LSU Football: Pro Football Focus makes bold prediction for Justin Jefferson in NFL Draft

LSU football wide receiver Justin Jefferson is expected to be selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

LSU football’s Justin Jefferson hasn’t received a lot of respect during the offseason, despite his impressive 2019 season.

Jefferson caught 111 passes for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns as a junior last season. His 111 receptions led the team.

Entering the combine, there were some questions about Jefferson’s speed. He erased those questions by running a 4.43 in the 40 yard dash.

That fast time in the 40 yard dash, however, wasn’t enough for Pro Football Focus to send Jefferson to top of their wide receiver board. In fact, PFF has Jefferson as their No. 8 wide receiver in the draft.

I don’t get it. I think Jefferson has the potential to be the best wide receiver in the draft. He’s the total package. Jefferson runs good routes, has good hands, displays excellent body control and has plenty of speed. I think he could be the next Mike Thomas (who just set the NFL record for receptions in 2019 for the New Orleans Saints).

Anyway, while PFF isn’t totally sold on Jefferson, they at least acknowledged this week that some NFL teams might have a higher grade on the former LSU stand out than they do.

PFF made some bold predictions this week and they predicted that Jefferson would be the No. 3 wide receiver off the board, behind Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb and Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy.

(PFF still made sure to point out in their prediction that they don’t think Jefferson can excel against press coverage. They refuse to give him any credit for the speed he displayed at the combine.)

This is about where I think Jefferson should go. I can understand Lamb and Jeudy being rated a little higher than Jefferson. But you really can’t go wrong with any of those three wide receivers.

Some NFL team is going to be extremely happy they “reached” for Jefferson in the first round.