Jaguars draft: OT Walker Little could be low-risk, high-reward pick

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been quite active this offseason, re-signing a handful of their own free agents and adding depth and a few playmakers in free agency. Although the roster looks in better shape than it did after the 2020 season, they will have a chance to keep making changes in the 2021 NFL Draft and may opt to infuse talent to their offensive line.

Zach Tantillo of Bleacher Report believes that Stanford offensive tackle Walker Little would be the perfect draft pick for the Jaguars even though they placed the franchise tag on Cam Robinson. Tantillo rightfully points out that it’s ‘all but a lock’ that Jacksonville will take Trevor Lawrence with the first overall pick, so tackle would next on their draft list.

Tantillo argues that Robinson hasn’t performed at a high level and brings up his 66.4 Pro Football Focus grade and the fact he’s given up more than 40 pressures every year he’s appeared in more than 75 snaps as reasons why the team needs to upgrade the left tackle position.

The PFF analyst believes that Little is worth a second-round pick even though he missed the last two years due to injury. He mentions that the Stanford product was a top-two tackle prospect before the knee injury he sustained in 2019 and adds that he gave up just one pressure in the last seven games he played and four quarterback hits on 680 career pass-blocking snaps.

Little could be a low-risk, high-reward pick for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This is not the first time someone suggests the Jags take an offensive tackle early in the draft and Little may be available in the third round or even the fourth due to injury concerns and because this is going to be a deep offensive tackle class. If the Texas native gets a clean bill of health and he’s available late in the second round or early in the third, he could end up being a low-end value pick for Jacksonville.

On the other hand, tight end may be a bigger priority than offensive tackle for the Jaguars, as they refrained from making major changes to the position other than signing blocking specialist Chris Manhertz this offseason and this year’s class isn’t as deep as the offensive tackle one.

Regardless of what the Jaguars do, they shouldn’t stop bolstering certain position groups just because they addressed them in free agency. It doesn’t matter if they slapped the franchise tag on Robinson, if they can add talent to the offensive line, they should by all means do it.