Josh Gattis was a nice pick by the Jaguars.  If they can toughen him up he might start alongside first round pick Reggie Nelson at some point in his career.  Gattis is 6′1″, 206 pounds and he’s fast as he can run a 4.4 40.  Still, he has to do a better job of making tackles in the open field and defend the run with a little more vigor.  He played in 47 games (33 starts) at Wake Forest and he made 259 tackles, broke up 19 passes, had 12 interceptions (169 return yards), forced 6 fumbles and recovered 5 fumbles.  Look for Gattis to play on most of the special teams and be a backup as a rookie.  But Gattis has nice upside and was a good pick in the 5th round.

The Jacksonville Jaguars got a nice player here that slid a little bit in the draft because of his 2005 suspension by Purdue University for slugging a teammate.  The Boilermaker coaches said that the University made a mistake and that it wasn’t that big of a deal.  Nwaneri is a little bit of a project as he played in a wide open offense at Purdue so he’s a better pass blocker than a run blocker right now.  Still, at 6′2″, 304 pounds and with a nasty attitude the Jaguars coaches should be able to mold him into a good run blocker.  He played in 29 games (26 starts) at Purdue and he was suspended for the entire 2005 season so he would have started that season too if he behaved himself.  Nwaneri will likely be a backup as a rookie and a starter in future for the Jaguars.

Brian Smith was a big reach for the Jaguars in the 4th round.  He wasn’t projected to get drafted by many draft “experts”.  Smith was a very disruptive player at Missouri as a DE, but he is way too small to play there in the Pros.  He will be converted to OLB and that could cause problems as Smith has no experience covering running backs or tight ends on pass plays.  He has good size 6′3″, 239 pounds and he’s fast enough (4.65 40) to handle outside linebacker.  Smith played in 44 games (29 starts) for Missouri and he made 159 tackles, 42.5 tackles for a loss, had 31.5 sacks, recovered 1 fumble, forced 9 fumbles, had 1 interception and batted down 12 passes.

The Jacksonville Jaguars wanted to go in a new direction at punter so they drafted Adam Podlesh in the 4th round.  He doesn’t have the most powerful leg but he never seems to outkick his coverage.  In 48 games at Maryland, Podlesh punted the ball 216 times for 9,314 yards (43.1 avg) and his long punt was 70 yards.  He also pinned the opposing team inside the 20 yard line 83 times (38.4%).  Look for Podlesh to improve the Jaguars punting unit from Day #1.

It will be interesting to see how Mike Walker fits into the Jaguars plans.  He was a productive player in college but he seems to have some things that might limit him in the NFL.  Walker is 6′1″, 198 pounds but he’s slow (4.55 40) and he’s had some serious injury issues as he tore his left ACL in 2005 and was limping all season long for Central Florida.  The amazing thing about that is that he still caught 90 passes for 1,178 yards (13.1 avg) with 7 TDs despite not being 100%.  In 46 games (32 starts) at Central Florida, Walker caught 184 passes for 2,561 yards (13.9 avg) with 17 TDs.  Walker is a tough guy, but many projected him to be drafted in the 6th or 7th round so the Jags took him way too early.