Biggest Question Facing Each NFL Team Ahead of 2016 NFL Draft

This is the homestretch. Every major pro day is in the books, as are free agency and the combine. The last event before we turn our attention to on-field football is the NFL draft, which will be held in Chicago at the end of this month.

Plenty of moves have occurred through trades, signings and re-signings in 2016, but the most impactful acquisitions that teams will make will be during draft week, when they lock up players for four to five years on cheap contracts.

To best understand where franchises are at in early April, we take a look at where points of conflict may be for each team. Maybe a specific unit is begging to be improved before the 2016 season starts. It's possible that teams are at a fork in the road with certain players, who are at the fringe of "good enough," which is never where you want to be as an organization. 

For all 32 franchises, we'll dig into what the biggest questions leading up to the draft.

After trading their second-round pick and their guard Jonathan Cooper to the New England Patriots for Chandler Jones, the Arizona Cardinals filled their largest hole, pass-rusher, without free agency but before the draft. With that in mind, they don't pick between the 29th overall pick and the 92nd overall pick in the 2016 draft, which only gives them one shot at an early impact player.

Last year, Jeff Heuerman was drafted 92nd overall, followed by Henry Anderson, Ty Montgomery, Matt Jones, Xavier Cooper, Geneo Grissom, Steven Nelson and Paul Dawson to finish out the third round. Only two of those players, Anderson (who posted one sack) and Montgomery (who had 136 receiving yards as a rookie), even made starts in 2015.

Are the Cardinals confident enough in their current roster construction to keep their late first-round pick, or will they try to parlay their selection into multiple at-bats?

Over the past two years, the Atlanta Falcons have posted the fewest sacks in the NFL. Their head coach, Dan Quinn, comes from Seattle, a franchise that built its success on a four-man pass rush. At some point, if Quinn wants to replicate his Seahawks success, which is what earned him an NFL head coaching gig in the first place, he needs to piece together a complete pass-rushing unit.

In the first round in 2015, the team took Vic Beasley, a defensive end from Clemson. Even with a torn labrum, he still finished with four sacks during his rookie year. The team also signed Adrian Clayborn, a former first-round defensive end by way of the University of Iowa and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As an outside-inside pass-rusher, he was decent as a situational pressure player, and this offseason, the re-signed him.

The only other major free-agent move that the Falcons made on the defensive line was to bring in Derrick Shelby, who was bounced out of Miami with the Mario Williams signing. Shelby has nine sacks combined over the last three seasons after starting his career with a sackless effort.

Atlanta has a few pieces on the defensive line, but for the most part, the unit is filled with the same players who were on the disappointing 2015 squad. Will the team make a recovering Beasley shoulder the load, or will it ease his NFL transition?

Eugene Monroe came to Baltimore via a trade after the Jacksonville Jaguars selected Luke Joeckel with the second overall pick in 2013. When Monroe has been on the field, he's been all you can ask for, but he's missed 20 games in three years. After losing Kelechi Osemele to the Oakland Raiders on a record-breaking deal, the Ravens don't have the opportunity to slip up on their offensive line.

Their receiving unit is Breshad Perriman, who missed all of his rookie season, 36-year-old Steve Smith Sr. and Mike Wallace, a one-trick pony who is losing his deep speed. If this Joe Flacco-led offense wants to attack downfield, it's going to be on the offensive line to pick up the slack.

If the team isn't convinced that Monroe is going to earn one more big contract, this is the opportunity to plan for the future. As early as 2017, the franchise can shed his deal. The team can take a developmental left tackle, plug him in as a right tackle in the short term and build for the future, something the Ravens do better than the vast majority of organizations across the league.

Tyrod Taylor was a free agent in 2015. Whenever breakout quarterbacks pop out of nowhere, there's always skeptical hope from the fanbase. More often than not, these passers turn out to be closer to Derek Anderson than Tony Romo.

Taylor is a mobile quarterback who gets to play with the most complex running game in the NFL. The team is playing to his strengths by allowing him to make plays on the move, but how long can that last? Is he really the next Russell Wilson?

