Jaguars' Draft Grades on Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Jaylen Waddle, and Other Prospects Revealed

In the latest episode of 'The Hunt', the Jaguars' draft grades for Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and numerous other top prospects have been revealed, giving us a peak behind the curtain.

A peek behind the curtain in the NFL is always exhilarating. It is the league where most things are considered state secrets, with entire primetime rollouts for simple events like schedule announcements. 

But there is no NFL fixture that contains more secrets than the NFL Draft. Each year, the seven-round event consistently brings the rumor mill to its apex. As a result, it is always seen as a noteworthy event each time a franchise lets some of its secrets out, even if just a few. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars are the latest team to let their fan base and the NFL at large what they thought of some of the top members of the 2021 draft class. In the latest episode of the team-produced video series 'The Hunt' (which is excellently done), the Jaguars revealed draft boards that showed how the team viewed several first- and second-round prospects, including some of their own later picks. You can start watching at the 6:50 mark to see their grades.

Of course, it is unknown what the grades exactly mean or by what scale the Jaguars use. We don't have full knowledge of exactly how the Jaguars see the players, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they would have best projected to Jacksonville. 

With that said, we do get to see how the Jaguars stacked certain prospects against each other. Let's start with the first round. 

Screenshot via Jaguars' YouTube channel

You can see the Jaguars' grades on each of their first-round selections: Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne. Lawrence was selected by the Jaguars at No. 1 overall, while the team would reunite him with Etienne at No. 25 overall. 

Lawrence was given an 8.0 draft grade, which is the highest of any grades we see handed out by the Jaguars in the video. It is safe to say they saw Lawrence as a special prospect (with a projected 4.60 40-yard-dash, which is nothing to sneeze at). 

Then we see Etienne with a 7.0 draft grade, which isn't too far below an 8.0 all things considered. We don't know how the Jaguars scale their grades, of course, but it is clear how high they were on the most productive back in ACC history.

"We have quarterback that we think has a high, high ceiling, two very high character guys that fit into the culture here. We’re real excited, real excited," Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said after the draft's first round.

“Well, I think if you go back to his college film, I think you see he’s an explosive player, can multi-align, can detach, can come out of the backfield. So, he offers a tremendous amount of versality in the pass game, as well as that explosive play-making ability that you covet," Baalke continued about Etienne. 

But then, we saw quite a bit more from the Jaguars -- especially when it came to the first round and how a few fellow AFC teams selected.

Looking at this Jags documentary, they had a higher grade on AVT over Wilson and Waddle+Phillips were extremely highly ranked pic.twitter.com/6RKKJKqCwq

— Billy M (@BillyM_91) May 20, 2021

As you can see above, the Jaguars had the following grades on these first-round prospects. 

• No. 2 overall, QB Zach Wilson: 7.0
• No. 6 overall, WR Jaylen Waddle: 8.0
• No. 14 overall, OL Alijah Vera-Tucker: 7.5
• No. 18 overall, EDGE Jaelan Philips: 7.5

There are numerous interesting threads to follow here, the most interesting being that New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson is the lowest prospect graded of all six players. 

Again, we don't know the Jaguars' scale or what a 7.0 can truly mean. It bears reminding that these are just six of 32 first-round grades, so Wilson undoubtedly had a higher grade than some others picked behind him. It does show, however, that the Jaguars didn't see Wilson as a player who was on Lawrence's level as a prospect. 

"We spent a good, probably a month—we kind of had ideas, but it got—there were some good Zoom calls with those other two quarterbacks. Very good players, I’m glad to see. High, high-end character guys, very good leaders, tough competitors, but we feel good about our quarterback," Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer said after the first round. 

It is also interesting to see the kind of grade the Jaguars had on Miami Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle, who spent much of his final season at Alabama injured. Waddle was given an 8.0 grade, the same as Lawrence. Now an 8.0 grade as a receiver and an 8.0 as a quarterback are two things that will be weighed and valued very differently but is noteworthy the Jaguars were so high on Waddle. 

Then you have the Jaguars' next several picks. The Jaguars took Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell at No. 33, Stanford offensive tackle Walker Little at No. 45, Syracuse safety Andre Cisco at No. 65, and USC defensive tackle Jay Tufele at No. 106 in the fourth round.

pic.twitter.com/NryzrGAd8N

— Couch (@BCBCouch) May 21, 2021

The Jaguars had Campbell and Cisco with the same grade, though it makes sense they waited until round three to take Cisco due to the fact that he suffered an ACL injury last fall. With that said, it isn't surprising to see their high mark on the third-rounder considering what they said about him following this draft. 

"I expect Tyson Campbell will be an instant impact in a lot of areas — special teams, and also rolling through the secondary in the back corner but also nickel," Meyer said. 

"Walker Little is going to push our tackles. Our tackles have to play better. I like how hard they’re working, I like their talent level, but the best thing you can do is create a little competition, and I’ve made that clear with Walker.

"Andre Cisco is one of my favorite players on the board. He had a tough knee injury, the good thing is a very clean injury, an ACL and that was it. There’s already videotape of him training and going. He should be ready and cleared to go. You watch him when he’s healthy and it’s hard to say he’s not the best safety in the draft. Trevon from TCU, excellent player as well, but this guy from day one we thought he was as good as there is."

The Jaguars have nine new members of their franchise thanks to the 2021 NFL Draft. We will see moving forward just how much the Jaguars got right about this class, but we now at least know how Meyer, Baalke, and their scouts viewed some of this year's top players.