Yes I have drank the Kool-Aid and want to try and understand why 74 juniors, actually 84 if you count graduates, all got hyped up enough to come out early and hope to land that big contract in the NFL. Obviously my earlier predictions for a 33% failure rate will probably be proven way off this year. Last season 96 players declared and 34.8% of them went undrafted.
There are some exceptional seniors graduating this year and it wouldn’t surprise me that much, if the non-drafting of this crop of juniors reaches over 40%. Yes, quarterback Marcus Mariota and wide receiver Amari Cooper are sure picks, but take a minute to look at the bigger picture. There are some really gifted juniors here, but the NFL draft only has so much room before the scouts and the combine scream uncle………please no more. This junior class is rich with running backs, (14) and Wide receivers (16), but how much room does the NFL have to fill that many talented premier spots?
In 2013, 31 percent of all players on NFL rosters went undrafted. Fifteen Pro Football Hall of Famers never heard their names called in the draft. The Seahawks had eight undrafted players on last year’s Super Bowl team. You can bet that other teams will follow this recruiting angle in 2015. The process is not so clear that players cannot get noticed in the new NFL. Scouts dig deep into the bushes to find unusual talent that will suit their teams needs moving forward.
The other consideration is the number of busts at the higher echelon of the draft. Will every junior drafted become a household name? Not very likely. This is an imperfect science and it takes several years before a Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles or Trent Richardson can be considered a success or failure.
Below is listed the position and the number of players involved. The other stat of course is what conferences were affected the most by the upheaval. The SEC always seems to have the ability to reload and replace. They also have the most juniors leaving with 21 total. This represents an incredible amount of talent and it will be interesting to see how this affects the SEC next season. The second big surprise was the Pac-12 with 18 juniors on the hoof to the NFL.
The next highest total by Conference is the ACC with a manageable 15 players. However where this gets interesting is that two of the programs (Florida State and Louisville) had five and three players respectively. I don’t know if all that talent lost will bring the rest of the ACC closer, or if the depth at both these schools can overcome this amount of talent.
The Big Ten had 11 players declare, but none from the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Lastly was the Big Twelve with a mixture adding up to six more. The remainder were from mid-major conferences with only one school, Central Florida losing two players.
Lost in this exodus of course are the three players who left FCS programs prematurely. Most times these schools go unnoticed or at least don’t get the hype necessary. The good thing is that with the large amount of media scrutiny today and the fact that the NFL leaves no stone unturned to find talent gives Tacoi Sumler (Appalachian State), Max Flores (Colorado State) and Jaquel Pitts (Trinity International) an equal opportunity to strut their stuff in front of all concerned come combine day. Remember that Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Steve McNair, Andre Reed, Tony Romo and Kurt Warner all came from FCS or lower programs.
Quarterbacks (3)
Wide Receivers (16)
Running Backs (14)
Graduated (10)
Deion Barnes, DE, Penn State
Sammie Coates, WR, Auburn
Zach D’Orazio, WR, Akron
Charles Gaines, DB, Louisville
Dee Hart, RB, Colorado State
Brett Hundley, QB, UCLA
Nigel King, WR, Kansas
Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon
Donovan Smith, T, Penn State
Tacoi Sumler, WR, Appalachian State
Underclassmen (74)
Nelson Agholor, WR, Southern California
Jay Ajayi, RB, Boise State
Kwon Alexander, LB, Louisiana State
Javorius Allen, RB, Southern California
Arik Armstead, DE, Oregon
Malcom Brown, DT, Texas
Alex Carter, DB, Stanford
B.J. Catalon, RB, Texas Christian
Tevin Coleman, RB, Indiana
Jalen Collins, DB, Louisiana State
Landon Collins, DB, Alabama
Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama
Xavier Cooper, DT, Washington State
Christian Covington, DT, Rice
DaVaris Daniels, WR, Notre Dame
Ronald Darby, DB, Florida State
Mike Davis, RB, South Carolina
Stefon Diggs, WR, Maryland
Lorenzo Doss, DB, Tulane
Mario Edwards, DE, Florida State
Durell Eskridge, DB, Syracuse
George Farmer, WR, Southern California
Max Flores, LB, Northern Colorado
Ereck Flowers, T, Miami
Dante Fowler, DE, Florida
Devin Funchess, WR, Michigan
Jacoby Glenn, DB, Central Florida
Eddie Goldman, DT, Florida State
Melvin Gordon, RB, Wisconsin
Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Missouri
Deontay Greenberry, WR, Houston
Randy Gregory, DE, Nebraska
Todd Gurley, RB, Georgia
Chris Hackett, DB, Texas Christian
Eli Harold, DE, Virginia
Chris Harper, WR, California
Braylon Heard, RB, Kentucky
Gerod Holliman, DB, Louisville
D.J. Humphries, T, Florida
Danielle Hunter, DE, Louisiana State
David Irving, DT, Iowa State
Jesse James, TE, Penn State
Duke Johnson, RB, Miami
Matt Jones, RB, Florida
Tyler Kroft, TE, Rutgers
Ellis McCarthy, DT, UCLA
Benardrick McKinney, LB, Mississippi State
Patrick Miller, T, Auburn
Tyler Moore, G, Florida
Rakeem Nunez-Roches, DT, Southern Mississippi
Andrus Peat, T, Stanford
Breshad Perriman, WR, Central Florida
Marcus Peters, DB, Washington
Jordan Phillips, DT, Oklahoma
Darius Philon, DT, Arkansas
Bradley Pinion, P, Clemson
Jaquel Pitts, WR, Trinity International
Jeremiah Poutasi, T, Utah
Darien Rankin, LB, North Carolina
Shane Ray, DE, Missouri
Josh Robinson, RB, Mississippi State
James Sample, DB, Louisville
Jean Sifrin, TE, Massachusetts
Jaelen Strong, WR, Arizona State
Shaq Thompson, LB, Washington
Max Valles, LB, Virginia
Easton Wahlstrom, LS, Arizona State
Trae Waynes, DB, Michigan State
Leonard Williams, DE, Southern California
Maxx Williams, TE, Minnesota
P.J. Williams, DB, Florida State
Trey Williams, RB, Texas A&M
Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State
T.J. Yeldon, RB, Alabama
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