NBC sports broadcaster Cris Collinsworth released his one and only mock draft of 2019 on Monday on Pro Football Focus and it includes quite a few interesting selections in the first-round. In fact, Collinsworth has the Pittsburgh Steelers selecting Oklahoma wide receiver Marquise Brown in the first-round with the 20th overall pick.
Collinsworth writes:
Even though the Steelers and Mike Tomlin are great at developing receivers in the lower rounds, the loss of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell screams for something exciting for Big Ben. ‘Hollywood’ Brown is so lightning quick and fast, it makes it very dangerous to ever play man coverage against him. The danger here is the foot injury that may not be healed for the start of the season even though he says it will. If the Steelers are looking for a splash pick, Brown is the most exciting player in this draft class.
Brown, who measured in at this year’s scouting combine at 5093, 166-pounds with 30 1/2-inch arms and 9-inch hands, is indeed one of the most exciting players in the 2019 draft class. The Oklahoma product, who declared for this year’s draft as an underclassman, caught 132 passes for 2,413 yards and 17 touchdowns in his two seasons at Oklahoma. 31 of those receptions resulted in gains of 25 yards or more while 45 of them resulted in gains of at least 15 yards. Brown lined up mostly as the “Y” and “Z” wide receiver in the Oklahoma spread scheme offense.
Brown, who is currently recovering from lisfranc surgery, is also the younger cousin of former Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. The younger Brown stated again recently that he would have no issues playing for the Steelers should they wind up drafting him this year. He’s expected to be healthy enough to participate fully in training camp for whichever team winds up drafting him. He’s expected to be drafted in either the first or second round this year.
Not only does Collinsworth have the Steelers selecting Marquise Brown in his mock draft, he also has them doing so after passing up Michigan linebacker Devin Bush. Bush’s fall in the first-round seems to be mainly a result of LSU linebacker Devin White not being selected until 11th overall by the Cincinnati Bengals. Collinsworth has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers passing up White in lieu of LSU cornerback Greedy Williams. By the way, Collinsworth finally has Bush being selected by the Philadelphia Eagles at 25th overall.
As far as other interesting observations of Collinsworth’s mock draft goes, he has Florida EDGE Jachai Polite being selected by the Oakland Raiders at 27th overall and Michigan EDGE Chase Winovich going 29th overall to the Kansas City Chiefs. If that’s not enough, Collinsworth has Maryland safety Darnell Savage Jr. going to the Green Bay Packers at 30th overall.
