Will NC State's Bradley Chubb be the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick? He thinks so.
It’s a question football fans are chewing over hard right now: Who’s going first when the 2018 NFL draft gets underway Thursday evening?
Bradley Chubb, the star defensive end out of N.C. State, has an answer.
He believes he’s as qualified as anyone to be the No. 1 pick, he said during an appearance on the Tiki and Tierney radio show on Tuesday.
“Yeah, I do, I do believe that,” he said on the show. “Just because, I mean, I put in so much hard work. On tape and all that – I had great games. I feel like as a prospect I am one of the best and I feel like I can go No. 1 overall, but if I can’t I won’t be discouraged. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
It’s a case he’s made before.
Chubb could go at No. 1 according to some forecasters, or is expected to go soon after. He’s been the favorite on the CBSSports.com draft board since January.
He sits at No. 2 on ESPN football analyst Mel Kiper’s final draft list.
Kiper noted Chubb “could have entered the 2017 and been in the first-round discussion,” but also that “Chubb doesn’t have quite as high of a grade as Myles Garrett did last year.”
Garrett, a defensive end out of Texas A&M, was picked No. 1 overall in last year's NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. Reports have theorized how Chubb would fit in on teams with the first picks.
In New York, that talk includes how the Giants are in need of a pass rusher after trading Jason Pierre-Paul to the Buccaneers in March.
The what-ifs are nearly endless in Cleveland, where the Browns have both the No. 1 and No. 4 picks.
But there’s been plenty of talk there about how Chubb joining Garrett would be disastrous for opposing offenses.
Asked about the unknowns of the draft on Tiki and Tierney, Chubb said he isn’t dwelling on where he’ll end up.
“If you try to think about all that stuff, your head (is) just going to be hurting – your world’s just going to be spinning,” Chubb said. “I can’t control where I go, or who decides to trade up or trade down, or anything like that, so I try not to pay attention to it.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Will NC State's Bradley Chubb be the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick? He thinks so.."