Burrow. No Tua Tagovailoa injury.
Let’s say all of the same players declared themselves eligible and NFL teams were forced to go off of the data they had prior to 2019 to make their selections.
Actual pick: Joe Burrow, QB, LSU
Tank for Tua.
That was the motto for teams gutting their roster heading into the 2019 NFL season, and with no college season, there would have been no Tua Tagovailoa hip injury.
He would have never gotten injured in that game and with his health not in serious question at that point (despite still having some injury struggles) he would have probably been the no-brainer selection for the Bengals up top.
With no 2019 college season, there is no Joe Burrow. The Bengals wouldn’t be taking that guy first overall without the season he put together last year.
Think about how drastically that could change the 2021 NFL Draft. The guy who ended up beating the “Tank for Tua” idea with a historic college season doesn’t get a chance to show what he can do with the season being canceled.
No Burrow means the tank for Tua was on for the Bengals.
Actual pick: Chase Young, DE, Ohio State
Absolutely no change here.
Chase Young was pretty widely considered the best non-quarterback in this class last year at this time, and even if there was no 2019 season, I don’t think there’s any chance this pick would be someone other than him.
Young is physically dominant and he showed that with Nick Bosa, without Nick Bosa, etc.
He was a man among boys pretty much any time he took the field at Ohio State and there’s no doubt about his star power transitioning to the NFL level.
Actual pick: Jeffrey Okudah, CB, Ohio State
Although Chase Young was widely considered the top non-QB in the 2020 NFL Draft even before the 2019 college season, there were many who felt like Iowa’s AJ Epenesa was right on his heels.
Epenesa was coming off of a very impressive sophomore campaign at Iowa in 2018 when he racked up 37 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks, and four forced fumbles.
Though he’s never been as explosive off the edge as a guy like Chase Young, Epenesa had shown an ability to wreck games at Iowa and he did it from a couple of different positions.
Had no 2019 season never been played, would Epenesa’s stock really have dropped from what many believed to be top 5-10 all the way to the second round?
At this time last year, Jeffrey Okudah qualified as a player to keep an eye on. He hadn’t even picked off a pass through his first two seasons at Ohio State, but he’d still shown first-round ability.
Just not top-5 ability.
With no 2019 season, I think it’s very unlikely Jeff Okudah is a top-three pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Actual pick: Andrew Thomas, OT, Georgia
The New York Giants don’t go off the path with this pick.
Andrew Thomas has been considered the best tackle prospect for the 2020 NFL Draft class basically since his freshman year at Georgia when he was an All-American at right tackle.
Thomas is a technician at tackle and while his athletic upside was not the same level of other guys in this class, he was always just really good in every facet of his game and always deserved to be one of the top guys off the board.
Although the Giants could have considered other players here, I don’t think they would have gone any different direction than Thomas with the fourth overall pick to protect Daniel Jones.
Actual pick: Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Alabama
No Joe Burrow, no Tua Tagovailoa for the Miami Dolphins.
No Tua Tagovailoa for the Miami Dolphins, then what?
There were talks that Justin Herbert would have been QB1 had he declared himself eligible for the 2019 NFL Draft, and that’s probably the case. He came back to Oregon for his senior season and was still a top 6 pick by the Los Angeles Chargers.
With no senior season at Oregon, Herbert’s decision to return to school would have been somewhat wasted but I think his draft stock would have remained unchanged and there could have even been a bidding war for his services at that point.
Herbert was a player who, after his senior season in 2019, people would not have been surprised to see him fall a bit in the first round.
Still, he’s a solid first-rounder and I think with no 2019 season, his value might have been even stronger.
Actual pick: Justin Herbert, QB, Oregon
This pick is actually the one I had made in my final 2020 mock draft of the 2020 NFL Draft season.
I think Jordan Love is a huge upside player and you take shots on those guys at the QB position.
After the 2018 season, Jordan Love had really grown his hype to a significant level. The 2021 NFL Draft mystery man at QB is Trey Lance, and Love was that kind of guy last year at this time.
He completed 64 percent of his passes with 32 touchdowns and just six interceptions, and he also rushed for seven touchdowns.
The Chargers could have taken Love at six overall in the real 2020 NFL Draft and it probably would have been a fun pick, but in a re-draft with no 2019 season where Love was really put under the microscope, I think he goes a lot higher than the later portion of the first round to the Green Bay Packers like he did.
Actual pick: Derrick Brown, DL, Auburn
This pick has made a lot of sense for a long time.
Derrick Brown embodies the kind of character Matt Rhule wants all over his roster, and the Panthers’ defensive line has been completely re-shaped over the last six months.
