The essence of the NFL draft lies in its unpredictability. Schemes, team needs and scouting philosophies vary across the league, which means different teams’ draft boards inevitably look different from each other. As a result, many players get taken higher than anticipated, and many go lower. That’s not necessarily an indicator of pro success, but every draft invariably offers several players who, for one reason or another, stand out as a reach or a steal. At the time, players like Tyson Alualu, EJ Manuel and Darrius Heyward-Bey felt like they went too high, and those intuitions proved correct. On the flip side, there are examples of players expected to go early in the draft who fell and ended up being high-value choices—Aaron Rodgers, Randy Moss and even Derwin James last year were expected top-10 picks who fell to the late teens or early 20s.
Biggest Steals, Reaches From First Round of 2019 NFL Draft