Rex Ryan's interest in a mobile quarterback makes sense, since passers who can make plays on the move are a defense's worst nightmare. Doug Whaley, the team's general manager, has already missed on one quarterback with EJ Manuel. If he doesn't lock one up soon, it's unlikely that he sees the end of his recently signed extension.

You can't win in the league without a quarterback. The Bills need to decide right now if Taylor is their long-term choice or if they are in the Connor Cook and Paxton Lynch sweepstakes.

Just because the Carolina Panthers went to the Super Bowl this past season doesn't mean that they aren't without flaws. At receiver, they were missing Kelvin Benjamin, and their big-play threat was Ted Ginn Jr., who dropped as many balls as he caught in 2015.

Both bookends are questionable for the Panthers, which is one reason why Von Miller and the Denver Broncos took over the game and stole the championship. Carolina is questionable at pass-rusher, but before it decides to pull the trigger on a defender, it needs to ask if the team has done enough to surround its MVP with a reasonable number of weapons and protection to get back to the Big Game. 

The Chicago Bears signed Bobby Massie from the Arizona Cardinals, which means Kyle Long will once again return to guard after his recent right tackle conversion. With one bookend locked in with a three-year deal, the Bears now need to focus on left tackle.

The defense was easily their weakest link last season, but with the addition of Akiem Hicks, Jerrell Freeman and Danny Trevathan in free agency, it's now blindside tackle. At this point, the team is going to start Charles Leno, a seventh-round pick from 2014. He started 13 games last year.

Is the team fine with settling at the position? You can make the argument that both Massie, the right tackle, and Long, the guard, are better left tackle prospects than Leno. If the Bears aren't OK with that reality, they could be an interesting trade-up candidate for Laremy Tunsil or Ronnie Stanley.

Cincinnati's top receiver has always been A.J. Green, and the drop-off to the No. 2 wideout has always been significant. Due to Green's injury history, though, the team needs to think twice before banking on his impact for 16-plus games in 2016.

On top of that, the two highest-paid receivers in free agency were plucked off the Bengals' roster. Marvin Jones signed with Detroit Lions for $40 million over five years, while Mohamed Sanu was a $32.5 million, five-year signing for the Atlanta Falcons.

Together, the Bengals receivers made $34 million guaranteed, when only five other receivers were rewarded with more than $1 million guaranteed. The team did sign Brandon LaFell from the New England Patriots to a one-year deal, but is his 2015 season's result of 37 receptions really what you expect from a starting receiver on a playoff team?

Without former offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who left the team for the Cleveland Browns' head coaching job, there's a legitimate question whether the franchise can still scheme receivers open like it has in the past. If the Bengals can't, they need to target a pass-catcher early on in the draft.

Unless you've been living under a rock since 2011, you're aware of quarterback Robert Griffin III. His resume includes winning the Heisman Trophy, being drafted second overall, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and earning a scout-team safety role for the 2015 Washington Redskins.

Injury, Kirk Cousins and Jay Gruden combined to create the downward spiral of Griffin's career. If he's 85 percent of who he was in 2012, the Cleveland Browns have a starting quarterback. That's a risk they have to be willing to take, though. Griffin just signed a two-year deal with the squad, which throws a monkey wrench into draft projections.

Are they convinced enough of Griffin that they don't take North Dakota State's Carson Wentz with the second overall pick? What if Wentz isn't even there; will they entertain the idea of taking California's Jared Goff? For a team that is attempting to run a "Moneyball" franchise, the split between taking a quarterback to compete with Griffin, a safety in Jalen Ramsey, an injured off-the-ball linebacker in Myles Jack, a 5-technique-only defensive end in DeForest Buckner or a right tackle in Laremy Tunsil is a Chinese finger trap.

Tony Romo's collarbone ended the Dallas Cowboys' season in 2015. Already at 35 years old, Romo is going to become a health concern more and more as time passes by. Last year, the Cowboys were getting ready for a playoff run, and now they're drafting in the top four for the first time since 1991, likely before any of their 2016 draft selections were born.