Brown was considered a potential high first-round pick had he entered the 2019 NFL Draft, so scouts and analysts have been really high on him for a while now.
I think he had earned enough respect through his first three years at Auburn to be considered a top 10 pick even if there was a lost 2019 college season.
In this re-draft scenario, the Panthers still get this disruptive force for their defensive interior and fill arguably their biggest need.
Actual pick: Isaiah Simmons, S/LB, Clemson
Grant Delpit’s hype was exceptionally high after the 2018 college football season.
He racked up 74 total tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, five interceptions, nine pass breakups, and a forced fumble.
Those numbers are good enough to make even Isaiah Simmons blush.
Considering the Cardinals are playing Simmons at linebacker, it’s possible they would have gone a completely different direction with this pick if they didn’t go with Simmons, perhaps offensive line, but Delpit might have been perceived as way too good of a value to pass up if his tackling issues had not been exploited throughout the 2019 college season.
Delpit ended up going in the second round to the Cleveland Browns in the actual 2020 NFL Draft.
Actual pick: CJ Henderson, CB, Florida
With holes all over their roster, the Jacksonville Jaguars opt to use their first of a pair of 2020 first-round picks on Jerry Jeudy here instead of the cornerback position.
Although CJ Henderson was great in 2018, Jerry Jeudy was the Biletnikoff Award winner as the country’s top wide receiver. He has always been a pro-ready player and the fact that he ended up going 15th overall to the Broncos in the real draft is still a little hard to believe.
Jeudy’s ability to be equal parts possession receiver and big-play threat would work really well with a guy like DJ Chark.
Based on his 2018 season, the Jaguars very well could have gone chalk here and picked Henderson, but Jeudy was probably more widely considered a top player at this time a year ago.
Actual pick: Jedrick Wills, OT, Alabama
Jedrick Wills was not really on anyone’s radar a year ago at this time. Although he’d played well as Alabama’s right tackle, Wills used his junior season to solidify his top draft status in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Tristan Wirfs had a ton of hype heading into his junior year for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and even though it’s hard to argue with the Browns’ selection of Wills knowing what we know now, it’s still a little hard to believe they passed on Wirfs, who would have been a perfect scheme fit for Kevin Stefanski.
Wirfs has other-worldly athletic and physical tools for the tackle position, and his transition to the left side of the line with Jack Conklin at right tackle would have been seamless.
Actual pick: Mekhi Becton, OT, Louisville
Although the New York Jets’ top priority in the 2020 NFL Draft was supporting Sam Darnold, I just don’t think there was enough data on Mekhi Becton for him to be selected in this slot without the 2019 season.
Becton had still been a starter for Louisville but it was in his junior season where he really showed flashes of dominance and consistency, not only on the field but off the field with weight fluctuations.
CJ Henderson’s 2018 tape is generally considered to be much better than his overall 2019 tape as he played in 2019 with some injuries, and the Jets are still not looking good at the cornerback position on their 2020 roster, so this pick would have made sense for New York had Henderson been available here.
Actual pick: Henry Ruggs III, WR, Alabama
It’s hard to say what the Raiders would have done had there been no 2019 college season.
Oklahoma’s 2018 campaign with Kyler Murray winning the Heisman shined a lot of light on CeeDee Lamb, but the hype was still really high for Henry Ruggs III as well.
Still, over the course of the 2019 season, I think what Ruggs showed in terms of his game speed and the way he was utilized in the Alabama offense set him apart and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who had Ruggs rated ahead of Lamb based on what we’d seen up through 2018.
Lamb wound up going a couple of picks later to the Dallas Cowboys in the real 2020 NFL Draft, but either way, the Raiders could have made this selection and it would have been a good one.
Actual pick: Tristan Wirfs, OT, Iowa
Without the 2019 college season, the offensive tackle position gets a little depleted from what it actually ended up being in the 2020 NFL Draft, but the Buccaneers wind up in a pretty good spot here with Isaiah Simmons.
Even though the Bucs needed the pick of Tristan Wirfs to round out their offensive line, the idea of getting Simmons in Todd Bowles’ defense would undoubtedly appeal to them and could have been a lot of fun to see.
Simmons flashed his first-round ability all throughout his career at Clemson, and solidified his top 10 status with his Combine performance, but would he have been a top 10 pick without the 2019 season?
Maybe.
Instead of getting Antoine Winfield Jr. in round two, the Bucs get Isaiah Simmons to add to their talented defense in the first round of this re-draft.
Actual pick: Javon Kinlaw, DL, South Carolina
Without another college football season, there’s no doubt that Laviska Shenault’s 2020 NFL Draft stock would have been solidified in the first round.
