The Biggest Steals From The 2020 NFL Draft 4 Years Later

the 2020 NFL draft class is four years into their careers and some players from this class have not only made a significant impact with the franchise that selected them but have signed a second contract with the franchise that selected them we of course know guys from this class like Joe burrow CD lamb Justin Jefferson and Jordan love but all four of these players were first round picks and expected to contribute for their franchise Jordan love took a little bit of time to contribute because of how unique his situation was but it now looks like the Packers have their franchise quarterback for the next several years but not every bigname player from this class was a first round pick like these four guys were and in fact some players were draft steals we did a video like this for the 2021 draft class A few weeks ago that will be linked at the end if you're interested in watching and a lot of comments from that video were viewers commenting how they wanted more of these types of videos from other draft classes well your wish is my command and without further Ado here are some of the biggest draft steals from the 2020 NFL draft 4 years later we are starting today's video with Steelers pass rusher Alex heith Alex was a late third round pick back in 2020 out of the University of Charlotte and this was a classic developmental pick that has been brought along the right way heith was a role player in his rookie year as he played in just 43% of the defensive snaps and started five games he started 16 games in 2021 and has started 17 games in each of the last two seasons he had a career-high 14 1 half sacks in 2022 and five forc fumbles which believe it or not was tied for leading the league with then Eagles pass rusher Hassan reck despite heith having seven sacks in 2023 compared to the 14 A2 he had in 2022 and only two forced fumbles to the five he had in 2022 as well for that matter Alex still had a very good year and I couldn't agree more with steel fans that he is one of the most underrated players in all of football he can win in any way from a pass rushing standpoint and in 2023 he had a pass rush win rate of 18% which was technically higher than his teammate TJ Watts win rate of 16.9% that of course doesn't include double teams and everything in that nature TJ is without a doubt one of the best players in all of football and he is a big reason as to why Alex is one of the more underrated players in the NFL but what I want to be clear with heith is he is not a product of TJ watt he is not just TJ's Robin that disappears when TJ's out in the first nine games of the 2022 season which TJ missed most of due to a peck injury sustained in the opener against the Bengals there was a period in time where heith was leading the NFL in sacks even without TJ he finished the 2023 season with a career high in pressures with 69 and overall it was a very nice year for him the 69 pressures were more than the 55 he had in 2022 despite the decrease in sacks between heith TJ cam Hayward and a young interior player the Steelers have on the rise in Keanu Benton I really like this unit a lot and think it is one of the best in all of football given TJ is one of the best players in not just the AFC North but all of the NFL he of course is going to receive a lot of attention but make no mistake about it Alex heith is a damn good player and there was a reason the Steelers gave him a 4-year $68 million contract extension next up is Vikings defensive player Josh matelis the reason we phrased this as defensive player instead of a safety or a DB is because if you are a Vikings fan or watch the Vikings play in 2023 then you know Josh matelis lines up all over the field one of the more memorable things during the back half of the Vikings 2023 season in what was a very forgettable final few games was the fan support of trying to get Josh Mattel to the Pro Bowl and using a graphic along with it the graphic is kind of hilarious in itself because of how many positions he played during the 2023 season and out of the 1,000 plus snaps he played during the 23 season PFF had him playing over 300 at slot over 300 in the Box over 200 along the defensive line 55 lined up at free safety and 29 at outside corner and they even had him log a snap over the B Gap too matelis is a very unique player and like the Steelers have with Alex heith this is a guy the Vikings have slowly brought along over the first four years of his career he played 70 total defensive snaps over the first two years of his career before starting three games in 2022 then starting all 17 games in 2023 Josh has had three different defensive coaches to learn under in his four years with Mike Zimmer being the man in charge in 20 and 21 then Ed donatell in 2 and of course Brian Flores in 2023 he was a late sixth round pick back in 2020 and even if Josh's calling card was a special teams player for the rest of his career that's well worth a late sixth round pick great special teams players are incredibly valuable to a franchise but Josh was all over the field in 2023 as he had over 110 tackles 10 quarterback hits seven tackles for a loss four forced fumbles and even had a big interception against the Packers when they played in Lambo this year he signed a 2-year extension right before the 23 season started and if he plays anywhere close to the level he did in 2023 this year then he will soon be compensated in a big way he is a true Swiss army knife in the Vikings defense and I would argue with Josh like we said with Alex that he is one of the more underappreciated players in football the Vikings offense is very fun to discuss and project with all of the weapons they have but if you watch their defense in 2024 it's hard to miss Josh matelis because it's not an exaggeration to say he is all over the football field this may be a surprising one considering where he was drafted but it's Jaylen Herz of the Eagles Jaylen was drafted with the 53rd overall pick and this pick was a shock to everyone when it was made were the eagles giving up on Carson Wentz was this their future plan why would they spend a top six pick on a backup if their intention wasn't to play him there were all sorts of questions like this at the time and this was after a year in which Carson went through 27 touchdowns to seven interceptions and at times during the 2019 season showed flashes of the player he was during 2017 but the wheels came off for Carson in 2020 and the selection of Herz more than proved to be worth it Jaylen played sparingly during the 2020 season as he threw six touchdowns to four interceptions during his rookie year and through 16 touchdowns to nine interceptions in year two before the Eagles got bounced in the Wild Card round in Tampa but 2022 was the year everything came together