POLL RESULTS: Eason likely to be picked in early rounds

The voters believe Jacob Eason will be a second-day guy.

The NFL draft takes place Thursday through Saturday, with the first round taking place Thursday, the second and third rounds happening Friday, and rounds four through seven commencing Saturday.

That means Eason will soon learn his professional fate. The former Lake Stevens High School star quarterback, who declared to the draft following his junior season at the University of Washington, is projected to go in the early rounds of the draft. Just how early? That’s the question we posed the readers in this week’s Seattle Sidelines poll, asking them to predict which round Eason would be selected in.

POLL: When will @lshs_sports alum and @UW_Football quarterback Jacob Eason be picked in the NFL draft? Full context, including a look at Eason’s rankings, here: https://t.co/rzJUWL1fp9

— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) April 20, 2020

When one adds up the votes between the poll posted on the Seattle Sidelines Blog and the one posted on Twitter, the largest portion of the voters — 46% — said they expect Eason to be selected in the second round. Another 26% predict Eason will be taken in the third round, meaning nearly three-quarters of the electorate said he would be drafted on the second day. Coming in third was the first round, which received 18% of the tally, while 10% believe Eason will be picked in the fourth rounder or later.

That means the readers are essentially dead on with the projections. Eason was ranked No. 55 on CBSsports.com’s big board, No. 64 by NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah and No. 92 by ESPN’s Jeff Legwold. Those rankings are consistent with other outlets, as well as all the mock drafts. So the readers and the experts are in agreement.

There’s a possibility, however, that Eason will be picked earlier than expected. Eason has the type of skill-set that could prompt a team to take a flyer on him earlier in the draft. He has the ideal frame for a pocket quarterback at 6-foot-6 and 231 pounds, and he’s considered to have the strongest arm in the draft class. Add in the importance of the quarterback position and it wouldn’t be a shock if a team decided to use a late first-round pick on Eason.

Eason was one of 58 players invited to participate virtually in the draft. That reinforces the notion that Eason is a second-rounder at worst.

We’ll find out soon enough. The draft is being televised by both ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network, with Thursday’s coverage beginning at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Friday’s at 4 p.m. and Saturday’s at 9 a.m. And with no other sports happening because of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s sure to be a big audience.