Owner Jerry Jones doesn't like to lose. Accepting that the end of Romo's career would mean the end of an era of Dallas football isn't the type of reaction we've grown to expect from the owner. In today's NFL, where Brock Osweiler signed a $72 million contract based on a seven-game stretch where he looked solid and didn't meet his new head coach—a former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach—until the presser to announce his signing, the only way to bring in a talented quarterback is with an early draft pick.

The Cowboys haven't taken a first-round quarterback since Troy Aikman in 1989. They haven't had many opportunities. With the fourth overall pick, the team may find a developmental high-priority passer, with Carson Wentz (who the staff coached at the Senior Bowl) or Jared Goff.

By passing on a passer, Jones will have to accept the reality that his team will have to bomb a season to be in a position to win post-Romo, whenever that may be. If the Cowboys plan on ditching Romo before the end of a five-year rookie contract, when you include the team option, then they might as well take their shot while they have an open look.

The Denver Broncos are in a fascinating situation. They don't have a quarterback, but they are coming off a Super Bowl victory despite quarterback play. In the 2015 postseason, Peyton Manning ranked ninth out of the 12 starting quarterbacks in terms of passer rating.

The three signal-callers behind him were AJ McCarron (a backup), Brian Hoyer (who is now the backup to Manning's former backup Brock Osweiler in Houston) and Carson Palmer (who threw four interceptions in a 34-point loss against the Carolina Panthers).

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the team is trying to make a move for Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback, but a trade is currently being stalled due to salary-cap implications, not compensation. If a deal can't be reached, is Mark Sanchez, who was recently acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles for a conditional draft pick, risk-averse enough to ride the Broncos defense to a Super Bowl?

Sanchez well could find himself in situation where he's been given a Ferrari and told not to crash it. For a former first-round pick whose lasting memory is the "Butt Fumble," that's not a lock.

Studying first-year general manager Bob Quinn, who comes to Detroit from New England, will be fascinating. The Lions have been known as a speed team, likely because of their domed stadium, and their first-round picks, at least since 2002.

Over that time, they've had Matt Millen and Martin Mayhew as general managers. Out of the 17 first-round picks in nearly a decade-and-a-half, 10 of them were offensive skill players. Two were quarterbacks, Joey Harrington and Matthew Stafford; two were running backs, Kevin Jones and Jahvid Best; and six were pass-catchers, either wideouts or tight ends, in Charles Rodgers, Roy Williams, Mike Williams, Calvin Johnson, Brandon Pettigrew and Eric Ebron.

Even out of the remaining seven players, Ernie Sims and Ezekiel Ansah are defenders who were tabbed as supreme athletes who could play on the edges of a defense, which benefit them more to play on dry turf surfaces. Only five linemen, Gosder Cherilus, Riley Reiff, Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and Laken Tomlinson, are the non-sexy picks that the team made.

Between 2000 and 2015, when Quinn was in New England, the team drafted 15 first-round players. Only three times was an offensive skill player the selection, with it twice being tight ends. The team took defensive tackles five times, including in the last back-to-back drafts.

The Lions have taken four defenders in the first round since 2002. Over that same span, the Patriots have taken four offensive players, with the potential of three being blockers on any down. Something has to give in this marriage.

In 2013, the Green Bay Packers drafted Datone Jones as a hybrid 5-technique and 3-technique defensive lineman. Unfortunately for him, one of his roles, under tackle, was taken over by Mike Daniels, who is one of the best penetrators in the NFL. That made Jones a 5-technique defensive end in Dom Capers' scheme, but by the end of the 2015 season, he was moved to outside linebacker.

Between Jones' transition and B.J. Raji's retirement, the team needs to replace a defensive end and a nose tackle in its 3-4 scheme. As of right now, the primary defensive linemen are Daniels, Josh Boyd, who is coming off  a season-ending ankle injury, Letroy Guion, who was facing gun and drug charges in 2015, and Mike Pennel, who is suspended for the first four games of 2016.

