Best remaining players in the 2021 NFL Draft — and Thursday’s hits and misses

On Wednesday, we brought you a draft prospect ranking based on lists from five sources: NFL.com, ESPN (Todd McShay), Pro Football Focus, CBS Sports and The Draft Network. Now that the first round of the draft is behind us, here are the top 100 prospects still remaining.

Below the table, we’ll detail some hits (and misses) from Thursday night’s first-round picks.

The first swing that looked a bit like a miss was the eighth overall pick of the draft, where the Carolina Panthers took South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn — the third-ranked cornerback — as the first corner selected, 10 spots ahead of his overall ranking of 18th in our consensus list. But that’s the kind of thing you can put down to a difference in evaluation — or team fit.

It’s harder to make that case for the Las Vegas Raiders’ selection of Alabama offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood with the 17th pick. The third tackle selected, he had been ranked seventh among tackles on our list — and was picked almost a full round earlier than his overall ranking of 45th. It was not at all surprising the Raiders would prioritize tackle, but you have to wonder about the player they selected. Raiders general manager Mike Mayock said they knew the pick would be controversial.

“Coach Cable has been all over him for months now,” said Mayock, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Gruden loved this guy. Our scouts loved this guy. And what I like is, when the second floor in our building, which is all the coaches, and the third floor, which is all the scouts, when we’re united on a conversation like Leatherwood, that makes me feel really good about the pick.”

So we’ll just have to see whether those on the upper floors of the Raiders’ facility are smarter than those who created these prospect rankings. In recent years, Las Vegas hasn’t given us much reason to think they know what they’re doing on draft day.

At first glance, two consecutive picks at the end of the first round didn’t so look great, either. Houston edge rusher Payton Turner — ranked 57th — was taken with the New Orleans Saints’ 28th pick, followed by 55th-ranked Georgia cornerback Eric Stokes, whom the Green Bay Packers took with the 29th pick. Both were the eighth-ranked players at their position.

The New England Patriots have been said to be very high on Alabama quarterback Mac Jones — whom they selected with the 15th pick — but he was 27th in our consensus ranking. Kentucky linebacker Jamin Davis — taken by the Washington Football Team at 19th — had been ranked 27th.

But there were teams that appeared to find — or will find — what looks like good value. The Minnesota Vikings took 14th-ranked Virginia Tech offensive tackle Christian Darrisaw with the 23rd pick — while as you see, no fewer than six players ranked in the top 32 remain on the board for the second round.