This year’s EDGE class is deep.

We’ve all seen the posts on this site debating taking Young or Stroud this year or taking Anderson and gunning for a QB in 2024. While I personally dislike the concept, I understand why people would want Will. He’s by far the safe pick of the three, though Houston likely looks to upgrade at QB instead.

However, one of the things I haven’t seen a lot of people taking about is the depth of this year’s class of players at the EDGE position, where Anderson plays. Whereas there are only two QBs most scouts think are worth immediately starting (Young and Stroud), there a quite a few players at the EDGE position scouts believe will make an immediate impact, and most will probably be available at the 12th pick.

The only two EDGE rushers that scouts and most mocks are certain will be gone by 12 are Anderson and Tyree Wilson. After that, Lukas Van Ness, Nolan Smith, and Myles Murphy are all EDGE picks that conceivably make sense at 12. All three are very talented guys in their own right, even if none may contribute as well as Anderson or Wilson.

Pending that, if you want a WR at 12 or you want to trade the 12th pick, there’s another group of guys you could take at 33. Will McDonald IV, BJ Ojulari, and Felix Anduke-Uzomah pop up as talented players that may blossom in the league that generally go off the draft boards.

Of course, none of these players is a 100% guarantee to be a success in the league, not even Anderson. But seeing as EDGE is probably our single biggest need right now (outside of QB), it’s very likely one of those guys will be a Texan come the draft, and all of them appear much less risky than the QB prospects like Levis, Richardson, Hendon Hooker, etc.

TLDR; even if we don’t take Anderson at 2 (which is possible, though we likely won’t), there are still a half dozen guys at his position that are first-round talents or close, and Houston will almost certainly take one of them.