Those are the only four players whose talents are worthy of being considered locks to make the 2016 team, but even Boyd may never be the same. At the most heavily rotated position in the sport, where base defenses warrant three starters, it's within reason to not only ask if the Packers will take one defensive tackle early on in the draft but if they should double-dip.

Since 2004, the Houston Texans have used their first-round picks on a defender 11 times, with the only offensive players taken being receiver DeAndre Hopkins and tackle Duane Brown. In all likelihood, the Texans will again use their top pick on a defender, which is concerning when, outside of Hopkins and Brown, the team has few familiar stars on the offensive side of the ball.

At quarterback, the Texans signed Brock Osweiler, which will cost them $72 million if he sees the end of his contract. At running back, they released Arian Foster, replacing him with Lamar Miller from Miami in free agency. Outside of Hopkins, it's hard to make the case that there is a No. 2-caliber target for Osweiler to throw to.

On the offensive line, there's also movement. Xavier Su'a-Filo is a young player with potential at guard, but center is a hole on the depth chart now that Ben Jones signed with the in-division Tennessee Titans. Jeff Allen was another splash signing, a guard by way of Kansas City.

You can make the case that three of the team's top offensive players—Osweiler, Miller and Allen—are all fresh Texans. Will Houston shake its defensive stereotype this draft, or will it completely rely on its free agents meshing in Year 1, as the team is coming off a playoff season?

Before the 2015 draft, when they took Henry Anderson and D'Joun Smith, the only top-100 defender the Indianapolis Colts took in the Ryan Grigson era was Bjoern Werner, the 2013 first-rounder who is now without a job. When you see that on paper, it makes sense that the Colts have no young cornerstones on their defense, despite their 41-23 record under Grigson, which is largely inflated by playing the lowly Texans, Jaguars and Titans in their division.

Is this a team that has pigeonholed itself into using a first-round pick on a defender in this draft, despite the holes on the offensive line? If it is, it might as well be active in trying to bring in impact players before draft day. Muhammad Wilkerson of the New York Jets is on a franchise tag at the moment, and if the Colts made a move for the defensive end, he'd automatically be the top defender on the roster.

Looking at Jacksonville's roster, it is far from replicating Gus Bradley's Seattle Seahawks defense. The main difference between the two is in the passing game. You either need to cover well or rush the passer well in the NFL to survive. While the team is dumping assets on the defensive side of the ball for free agents such as Jared Odrick and Malik Jackson, they are players whose skill sets are skewed to the ground game.

The only pass-rusher on the roster with a perceived high upside is Dante Fowler Jr. Despite that, his combine testing doesn't correlate well for tweeners with the same athleticism, plus he's coming off a missed season due to a torn ACL. In what might be a must-win year for Bradley and Co., they need to at least figure out how to bring in a sack artist opposite of Fowler to ease him into NFL play.

As of now, only a few pass-rushers are on the market, with the best on-field talent being Greg Hardy, who has been accused of domestic violence in the past. The team may have to turn to the draft, and do so early, to find a three-down starter opposite of Fowler. If not, the line is loaded with run defenders in a pass-heavy sport.

The Kansas City Chiefs' pass-rushing unit looks a lot different than what we expected it to look like a year ago. Tamba Hali, now a 32-year-old, was expected to sign with another franchise to end his career, as Dee Ford, a 2014 first-round pick, was drafted as his replacement. Ford broke out with a four-sack season in 2015, but three of those sacks came against a broken San Diego Chargers offensive line in Week 14.

Kansas City re-signed Hali to a three-year deal worth $21 million on paper, but it's a year-to-year contract for the Chiefs. Opposite of Hali was supposed to be Justin Houston, who nearly broke the sack record in 2014, but offseason ACL surgery may keep him out of 2016 all together.

There were stretches during last season when the Chiefs were one of the better teams in the NFL, led by their aggressive defense and their game-managing offense. Their two weakest positions at the moment are cornerback and pass-rusher, which is a deadly combination in 2016. Is the team fine with throwing out an aging Hali, who has been in the league since 2006, and a lackluster Ford for 16 games?