Shenault’s 2018 season is some of the most fun tape of a college player you will see, but his 2019 season was plagued by injuries.
Instead of getting Brandon Aiyuk later in the first round, the 49ers go with Shenault here to get yet another playmaker who can dominate after the catch as well as make plays deep downfield.
Shenault’s injury concerns pushed him to the second round where he was picked by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and if he can stay healthy, he’s going to be a star in the NFL.
I think he would have worked great in Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
Actual pick: Jerry Jeudy, WR, Alabama
Without the 2019 college football season, I think Jeffrey Okudah is still a first-round player but without the top five hype for certain.
Okudah’s 2019 season was unreal in terms of the way he shut down receivers on his side of the field, and it’s about as clean of a year of tape as you will find from a college corner.
Okudah hadn’t picked off a pass in his first two seasons at Ohio State, but there was some talk about him leading up to the 2019 season like, “This kid’s got some big-time potential to be a shut-down player.”
He lived up to it.
The Broncos’ top defensive need this offseason has undoubtedly been at cornerback and if they didn’t go offense in round one, this would have been the way to go.
The Broncos take a shot here on Okudah instead of Jerry Jeudy, who went a couple of picks earlier in the re-draft.
Actual pick: AJ Terrell, CB, Clemson
With only nine games under his belt prior to the 2019 season, I would say Kristian Fulton is probably the biggest stretch of a pick in this re-draft.
Despite the fact that he played only nine games in those two seasons leading up to the 2019 season, everyone was intrigued by Fulton’s potential and he had flashed that CB1 ability in games for LSU when he was out there.
A team starved for cornerback help like the Falcons might have seen an ability to really develop that potential and take him here.
The Falcons instead took AJ Terrell in a bit of a surprising pick after his disappointing finish to the 2019 season.
Actual pick: CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma
The Dallas Cowboys really struck gold in the 2020 NFL Draft with the majority of their selections.
CeeDee Lamb fell to their first-round pick and Trevon Diggs fell to their second-round pick.
After his performance in his two seasons transitioning to cornerback from the wide receiver position in 2017 and 2018, Diggs was looked at as a lock for the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
That didn’t happen.
Diggs’ inconsistency was a bit exploited over the 2019 season, so the fascination surrounding him after 2018 might not have worn off quite as much.
The Cowboys obviously had a need at the cornerback position and in this scenario, they have to take Diggs here with the run on cornerbacks happening early in round one.
Actual pick: Austin Jackson, OT, USC
Even though the Miami Dolphins ended up using this selection on an offensive tackle — and rightly so — the value of Javon Kinlaw here is too good to pass up on.
Without the 2019 season, there was still enough on Kinlaw to peg him as an easy first-round talent.
He has always struggled with consistency but Kinlaws flashes of dominance are jaw-dropping and if he can put it together, imagine him on a defensive front with Christian Wilkins in that Miami scheme.
Kinlaw was selected a few picks prior to this by the San Francisco 49ers so the Dolphins never had a shot at this scenario, but thinking about this pick here after their quarterback pick early on, this could have really elevated their 2020 draft class.
Actual pick: Damon Arnette, CB, Ohio State
Perhaps no player in the 2020 NFL Draft class had their stock plummet because they decided to return to school for another year than Virginia cornerback Bryce Hall.
He may not have had the most outstanding athletic traits, but his 2018 season was one of the best of any cornerback in college football.
He racked up 62 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions, and a whopping 21 pass breakups.
The Raiders had an obvious need at cornerback going into the 2020 NFL Draft and Bryce Hall would have been a no brainer here had there been no 2019 college season to derail his stock.
Actual pick: K’Lavon Chaisson, LB, LSU
The Jaguars go chalk here with K’Lavon Chaisson, whose stock was really solidified throughout the 2019 season after some injury plagued years to open up his LSU career.
Chaisson has always had intriguing ability as both a pass rusher and off-ball linebacker on the field but he’s a tremendous leader off the field as well.
I don’t think he would have risked going back to LSU and getting hurt again if the 2019 season had been canceled but I do think the NFL would have still been enamored by his potential, flashes of brilliance, and physical abilities.
The Jaguars push off their cornerback need to the second round after the selection of Jerry Jeudy earlier.
Actual pick: Jalen Reagor, WR, TCU
The Philadelphia Eagles had a need for speed in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Whether it was Jalen Reagor or someone else, I think they would have gone with speed at wide receiver at this pick one way or another.
In this scenario, they get Alabama’s Henry Ruggs III, who was coming off of a tremendous sophomore campaign at Alabama with 11 touchdowns.
