2015 NFL Mock Draft: Jags Get Leonard Williams
By Luke Sims
The 2015 NFL Mock Draft season is a wild, wild beast. There’s speculation running rampant all over the internet. For some of the most entertaining and some quality coverage, it’s nice to turn to With The First Pick.
In their recent two round mock draft, writer Carl Cockerham gives the Jaguars arguably the best player in the entire 2015 NFL Draft: Leonard Williams, DT out of USC. Here’s what Cockerham had to say about the selection:
"Left tackle Luke Joeckel will get another year to try to protect quarterback Blake Bortles. So head coach Gus Bradley gets the best overall football player to strengthen his front-4 even more. And the Jaguars end up with a dominant defense as a result of this pick."
Williams certainly would pair nicely with a defensive line that has managed to prove relatively formidable with little-known players. Roy Miller and Sen’Derrick Marks currently man the interior, but Williams should be able to play all over the line and would provide some great size in run stuffing as well as some dominant pass rushing potential to boot.
I like this pick just as much as I liked it a couple months ago when it was still common. After the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, things started to shake up a little bit. Cockerham’s latest mock draft brings things back to that “classic” take on the draft that is still relatively possible.
The fact of the matter is that right now, Williams is going to be at the top of a lot of team’s boards but the teams picking before the Jaguars (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at one and the Tennessee Titans at two) both need some serious help in other positions (especially at quarterback) and may make the relative reach to grab one of the top two prospects there and will let Williams pass. Obviously, we won’t know until draft day, but I would be more than happy to see this mock play out in reality.