for Jaylen and the birds as he would go on to finish second in MVP voting as the Eagles would soar to a 14 and3 record and the number one seed in the NFC Herz has also ran for 38 touchdowns over the last three years due in large part to the tush push and the Eagles rewarded Jaylen with a 5-year 2 $55 million contract extension in April of 2023 for how bad the Eagles whiffed on their first round pick in 2020 Jaylen Reger hoe more than hit a grand slam with their second round pick in 2020 and it would be very interesting to see where the Eagles would be today had they made a commitment to Carson Wentz back in 2020 and never selected Jaylen Herz I know pick 53 may seem a little high for a draft steel but second round quarterbacks usually aren't great Dre Breeze of course is an exception from back in 2001 but some second round quarterbacks in the past 10 years include Christian Hackenberg deson Kaiser Drew lock Kyle tras and most recently will Levis we will soon find out whether will Levis is the Titans franchise quarterback but needless to say the others mentioned were not their team's long-term guy succeeding as a second round quarterback is rare in drafting Jaylen Herz may have saved hoe roseman's job down I9 5 to Baltimore we go to discuss Justin matab Justin was taken early in the third round out of Texas A&M and this was a classic case of a good franchise having a plan for a player that they intend to play for them for a long time credit to Justin in a big way as I don't think the Ravens ever thought in their wildest imagination that he would have a 13 sack season and be named a second Team all pro but what they got from him in 2022 was completely reasonable in 2022 Justin had 5 and 1 half sacks from the interior and had over 30 pressures and tacked on nine quarterback hits and eight tackles for a loss he started 16 games in 2022 and sing him to a two or three-year extension and not having to worry about the position for a few years would be a solid third round pick regardless of position the Ravens had a pretty good 2020 draft all things considered as their first three picks were Patrick Queen JK Dobbins and matab be they also received contributions from fellow third rounders Devon du and Malik Harrison who recently signed a one-year extension to stay in Baltimore Malik Harrison that is the sad reality of the NFL draft is if your favorite team walks out of each class with two starters then that is generally considered a successful draft class Baltimore had that in Justin and queen and technically had an allpro in Devon du as a returner who is now a Jag but Justin's progression over the past few years has been fun to watch and he is the interior defensive lineman I think of when I think of how these guys progress his pre-draft weight was around 285 and according to pro football reference he is now up to 305 and it's a bit different along the interior now that he's a 27y old man throwing his weight around instead of a 23-year-old rookie like he was back in 2020 guys get stronger and there was a reason Justin's pressures doubled from 32 to 64 between 2022 and in 2023 all the work he had been putting in caught up to him and he became one of the bigger draft steals no jokes intended on the size there from the 2020 NFL draft now back up I 95 to discuss the big fella along the Patriots offensive line and that's o lineman Mike and wayu and wayu has came in from day one and played not just okay but at a high level and that's a big credit to the player he is and how he's developed over the past four years he spent most of his time on the right side of the offensive line but worked in at left guard in 2020 and 2021 he started all 17 games at Right Guard during the 2022 season and played 15 games in 2023 with split time between right tackle and Right Guard obviously the Patriots haven't had a lot of success in the post Tom Brady era and they've been very lackluster at times offensively in the post Tom Brady era but it's a shame Big Mike's accomplishments aren't as discussed by the national media as they should be the pat had signed him to a three-year $57 million deal this offseason and good for Mike to get the bag and did not have to worry about finances again but I also thought this was a great deal for New England too with what Anu brings to the table for a statistical reference he was credited with allowing a single sack on 634 pass blocking snaps in 2022 at the right guard position and also played a big part in ra Andre Stevenson rushing for over a th000 yards that year anuu was drafted in the six round of the 2020 draft and when you think about it I would have to say he is probably the biggest sixth round steal the Patriots have had in franchise history and I don't think there would be a close second safety goino Stone was a seventh round pick by the Ravens who had a career year in 2023 as he had seven interceptions which was good for second in the league in his first true year starting he started some during the 2022 season but when he was called on in the 2023 season he more than made his Mark in cashed in with a 2-year $14 million contract with the Bengals this off season we all know about Trayvon Diggs in his 11 interception season back in 2021 as Diggs was a player who slipped in the draft and made a lot of teams pay in the process I was surprised he fell as far as he did back in 2020 but Dallas had a great first two rounds as they used their first two picks on lamb and Trayvon Diggs there was also a pretty good Corner drafted by the Chiefs named lerus sne in the fourth round to the 2020 draft who came from Louisiana Tech and he had a good 4-year run in Kansas City he finished his time there as a two-time champion and he pissed off a lot of receivers in the process Sneed was traded to the titans this off season now I have some big news and I am starting a podcast that already has a few episodes out and is linked in the description if you like the content here you will love it there and I hope you guys subscribe and leave a five-star rating and there will be a lot of great content moving forward I hope you enjoyed and until next time please be safe and have a great day love you guys

Channel: Football Analysis

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Keywords: football analysis, brett kollmann, Alex rollins nfl, thinking football, jd production, thatsgoodsports, mikerophone, urinatingtree, tps, fivepoints vids, kto, football digest, tom grossi, new heights, the rich eisen show, pat mcafee show, nfl, New York jets, jets, bears, falcons, lions, Detroit Lions, giants, New York giants, dolphins, Miami dolphins, vikings, Minnesota vikings, eagles, philadelphia eagles, cowboys, dallas cowboys, steelers, Pittsburgh steelers, Barry mccockiner, ravens

Id: eT1fqiLsGSg

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2024