Ruggs wound up being the WR1 in the 2020 NFL Draft class which was surprising to some, but with the way Tyreek Hill changes games for the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s hard not to be intrigued by the potential of Ruggs to impact games at the next level.
Actual pick: Justin Jefferson, WR, LSU
Again — no 2019 season means everyone from LSU is affected.
Justin Jefferson was a quarterback turned receiver who was really just cutting his teeth in the 2018 season. He broke through in 2019 as one of the best wide receivers in the country, but it was Joe Burrow’s emergence that really helped raise all boats on that roster.
Tee Higgins was considered the next great thing coming out of Clemson and he had a tremendous career there, setting the school record for touchdown catches and establishing himself as a legitimate top option at the X.
The Vikings lost Stefon Diggs, and Higgins is not a similar player by any means but his size and big-play ability could be perfect for Gary Kubiak’s offense.
Actual pick: Kenneth Murray, LB, Oklahoma
The Los Angeles Chargers lost Melvin Gordon in the 2020 offseason, and somewhat surprisingly they didn’t really do much to replace him.
They did use a pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on UCLA running back Joshua Kelley, but Kelley’s not really being talked about as a replacement for Gordon as the Chargers’ bell cow.
Even though this is a completely different direction in terms of position, the consensus last year was that Dylan Moses was the top ILB in the 2020 draft class — potentially — and he didn’t enter because he suffered a season-ending injury before even taking the field.
D’Andre Swift could have easily been a first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and didn’t have to wait long after the first day to hear his name called by the Detroit Lions.
Swift’s 2018 season was his best as a member of the Georgia Bulldogs, so perhaps with a year off and a year of no wear and tear on his body, Swift’s value could have been a lot higher to a team like the Chargers.
Actual pick: Cesar Ruiz, C, Michigan
At this time a year ago, there was really one interior offensive lineman being talked about as a first-round candidate in the 2020 NFL Draft, and that was Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz.
Biadasz saw his stock drop considerably over the course of the 2019 season with injuries affecting his play and most scouts or analysts felt like his 2018 tape was far better than his 2019 tape.
If the Saints were intent on using their top 2020 NFL Draft pick on the interior offensive line, without a 2019 college season who knows if they would have picked Cesar Ruiz?
In his junior season at Michigan, Ruiz became known around college football as one of the best pass protectors at his position. Prior to the 2019 season, he had just one full year and a third-team All-Big Ten selection to his name.
Actual pick: Brandon Aiyuk, WR, Arizona State
Since his sophomore season at Alabama, the hype for Raekwon Davis has been massive.
The 6-foot-7, 300-plus pounder doesn’t have explosive traits but he’s long, strong, smart, and he has that 2017 tape to look back at to show how dominant he’s capable of being.
The 49ers earlier in this mock draft picked up Laviska Shenault, a replacement pick of sorts for Brandon Aiyuk, whose 2019 season was absolutely crucial to his getting selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
No 2019 college season and Brandon Aiyuk has one season at Arizona State with only 33 catches to his name.
In this mock draft scenario, the 49ers come away with the same two position groups — defensive line and wide receiver — as they did in the actual 2020 NFL Draft but with players who ended up going in round two as the 2019 season sort of knocked their stock back quite a bit.
Actual pick: Jordan Love, QB, Utah State
The Packers faithful might rejoice if they could have this scenario over their current one.
The selection of Jordan Love surprised pretty much everyone, and the Packers made a bold statement with that pick that the clock is ticking for Aaron Rodgers.
Instead of supporting and surrounding Rodgers, they decided to tick him right off.
In this scenario, Love is long gone. Jalen Reagor is a bull in a china shop and has some of the best game speed of any receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft class.
He’s going to be a good one for the Eagles, but in this scenario, the Packers get a speedy receiver whose stock was a bit compromised by his 2019 tape which included a number of dropped balls.
Actual pick: Jordyn Brooks, LB, Texas Tech
The Seattle Seahawks used their top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks, and without his massive senior season as a Red Raider, he might not be a first-round player.
Brooks racked up over 100 tackles in his final season with Texas Tech, including a whopping 20 tackles for loss from his off-ball linebacker position.
In the three seasons prior, he had 12 tackles for loss combined. Still not bad at all, but Brooks was making some eye-popping plays in 2019.
Another position group the Seahawks really emphasized in the 2020 offseason is tight end, signing veteran Greg Olsen as well as drafting Stanford’s Colby Parkinson and LSU’s Stephen Sullivan.
What if the Seahawks wanted to go tight end a little higher after the two years Albert Okwuegbunam put together with Drew Lock at Missouri?
