If it wasn’t for his knee surgery, Myles Jack would be a contender for the number one overall pick. But in reality, there is some concern over his injury, which means some teams might not be too eager to take him in the top 5, where he’s right now projected to be picked.
One team, for example, are the Dallas Cowboys. They have the 4th overall selection and while we’ve been hearing a lot of names connected with them, especially Jalen Ramsey, Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott, Jack hasn’t been mentioned. It’s not that the Cowboys don’t need a linebacker, but with other needs and Jack being something of a risk, despite the high-risk, high reward situation, they prefer steering clear of a potential bust due to injury.
Obviously, Jack isn’t the only player in his draft with injury concerns. One name that’s been recently popping up is cornerback Kendall Fuller out of Virginia Tech, who also underwent a knee medical this week and received good news about his progress and situation. Projected to be a day 2 pick, Fuller should be ready by training camp with any team that chooses him. And while usually a player of his caliber would have been going through visits at an increased rate at this stage, it’s been a slow draft progress for him.
Jack is going to get picked in the top 10, and probably early on in that. His incredible athletic abilities and speed are just too difficult to ignore, even if there are warning signs. It’s not just the knee injury. At UCLA he did a little bit of everything. In the NFL, it’s going to be linebacker and that’s it. And he is kinda small for the position when you take it up to the pro level. He has the traits to make up for that like many have before, but unlike Tunsil and Jalen Ramsey for example, who no one doubts for a second at this moment that they’re going to be great in this league and should be taken very early, Jack still has to waive some doubts away.