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The 2013 NFL Draft was loaded with hidden gems and a couple of future Hall of Famers. But very few of the best players came early in the draft.
Travis Kelce, for example, wasn't drafted until the third round. He might have gone later if head coach Andy Reid didn't already have a relationship with his brother, Jason, from their time together in Philadelphia. David Bakhtiari fell to the fourth round. Adam Thielen followed the Wes Welker route and entered the league as an undrafted free agent. Even DeAndre Hopkins wasn't the WR1; he was taken 19 picks after Tavon Austin.
If teams had all the knowledge they do today, how should the 2013 NFL Draft have gone instead?
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2013 NFL Draft Do-Over - First Round
1. Kansas City Chiefs - OT Lane Johnson
The Chiefs got a solid tackle in Eric Fisher, who started for eight seasons, helping to maintain the lines that gave Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes time to operate. He was a solid starter, but he wasn't an All-Pro. There were better choices in hindsight.
Lane Johnson was one of the best offensive tackles in the league, especially during his peak, which would have conveniently aligned with the Chiefs' Mahomes-era Super Bowl push. Between 2021 and 2023, Johnson made three All-Pro teams (in addition to another in 2017), and he did not allow a single sack in 2021 or 2022 on over 900 pass-blocking snaps.
2. St. Louis Rams - WR DeAndre Hopkins
In my redo, the Jaguars trade back with the St. Louis Rams to put themselves in the position to draft the QB1. In real life, they wasted the No. 2 overall pick of 2013 on Luke Joeckel, a tackle who was one of the worst his rookie season and only ended up playing four more NFL seasons, three with the Jags.
The Rams, who had been struggling to build a receiving corps with free-agent additions, grab Hopkins here. Then, with the addition of Cooper Kupp in 2017, they would have had one of the best receiver duos in history. Who knows? Maybe QB Jared Goff might even still be on the Rams had this happened.
3. Oakland Raiders - TE Travis Kelce
Kelce could be the best overall player in the 2013 draft class. But would Kelce have been as productive if Andy Reid had not developed him and found the best ways to utilize his talents? It is impossible to say for sure, but in this scenario, Raiders fans can imagine an alternative reality where Kelce is terrorizing their division rivals for a change.
4. Philadelphia Eagles - OT David Bakhtiari
Don't worry, Eagles fans. Even though you are denied Lane Johnson in this do-over, there is still an equivalent talent available at No. 4. Bakhtiari fell to the Packers in Round 4 of the real draft, but in his 11 seasons with Green Bay, Bakhtiari allowed just 29 sacks on 5,374 pass-blocking snaps, a rate of 0.5%.
5. Detroit Lions - WR Keenan Allen
The Lions had no way of knowing that Calvin Johnson would retire early, but they did know that there was no depth in the WR room behind Megatron. In 2012, Johnson led the team with 1,964 receiving yards. The No. 2 WR, Titus Young, clocked in just a paltry 383 yards.
Although the numbers for Johnson were exceptional in 2022, there was a significant drop-off in wide-receiver production each year that followed. When redoing this draft in 2024, we know that Johnson unexpectedly retired in 2016, leaving the Lions to rely on Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, and Kenny Golladay in the subsequent years that followed.
6. Cleveland Browns - DE/Edge Ezekiel Ansah
Ansah made nearly 50 sacks in his first five seasons and had three seasons with double-digit sack totals. The edge-rusher/ outside linebacker the Browns ended up drafting instead, Barkevious Mingo, had just seven sacks in three seasons before the Browns traded him to the Patriots for a fifth-round pick in 2016.
7. Arizona Cardinals - OT Terron Armstead
Like Bakhtiari, Armstead has had an excellent career since coming into the league. The Saints took him in the third round, and he has never allowed more than five sacks in a season. He has only allowed a single sack in four of his past five seasons. Armstead is also a five-time Pro Bowler and was a second-team All-Pro in 2018.