Albert O had 17 touchdown grabs in his first two seasons with Missouri and was being touted as a potential TE1 in the 2020 class a year ago at this time. Despite an incredible Combine workout, he ended up going in the fourth round to the Denver Broncos.
Actual pick: Patrick Queen, LB, LSU
The Ravens actually still could use some juice off the edge, and Yetur Gross-Matos would have been a solid pick for them at the bottom of the first-round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Instead, Baltimore wound up taking breakout player Patrick Queen, yet another player in the 2020 NFL Draft class who probably would have had to return to school to prove himself or hope that his athletic traits could get him picked in round one.
More people were talking about K’Lavon Chaisson and Jacob Phillips last year at this time as the heir to Devin White on LSU’s defense.
Not many were talking about Patrick Queen.
Queen had just 46 tackles in two seasons at this point a year ago for the Tigers before bursting through in 2019 and especially so in the College Football Playoff.
Actual pick: Isaiah Wilson, OT, Georgia
The Titans could have gone with the cornerback position at their top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and I don’t think anyone would have batted an eye. They ended up getting a nice value in Kristian Fulton in the second round anyway.
In this scenario, I don’t know that the Titans would have had enough tape on Isaiah Wilson to be able to pick him in the first round.
I’m still not certain of that.
Jaylon Johnson had an awesome 2018 season at Utah with four interceptions and a season-high 41 total tackles. He was all over the field for the Utes and that really just continued into the 2019 season. I think he may have been over-analyzed a bit during the 2019 season and a player with his talent probably shouldn’t have fallen to the middle of the second round.
Actual pick: Noah Igbinoghene, CB, Auburn
The Dolphins, with their third and final pick in this first-round mock re-draft of the 2020 NFL Draft, take a shot on a junior out of Louisville who — if the 2019 season was canceled — wouldn’t have gotten to show just how dominant he could be and how much he had progressed as a player.
If Becton had been able to send workout videos to all 32 teams, he might have still gone in the top 15-20 picks, but if you scan back through mock draft scenarios and All-American lists from a year ago, this guy was really nowhere to be found.
That’s surprising, considering he’s pretty hard to miss.
Most mock drafts would have had Washington’s Trey Adams going somewhere in this range, but with Becton’s athleticism and starting experience through two seasons at Louisville, he’d probably done enough to warrant first-round consideration.
Actual pick: Jeff Gladney, CB, TCU
It’s possible that Jeff Gladney had done enough at TCU to still warrant a first-round selection, but more people were talking about AJ Terrell a year ago as a first-round candidate than Gladney.
Terrell had just helped Clemson to a National Championship in 2018 and picked off three passes along the way.
The Vikings let go of or lost Xavier Rhodes, Mackensie Alexander, and Trae Waynes this offseason. The cornerback position was an obvious area this team needed to emphasize in the 2020 NFL Draft and in this scenario, they get a guy who actually ended up going quite a bit higher than this — 16th overall — in the actual draft.
Based on his upside and the way Clemson finished their 2018 season, it’s possible that Terrell could have still gone in the same range he wound up going in a re-draft.
Actual pick: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, LSU
The Kansas City Chiefs don’t really have to deviate too much here. Jonathan Taylor might not be the same ‘type’ of back as Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but he is a featured back who can carry the load and catch passes when asked to do so.
If the Chiefs were hellbent on taking a running back in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Jonathan Taylor would have probably been a good option anyway.
This dude averaged over 2,000 yards per season at Wisconsin and had that pace going before he entered the 2020 NFL Draft, too.
The Chiefs’ offense is dynamic and explosive at every position, and Taylor was one of the most impressive all-around athletes at running back at the 2020 Scouting Combine. He would have been a fine pick for them at 32 in this year’s draft.
Edwards-Helaire hadn’t had the eye-popping tape or numbers in two seasons at LSU like he did in 2019 to become a first-round pick.
Okay, we had to have a little bit of fun with this one.
Let’s just say for the moment that the Patriots paid whatever price required to get the 199th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and they ended up taking Joe Burrow, a former Ohio State transfer who had one so-so year as the starter at LSU in 2018.
Burrow came on towards the end of his 2018 campaign at LSU, but it was nothing compared to the 60-touchdown onslaught we saw in 2019. After a few September starts in the 2019 season, Burrow had drawn plenty of attention with the way he was playing but even then, no one was talking about the first round for him.
Burrow was a day three pick at best heading into his senior season at LSU, and then he absolutely exploded and showed incredible development in his overall game.
He may not have lasted to the sixth round of the draft, but then again he might have.
Burrow didn’t really have to do anything in the offseason circuit because the Bengals had pretty much already made up their minds.
Without his senior season at LSU, the narrative would have been vastly different.