As of this second, Case Keenum is the starting quarterback of the recently relocated Los Angeles Rams. This makes little sense on paper. Sure, he may have been the best passer the team had in 2015, but that's no reason to settle.

The team didn't pull in Robert Griffin III or Brock Osweiler, and it doesn't appear that it's making a play for Colin Kaepernick. Are the Rams really willing to ride out 2016 with Keenum, who was brought back at the price of a first-round tender?

Stan Kroenke didn't move the Rams from St. Louis for financial purposes. He did so because he wanted to be in the limelight. No quarterback situation is less exciting than the Rams' current lineup of Keenum, Nick Foles and Sean Mannion.

Miami Dolphins fans may have high hopes for Jay Ajayi, but he was a fifth-round pick for a reason. The team didn't slip him under the nose of 31 other franchises without a cost. The concern over Ajayi's knee, stemming from a 2011 injury at Boise State, is legitimate.

It's one reason why the team wasn't content enough to avoid other running backs in free agency. Once Lamar Miller left for Houston, the team took visits from Arian Foster and Chris Johnson and made an offer to C.J. Anderson. Coming away empty-handed, Miami now has to turn to the draft for a ball-carrier.

After flipping first-round picks with the Philadelphia Eagles for Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell, the Dolphins may be in a position to take Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State, one of the best talents in the class, but at a position that is routinely passed over early in the draft. Before pulling that trigger, though, the team would need to come to an agreement on how it feels about its second-year back.

Offensive coordinator Norv Turner likes to go deep, despite his personnel. Teddy Bridgewater isn't a quarterback with an attacking arm, so, in the long term, his receivers are going to need to be the playmakers under Turner.

Cordarrelle Patterson was drafted as a deep threat, but he's been missing since 2013. Charles Johnson was a hopeful breakout target, but his 2014 was a flash in the pan. Stefon Diggs had a great 2015 for a rookie, but leaning on a fifth-round receiver follows the same logic of trusting Johnson heading into 2015, which was a mistake.

Is it to the point where the franchise has to draft a first-round receiver in the 2016 draft? Are the Vikings OK with living with the reality of a Diggs-Johnson combo? Even losing a declining Mike Wallace, who started 12 games for the Vikings in his one year with the team, may come back to haunt them, if they wait until the 54th overall pick to take a wideout.

The New England Patriots lost their first-round pick due to the Deflategate scandal, but they managed to gain another second-round pick, and a former first-round guard in Jonathan Cooper, by trading Chandler Jones, their double-digit sack pass-rusher, to the Arizona Cardinals.

Tom Brady is 38 years old. Bill Belichick is 63 years old. This is the time to strike.

Despite losing Jones, the team has been aggressive in free agency, bringing in a former second overall pass-rusher in Chris Long, a former top-20 defensive end-linebacker hybrid in Shea McClellin and Terrance Knighton, nicknamed "Pot Roast," who is known as a great run-stopping defensive lineman. Between those signings and the addition of Cooper and tight end Martellus Bennett, a 6'6", 273-pounder, it's obvious that the team had a plan coming into the offseason: supplement for the fact that it doesn't pick until 60th overall.

With two picks back-to-back at the end of the second round, the Patriots need to make a choice. Do they use those picks on long-term investments at premier positions, possibly on outside receivers who can start by 2018, or should they use them on immediate starters at non-premier positions, like inside linebackers?

The New Orleans Saints are in cap hell right now, which isn't good for an aging team that is trying to rebuild. At the top of the food chain in New Orleans is Drew Brees, who is slated to hit free agency in 2017, the same year that Andrew Luck will likely break every NFL contract record known.

Beyond Brees, Max Unger (who the Saints parted ways with Jimmy Graham for), Kenny Vaccaro (the team's 2013 first-round pick) and Terron Armstead (who you can argue is the best offensive tackle under 25 years old) are also going to hit the open market, as of now. In terms of a cap hit, Jairus Byrd, who has been a disappointment in New Orleans, falls in second in line with the team, after signing a record-breaking six-year, $54 million deal to play safety for the Saints in 2014.

