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Oregon's Kayvon Thibodeaux lands at No. 2 in latest PFF mock draft

Jarrid Denneyby:Jarrid Denney•01/03/22•

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Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images

The greatest debate surrounding the 2022 NFL Draft right now is: which superstar edge rusher will go No. 1 overall?

It’s early days, but there’s a heavy consensus among draft evaluators that Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux will be the two top picks on April 28.

Pro Football Focus released its latest mock draft Monday, and the publication is tabbing Hutchinson as the early favorite to go No. 1 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Thibodeaux is projected to go to the Detroit Lions at No. 2.

Here is the rundown from PFF on Thibodeaux’s latest draft outlook.

“Thibodeaux is the Michelangelo’s David of pass-rushers. The 6-foot-5, 258-pound edge defender has every trait NFL teams want on the edge at the next level, and he has grown immensely from a production standpoint after earning an 80.9 pass-rush grade as an underclassman.

“Thibodeaux has started to show genuine refinement within his rushes and no longer relies on tools alone. As a result, he earned a 91.5 pass-rush grade in 2021 despite missing a couple of games early in the season due to injury. Opposing teams even started to scheme away from Thibodeaux to take him out of the game entirely — just as teams did with Chase Young a couple of years ago.”

If Thibodeaux does indeed land at No. 2, he would be just the second Duck ever selected at that spot. Marcus Mariota (2015) was the other.

George Shaw (1955) is the only Oregon player to ever be selected No. 1 overall.

In PFF’s round-one mock draft, Thibodeaux was the only Oregon player projected to be selected.

Verone McKinley III, Devon Williams, and Mykael Wright have all declared early and will not be returning to Oregon, while the Ducks’ five offensive linemen who were eligible to return to school have all elected to do so.

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