Jags still undecided about top pick … While just about everyone around the NFL figures that Jacksonville will be taking Michigan DE Aidan Hutchinson with the first pick overall at next month’s draft, new Jags head coach Doug Pederson indicated to local reporters at the NFL meetings this weekend that the team has still not ruled out taking an OT – likely either Evan Neal of Alabama or NC State’s Ickey Ekwonu – at that spot. The thinking around the league has been that since the Jags had franchised incumbent LT Cam Robinson and are trying to sign him to a long-term deal and that they had signed former Washington Pro Bowl OG Brandon Scherff as a free agent that they would no longer be forced to force the top pick on the OL. And nobody around the league would be happier than Detroit if the Jags did go OT with the top pick. That would drop Hutchinson to the Lions at #2 giving them the consensus top prospect overall at a position of need who just happens to be a local product to boot. Of course, if the Jags did in fact select Hutchinson Detroit would still have several very good options at DE including Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux and Travon Walker of Georgia. However, there is a growing buzz around the league that the Lions could also quite seriously consider Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton at #2 if Hutchinson was not available. In fact, Hamilton is a really hard guy to figure for this year’s draft. He was arguably the best player in college football last fall before he fractured a foot, but doesn’t play a high value draft position and didn’t test quite as well as expected this winter. Indeed, when we updated our three-round projection yesterday, Hamilton could quite literally have been selected by just about every team with a top 10 pick.
