Biggest steal for the Jaguars and other AFC South teams in the 2023 NFL Draft

AFC South 2023 NFL Draft Steals - Jacksonville Jaguars: Antonio Johnson

Lastly, we get to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who arguably had the worst draft of any club in the AFC South. Trading back several times to stockpile late-round picks on players that will not make the 53-man roster.

They did manage a couple of gems in Tank Bigsby and Yasir Abdullah, but their most remarkable draft steal came in the fifth round. In the trading of a first-round pick with the New York Giants, The Jags acquired the No. 160 overall.

The Jaguars used that pick to draft Texas A&M safety Antonio Johnson. This was a player scouts and analysts had ranked as the No.2 safety in the draft. Johnson is size-wise similar to Rayshawn Jenkins and can compete for a top-three safety role. Johnson is a tremendous value grab in the fifth round by the Jaguars. This is by far my favorite pick of theirs in this draft. Watch this sack and forced fumble caused by him.

Johnson can fill an immediate need at nickel. He is a versatile chess piece, much like second-round pick Brian Branch, who the Jaguars were reportedly targeting in the first round. In comparison, Johnson is bigger, faster, and more athletic than Branch, according to their draft profiles.

Branch scored an overall 85 as the top-ranked safety in the draft and was considered a steal in the second round by the Detroit Lions. Johnson scored a 79 and became the biggest steal in the draft for the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2022 he was named first-team All-SEC after leading the team with three forced fumbles in nine starts (also posting 71 tackles, five for loss); if he can do that in Jacksonville next year, he could go down as a legendary fifth-round steal.