8. Buffalo Bills - DT Kawann Short
The Bills defense was mediocre for years before Sean McDermott took over as head coach in 2017. Short, who was drafted instead by the Panthers, would have been a key piece to jump-start their turnaround early. In eight seasons, he was one of the best interior defensive linemen in the game. During his peak between 2015 and 2017, Short made double-digit sack totals twice and was a force to be reckoned with in the middle.
9. New York Jets - CB Darius Slay
The Jets had several misses in the first round in the early 2010s. In 2013, they drafted cornerback Dee Milliner with their first pick, then they drafted safety Calvin Pryor the following year. Ouch. Neither worked out.
10. Tennessee Titans - C JC Tretter
The Packers found this gem in the fourth round, along with Bakhtiari. They didn't end up keeping him for long but Tretter had two seasons with PFF pass-blocking grades of over 80 for the Packers and five grades of 80-plus for the Browns before retiring to become the full-time head of the NFLPA.
11. San Diego Chargers (now L.A. Chargers) - WR Adam Thielen
With Keenan Allen off the board, the Chargers go for the next-best available wide receiver. Thielen, who went undrafted, ranks fifth all time amongst undrafted WRs in yardage and needs just 295 more yards to surpass Drew Pearson and Don Hutson for the third spot.
12. Miami Dolphins - FB Kyle Juszczyk
Miami's then-offensive coordinator, Mike Sherman, was comfortable running a West Coast offense that utilized the fullback and Juszczyk has been one of the better ones across the league for a decade.
13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - CB Logan Ryan
Rather than trading this pick for Darrelle Revis, whom they would cut after one season, the Bucs should have selected Rutgers' Logan Ryan, who made five interceptions as a rookie and ended up having a solid career in the NFL.
14. Carolina Panthers - S Micah Hyde
Hyde, who was drafted by the Packers in the fifth round, would go on to establish himself as one of the top safeties in the league with the Bills. He has had a better career than Ryan, but Ryan was better in his first couple of seasons than Hyde.
15. New Orleans Saints - S Tyrann Mathieu
The Saints would eventually sign the Honey Badger a decade later, but they could have gotten multiple All-Pro seasons out of him if they had drafted him instead of safety Kenny Vaccaro.
16. Jacksonville Jaguars - QB Geno Smith
In 2013, there was only one quarterback taken in the first round. Buffalo traded back from No. 8 to No. 16 to draft Florida State's EJ Manuel and unfortunately, that one didn't work out. The Jaguars would draft Blake Bortles with the No. 3 overall pick in 2014 and spend five years with him behind center. There's no telling whether Smith would have developed into the capable starter he is today or whether he would have flopped in Jacksonville.
17. Pittsburgh Steelers - LB Alec Ogletree
The Steelers needed a couple of linebackers. They lost outside linebacker James Harrison to free agency (for one season), and inside linebacker Larry Foote was in the last year of his contract. Foote would get injured and only play one game, and the Steelers would end up starting rookie Vince Williams on the inside and fourth-year veteran Jason Worilds at Harrison's spot.
The Steelers' first-round pick, Jarvis Jones, was a miss. He was only on the field for about half of the team's snaps during his four-year career, and he never made more than 42 combined tackles in a season. Alec Ogletree made over 110 combined tackles in each of his first three healthy seasons in the league.
18. San Francisco 49ers - S Eric Reid
The 49ers traded up from No. 31 with the Cowboys to acquire this pick and take Reid, a safety from LSU. Reid started in Week 1 and made seven interceptions in his first two seasons. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and shut down the middle of the field. The trade worked out well for both teams, so it would make sense for them to do it over again.
19. New York Giants - OG Kyle Long
Long made three Pro Bowls and one All-Pro team in his seven-year career as a Bear. He is the son of NFL legend Howie Long.
