2021 NFL Mock Draft: Washington Football Team goes offense in Round 1

A 2021 NFL mock draft with the Washington Football Team taking an offensive player.

The 2021 NFL offseason is about to get into full swing. With just one game remaining in the season, eliminated teams are fully preparing for free agency and the 2021 NFL Draft. The Washington Football Team is among this crowd, but they are well-positioned to build on a successful first season under Ron Rivera.

While free agency will come first for the Washington Football Team, their performance in the 2021 NFL Draft will be critical to the upkeep of their franchise. In recent years, they have drafted well. Can they do it again? Armed with the 19th overall pick in the first round, it won’t necessarily be easy to mine a hit, but they will have a chance to strike gold in a draft that’s loaded at positions they need to upgrade.

Here’s a full, first-round mock draft that showcases what Washington could do in the first round, depending on how the board shakes out.

This pick is virtually set in stone barring a massive surprise from Urban Meyer’s Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence may be the best quarterback prospect to enter the league this millennium and is rivaled only by the resume of Andrew Luck at this point.

Does that mean that Lawrence is a sure-fire success at the NFL level? Not necessarily, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any quarterback that looks like a safer selection than him.

Lawrence was a three-year starter for Clemson after taking over for Kelly Bryant during his true freshman season. The results have been spectacular. Lawrence has elite arm talent, arm strength, reads the field well, is mobile, and simply does everything you can ask of at the quarterback position. There are no glaring flaws in his game and he finished his career with a 34-2 record and led Clemson to a National Title in 2018.

For Jacksonville, Lawrence would be a true franchise quarterback. He should take advantage of the solid offensive weaponry the team already has in DJ Chark, Laviska Shenault, Keelan Cole, and James Robinson. With Lawrence at the helm, the Jaguars’ offense would instantly go from a below-average unit to a potential top-10 unit if they can protect him enough and add some talent at the tight end spot.

There’s no reason for the Jaguars to pass on Lawrence here. He finished second in the Heisman voting last year, posted a career-high 69.2 percent completion rate, threw for 3,153 yards in just 10 games, and had a 24-5 TD-INT ratio. He’s a top-tier talent and will give Jacksonville a chance to compete for a Wild Card spot early in his career.

And at the very least, he should help the Jaguars to climb out of the cellar in the AFC South.