NFL Draft Notes: Mac Jones, Penei Sewell, Zaven Collins, Wide Receivers

Mac Jones

• Per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Alabama QB Mac Jones has been impressing teams with his brain in pre-draft interviews: “He’s as smart as advertised. I’d say borderline genius when it comes to football.”

Penei Sewell

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reports that Oregon LT Penei Sewell is one of the players teams have some questions about. One executive tells Breer: “There’s a lot to sort through there, and there are lapses in play too. He doesn’t dominate all the time. But he’s a great athlete.”
• Even so, Breer quotes a few executives who rave about his ceiling as a potentially dominant left tackle: “He’s 19 years old on the tape [from 2019], and he was a man on the film.”

Zaven Collins

• Per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, a college scouting director for an NFL team pegged Tulsa LB Zaven Collins as a player who could go higher than people think: “He’s different because he’s big, and there aren’t many [linebackers] to choose from. He’s big, productive and has some physical skill to work with. Do I think he’s top 20? Probably not. But his tape is better than [Tremaine] Edmunds’s was [in 2018]. He’s not the athlete Edmunds is, but he’s big like him and just a really solid player.” 

Wide Receivers

Outside of quarterback, the strength of this year’s draft class might be the wide receiver position. One NFL executive told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer that they thought the top three this year — LSU WR Ja’Marr Chase and the Alabama duo of Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith — were better than the top three of CeeDee Lamb, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs last year in another heralded class. 

“They’re different body types and styles,” he said. “You got the powerful, physical guy in Chase; the explosive playmaker who’s incredible with the ball in his hands in Waddle; and the all-encompassing route-runner with speed and toughness, but not size, in DeVonta. They’re all better than [Jerry] Jeudy and [Henry] Ruggs. [CeeDee] Lamb is right in the mix with them, but Ruggs and Jeudy are below those guys for me.”