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Every year the NFL Draft is one of the most anticipated moments of the sports world. There are a few reasons for that, one of them being the unknown.
So much goes into the draft, and yet anything can happen. There are trades, teams reaching for players or someone falling far down the draft board unexpectedly.
Then there's everything that comes after the draft. Once everything is done, then comes the evaluating and analyzing of each pick. And part of that is looking for the biggest busts and steals of each round.
Here, we look at the biggest steals. Who will be the biggest steal of Round 5 in the 2020 NFL Draft? Let's try to take a guess.
As mentioned many times before, it isn't easy to predict. The reason they can get pretty tricky is fairly obvious. The NFL Draft has yet to happen.
Since the draft has yet to happen, we can't be sure of when players are taken. Again, teams reach and players fall. Due to that, a player projected to go early could be around in the late rounds and a player projected to go a little later might find himself selected quickly.
With that in mind, we will try to take into consideration where players are projected to go in the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft. That means for this one, we'll be looking at players projected to go around the fifth round.
And one name comes to mind: Justin Strnad.
Strnad is projected to land between the fourth and sixth rounds. And what's right in the middle? The fifth.
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Strnad is a linebacker out of Boston College. He's got a fantastic frame at 6-foot-3, 238 pounds and great athleticism. And he used that to put up great numbers in his career.
In fact, he'd probably be going a lot earlier in the draft if it wasn't for a few things.
First, he will be 24 years old before the start of the 2020 season. That's obviously still young, but it is older than the average rookie and it might make teams shy away from him in the earlier rounds.
Second, Strnad suffered a season-ending biceps injury in 2019. It caused him to appear in just seven games in his senior season. And that might make teams stall on him a little.
Still , he managed solid numbers in 2019, with 69 tackles (5.5 for loss), two sacks, four pass deflections and one interception in those seven games. If given a full season and those numbers should be even better.
What makes Strnad a clear steal candidate though is his readiness. He could make an immediate impact on special teams and be inserted into the defense as a backup linebacker. For some teams, he could even fight for a starting spot.
He's already a very good player and has some room to grow as well. So he could contribute immediately, while maturing into an even better player down the road. There is legitimate defensive-anchor type potential in the middle of the field for Strnad. And that makes him a clear-cut candidate for steal of the fifth round.
