27. Baltimore Ravens: James Pearce Jr., EDGE, Tennessee
The Baltimore Ravens never cease to amaze when it comes to finding bargains in the NFL Draft. At this point of the first round, there are a lot of players who would be able to fit that criteria and James Pearce Jr. is maybe the biggest potential steal of them all.
Although he’s slightly undersized off the edge, this is a player who can put pressure on the quarterback and he was one of the offseason favorites to be the 1st overall pick in this class.
Pearce’s speed off the edge is evident when you watch him play, and at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds, he posted a 4.47 in the 40-yard dash with a blazing 1.57 in his 10-yard split. The Ravens need to find guys who can really help differentiate them late in the season. As we saw in the Super Bowl, being able to bring waves of pass rush is as important as anything.
28. Detroit Lions: Derrick Harmon, DL, Oregon
There is a lot to like about Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon from his size to his strength at the point of attack, but what’s going to draw the eye of most NFL teams? He led all interior defensive linemen in college football last season with a whopping 55 total pressures and racked up 10.5 tackles for loss on top of it.
The Detroit Lions had Harmon in for a visit in the pre-draft process, which may or may not mean anything. This would be a homecoming for him, however, as Harmon is a Detroit native who actually started off his college career at Michigan State.
The Lions need all the help they can get in the trenches defensively after the complete debacle we saw last year. Not every team is going to be that snake-bitten year over year when it comes to injuries at specific position groups, but the way things collapsed for this team down the stretch was indicative of their need to invest more in the big men defensively.