2019 NFL Draft: 10 players who could fall out of the first round

For a while, many pundits expected Ole Miss wide receiver A.J. Brown to be the top receiver selected in the 2019 draft. The fact is now, Brown isn’t likely to be the top receiver from his own school selected in this class.

That’s likely to be D.K. Metcalf, and while Brown still projects by many to end up in the late first round range, there’s a good chance he actually ends up slipping to day two. The problem with Brown is that he doesn’t have the high-end athleticism of several of the other receivers who are in contention for first round consideration.

Brown doesn’t possess elite speed, and his 40-time at the combine could elucidate that further than he would like. He is likely to be utilized as a slot receiver in the NFL, and some NFL teams could see him as a clone to the Steelers’ big slot receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Brown is a polished route runner, arguably the best in this draft class, with the ability to run the full route-tree and gain separation from defensive backs. He’s more of a possession receiver, however; he’s not likely to be able to be much of a vertical threat in the pros due to his inability to separate from quicker players in the secondary.

He’s going to find a useful spot in the NFL and is likely to be a good No. 2 or No. 3 option for a team for years to come, but he has some red flags that could cause the majority of teams to potentially look elsewhere if they want to grab a receiver in the first round.

He’s too naturally gifted, however, to fall much further than early on during the draft’s second day. My expectation is that Brown will fall out of the first round, though, something that seemed completely unexpected as recently as a few weeks ago.