20. Chicago Bears - OG Larry Warford
With Long off the board, the Bears go for Larry Warford, who, in his real-life career, was selected by the Lions. He placed third in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting in 2013 and then made three Pro Bowls with the Saints later in his career.
21. Cincinnati Bengals - TE Zach Ertz
Ertz has played 12 seasons and counting while accumulating over 7,000 receiving yards. From 2015 to 2019 with the Eagles, he went for over 800 yards in five straight seasons, hitting a career high of 1,163 yards in 2018.
22. Washington Redskins (Commanders) - RB Cordarrelle Patterson
Washington's RB at the time was Alfred Morris, who was solid as a runner but never caught more than 17 passes in a season. If the Redskins had drafted Patterson and integrated him into their offense with Robert Griffin III, they could have taken some pressure off him. Tragically, after an ACL tear as a rookie, the man named RGIII was never the same.
23. Minnesota Vikings - CB Xavier Rhodes
In this do-over, the Vikings refrain from trading with Seattle for the No. 25 pick and instead pick Rhodes here while leaving their original pick, DT Sharrif Floyd, on the board.
24. Indianapolis Colts - S Jordan Poyer
Poyer was only a seventh-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles, who ended up cutting him. Poyer signed with the Browns and played three full seasons there before joining the Bills. Poyer ended up being one of the best players to come out of the 2013 draft, especially when considering his longevity. After moving to safety, he recorded four 100-tackle seasons, two five-interception seasons, one Pro Bowl, and an All-Pro nod. Now, we will see what he has left at age 33 playing for the Miami Dolphins.
25. Seattle Seahawks - WR Robert Woods
The Seahawks draft one of the best available receivers in the draft. Woods was the poster boy for consistency later in his career and thrived in head coach Sean McVay's system while on the Rams from 2017-2021.
26. Green Bay Packers - RB Le'Veon Bell
The Packers ended up drafting Alabama's Eddie Lacy in the second round of the draft, and it worked out well for them in the beginning. Lacy won Rookie of the Year and ran for over 1,100 yards in his first two seasons in the NFL. But he was later hobbled by injuries and struggled to keep his weight down.
Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell had a longer career and was more productive at his peak. Bell ran for over 1,200 yards three times for the Steelers and caught over 80 passes twice. In 2014, he gained 2,215 yards from scrimmage. One can only wonder if Bell would be HOF-bound had he never held out in Pittsburgh and stayed with the team versus wasting his final years with Adam Gase and the Jets.
27. Houston Texans - RB Eddie Lacy
The Texans take the real-life Rookie of the Year in 2013 here in Lacy, who had two solid seasons to start his career before falling out of favor with the Packers and ending up out of the league by 2018 after struggling to keep his weight down.
28. Denver Broncos - OT Eric Fisher
Eric Fisher wasn't a bad player by any means and played in the league for a decade, starting 128 games. He just wasn't worth the No. 1 overall pick.
29. New England Patriots - DT Sheldon Richardson
Richardson falls from the middle of the first round (No. 13) in real life to the late first round in this redo, where he's snapped up by their division rival. Maybe he plays even better under the tutelage of Bill Belichick and ends up earning himself an early-first-round pick in this purely hypothetical scenario.
30. Atlanta Falcons - OG Justin Pugh
Pugh ended up hanging around in the league for 11 seasons and started 131 career games after splitting time between the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals.
31. Dallas Cowboys - C Travis Frederick
The Cowboys traded back and picked Frederick, who had a disappointing performance at the NFL Combine. However, he didn't disappoint one bit in the NFL after making five Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams. Frederick, unfortunately, retired after the 2019 season due to Guillain-Barré syndrome.
32. Baltimore Ravens - WR Kenny Stills
Stills would not turn into a WR1, but he was a solid depth piece in several solid wide-receiver rooms. Stills' best season came in 2017 with the Miami Dolphins when he put up 58 receptions for 847 yards and six TDs.
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