All of those players could realistically be gone by this time next year. The Saints need to pick their spots, deciding which players they need to re-sign in 2017. Per Over the Cap, the team is fifth-to-last in the league in terms of cap space, with just slightly over $3 million to work with. The Saints will need to target replacements a year early, as there isn't enough money to go around to keep this team together in the long term.

Last year, Ereck Flowers, the Giants' top-10 rookie, was limited by an ankle injury. With that being said, he was a huge project coming out of the University of Miami, and he didn't seem to improve. Between his footwork and the timing of his punch, it's hard to call the bookend anything more than a liability based on his rookie year. Now, his footwork may advance with full health, but I don't see how upper-body action correlates to the particular injury he suffered.

With Will Beatty gone, the team's two starting tackles are Flowers and Marshall Newhouse, who is as much, if not more, of a liability than Flowers. Eli Manning is a 35-year-old with only one talented receiver in Odell Beckham Jr., since Victor Cruz's post-injury status is unknown. You can scheme open receivers, but that takes protection.

The Giants need to make a move for an offensive tackle in the draft, but the question is going to be which type. Do they think Flowers, who isn't a great athlete by any means, is capable as a blindside protector in 2016? The Giants' 2015 line play is one reason why the team is once again picking in the top 10.

If the Giants do decide to move Flowers to the right side of the line, a selection like Ronnie Stanley of Notre Dame can improve both bookend roles with one pick. It all depends on how much the team values consistency and where it thinks Flowers is in terms of development. Remember, this is the same franchise that took Justin Pugh in the first round of the 2013 draft, just to later move him from right tackle to guard.

Ryan Fitzpatrick can get Brandon Marshall the ball, and last year, that was enough. Fitzpatrick is currently sitting on the free-agent market, with teams like the Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams still with questionable quarterback situations.

Once the domino of Colin Kaepernick falls in line, we'll come closer to answering who Fitzpatrick will play for in 2016. In the meantime, the team still has Geno Smith on the roster, the 2013 second-rounder who was slated to start in 2015 until a punch from IK Enemkpali sidelined the West Virginia graduate.

The New York Jets are headed by their strong defense and their coach, Todd Bowles. Marshall, Eric Decker and Matt Forte have to be fed the ball, though, and the stability of Fitzpatrick could provide the Jets with more value than taking a shot at a rookie passer or rolling with Smith.

Mario Edwards Jr.'s rookie season ended with a scary neck injury. With Justin Tuck retiring, there's an opening at defensive end, a perfect starting role for the second-year second-round pick to fill. Unfortunately, the status of his recovery is unknown.

Bruce Irvin was brought in as a free agent, but his tweener role is more suited to exchange reps with Khalil Mack on the line rather than start opposite him. Irvin was a linebacker for the majority of his Seahawks career.

If Edwards isn't cleared, defensive end is going to be the biggest hole for the Oakland Raiders, who surprisingly sprouted into a near playoff team last season. In terms of a single selection making the most impact, a pass-rusher at No. 14 will make the biggest splash.

Nothing would be more interesting than the Philadelphia Eagles challenging the NFL's view of team building immediately after firing Chip Kelly as both the head coach and general manager. Now led by Howie Roseman, the Eagles cleaned house by traded expensive players for slight draft improvements. They cut ties with big contract players faster than anyone could have previously imagined.

Moving up into the eighth overall pick, off a first-round flip that included Byron Maxwell, who signed the biggest free agent cornerback deal in the 2015 offseason, and linebacker Kiko Alonso, who the team traded running back LeSean McCoy for, Philadelphia has an interesting set of needs for where it is drafting. The running back is Ryan Mathews. Who starts opposite of Eric Rowe, the team's 2015 second-round cornerback, is also up in the air.

