2013 NFL mock draft: Jaguars select Eric Reid

With the 33rd pick in Pride Of Detroit's 2013 NFL mock draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars select LSU safety Eric Reid. Latif Masud is serving as the Jaguars' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.

For round two, my actual plan was to target an offensive player, preferably a right tackle that could take over for Cameron Bradfield. My original target for the pick was Alabama's D.J. Fluker, but he happened to have been picked just before me. With Fluker off the board, I just didn't feel that the tackles available warranted the 33rd overall pick, even though I heavily considered taking Syracuse's Justin Pugh. I will say this: If this mock draft allowed for trade downs, this would be a prime situation for me to move down a few spots, stockpile some mid-round picks and take one of the tackles available, but unfortunately we are not allowed trades.

As I had explained in my post for why I chose Ziggy Ansah, the Jacksonville Jaguars had one of the worst defenses in the league last year. For starters, they ranked 29th in points allowed, 30th in rushing yards given up and 22nd in passing yards given up, so I knew going into the mock that defense would be something that I would have to heavily consider. I was tempted with the thought of taking a second straight defensive end here with guys like Sam Montgomery, Alex Okafor and Margus Hunt all being available, but I decided to turn my attention elsewhere.

Since the Jaguars already seemed quite invested in the defensive line and the linebackers looked like a fairly well put together group to me, I turned my attention to the secondary. My initial thought was to try to find a cornerback, where Jacksonville has quite a need, but again, the players I felt would be a good value here (Johnthan Banks or Desmond Trufant) were gone, so I decided to go safety hunting. Obviously, the two best safeties in the draft, Matt Elam and Kenny Vaccaro, are off the board, but I really liked Eric Reid because of his size, the fact he played in the SEC and overall experience, and I felt he was the best value here.

--

Check out the 2013 Pride Of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.