We've been told over and over again that running back is a position that has been devalued, which is why Ezekiel Elliott may not be looked at as the same prospect as he would have been in 2004. We're told that smaller cornerbacks under 5'11" are rarely worth the effort, which is why Vernon Hargreaves III, despite a great combine, may fall out of the top 10.

With the signing of Leodis McKelvin, who is 5'10" like Hargreaves, Philadelphia gave us a hint. This staff doesn't seem to care what outsiders think, and if it ignores measurables and the perceived league-wide value of players, which it seems to be doing, then it may feel comfortable picking in the zone where the consensus first-tier and second-tier players begin to mesh.

In the Pittsburgh Steelers' 3-4 defense, you can guess that five of their front-seven starters in 2016 will be former first-round picks. The two non-first-round roles are two of the three defensive line positions, and one is occupied by Stephon Tuitt, who was a second-round pick in 2014.

The final position is nose tackle, where Daniel McCullers looks to be the starter at this point. Though he was a sixth-round pick in 2013, he's going to be a 23-year-old until August 11. With his age and experience with the team, and his size at 6'7" and 352 pounds, there's a case to be made that the franchise should give him a fair opportunity, considering that he's only started one game in his two-year career.

On the flip side, adding a plug-and-play nose tackle early on could solidify that defense, which is important when young, athletic defenders such as Ryan Shazier and Bud Dupree are still trying to get their feet under them in the NFL. Someone like Jarran Reed of Alabama isn't a first-round fit for every scheme, but he is a fit for Pittsburgh. Depending on how important the Steelers believe the position is to winning, there's a chance that predicting who they take off the board with the 25th overall pick is a layup.

The San Diego Chargers are one of the few teams who actually run a two-gapping 3-4 defense in their base looks. On the defensive line, Corey Liuget is a solid 5-technique defensive end for them, and they recently signed Brandon Mebane from the Seattle Seahawks to play nose tackle.

Opposite of Liuget, though, the defensive end position is a question. As a run defender, DeForest Buckner of Oregon is the best in the class, and he should be on the board when the Chargers are on the clock with the third overall pick. Typically, I'd suggest that they trade back slightly for him, as two-gapping defenders aren't usually viewed as elite prospects.

The issue with that line of thinking is that the Baltimore Ravens, who also need a defensive end, are picking sixth overall. The Chargers can turn a weakness into a strength, but it all depends on how important the staff believes the position is. Liuget was taken as a first-round pick but under a different coaching staff and front office. He signed a $51 million deal under the current administration, but re-signing your own and taking a rookie with the third overall pick are two different conversations.

When Chip Kelly took the San Francisco 49ers job, it looked like he finally found "his quarterback." Colin Kaepernick is a dual-threat passer who was just five yards short of winning Super Bowl XLVII. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Kaepernick has any interest in playing for Kelly.

Kaepernick trade rumors have been floating around since before the combine, but recently, his departure from San Francisco seems more imminent. Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, the 49ers and the Denver Broncos have come to an agreement on trade compensation, but they are now playing a waiting game to see if the quarterback will reduce his salary to join Denver, or if San Francisco is willing to pay some of his contract to leave.

The 49ers need to make a choice: Is bringing back Kaepernick a realistic possibility at this point and is paying a slice of his deal worth a mid-round pick? From there, it could be in his hands to take a pay cut, should the team decide it doesn't want to lose a possible franchise quarterback for pennies on the dollar.

In 2011, the same year Kaepernick was drafted, the Cincinnati Bengals had a grumpy Carson Palmer under contract. They drafted Andy Dalton in the second round and didn't ship Palmer off until October of that year, when the Oakland Raiders were desperate enough to up their offer. The 49ers may elect to go that route with the passer, but they'll need to take his replacement early on in the draft.

Seattle's offensive linemen right now are Bradley Sowell, Justin Britt, Kristjan Sokoli, Patrick Lewis, Drew Nowak, Mark Glowinski, J'Marcus Webb, Garry Gilliam and Terry Poole. In two years, all of them might be out of the league. Britt is likely the best known lineman in Tom Cable's stable, but even he was moved from right tackle to guard last preseason after just one year into the league.

This team could use a starter at five different positions early. Between the massive downgrade of the offensive line and the retirement of Marshawn Lynch, this offense can make a drastic drop in production in 2016. The Seahawks need to decide on an offensive identity, because right now, they look like a backyard squad that will win or lose on any given Sunday based on Russell Wilson's solo effort.

Over the course of Gerald McCoy's career, he's been the primary pass-rusher for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have been running a 4-3 defense. He's a talented 3-technique defensive tackle, but in that scheme, edge defenders also need to get after the quarterback.

Last year, Jacquies Smith had a bit of a breakout season, but he's a speed-rush specialist with no real counter. He's a third-down change-of-pace type of pass-rusher who is done for once offensive tackles lock onto his tempo. The team brought in Robert Ayers as a free agent, a former first-round pick now on his third team, but there's reason to be skeptical that he's going to be "the man" in Tampa.

Ayers never recorded a season of more than 5.5 sacks until 2015 as a 30-year-old. Even then, 7.5 of his nine sacks came in the last five weeks of the year. Was he on a hot streak, or was he legitimately talented? The New York Giants didn't think enough of him to re-sign him, instead opting to hand Olivier Vernon, formerly of the Miami Dolphins, an $85 million contract.

In New York, Ayers might have been the fourth defensive end on the team in 2016. In Tampa, he's the No. 1 guy. The Buccaneers need to decide quickly if that's an issue, as the hit rate for non-first-round pass-rushers is in the ballpark of non-first-round quarterbacks.

Jon Robinson, the Tennessee Titans' new general manager, has a big decision to make with his first selection with the team. The Titans hold the first overall pick, and the consensus seems to be that the best player in the draft, possibly a generational talent, is Laremy Tunsil of Mississippi.

What makes this subject complicated is that the team already has a left tackle in Taylor Lewan, who was a first-round pick in 2014. In a league in which the best right tackles are making less money than the top 15 left tackles in the NFL, is it worth taking a right tackle in the first round or moving Lewan over?

The team needs a new starting right tackle. Last year, Jeremiah Poutasi, then a 20-year-old rookie, was moved from guard to right tackle late in the preseason, despite his heavy body hovering around 345 pounds. Byron Bell, who was signed off the street in August, started 16 games on the offensive line.

Maybe not putting enough of an emphasis on offensive linemen is why the Titans' last staff had to look for new jobs after 2015, but taking a tackle that high when the team already has a young, capable tackle on the roster is virtually unprecedented.

Washington brought back Kirk Cousins on a franchise tag. There's no reason to assume that the team wouldn't want to sign him to a long-term contract for the right price. That last part is crucial. If he's demanding money like Russell Wilson, who signed a four-year deal for $87 million, there may be an issue.

Even Brock Osweiler, who only has started a handful of games in his career, signed a four-year, $72 million contract with the Houston Texans this offseason. If the Redskins want Cousins to prove that he's really a franchise player, no one will blame them. In 2015, he had a 69.8 percent completion percentage and threw touchdowns on 5.3 percent of his passes and interceptions on only 2 percent of his dropbacks. Between 2012 and 2014, he completed 58.9 percent of his throws, threw a touchdown on 4.4 percent of his passes, and his interception rate was 4.6 percent, more than double his 2015 effort.

Should the team think about a parachute option in case Cousins' 2015 was more of a fluke than we'd like to admit? General manager Scot McCloughan was part of a staff that brought in Trent Dilfer, who was coming off a Super Bowl victory, and Matt Hasselbeck, who was traded from Green Bay, to compete with Brock Huard, the 77th overall pick, for the 2001 Seattle Seahawks quarterback gig.

In another stint with the Seahawks, McCloughan's team drafted Russell Wilson on Day 2 of the draft, despite already signing Matt Flynn to a contract. McCloughan also comes from the Packers organization, which has historically embraced competition at the quarterback position, including the drafting of Brian Brohm, a second-round pick, the season after Brett Favre retired, who added competition for Aaron Rodgers.