Quick Thoughts About the 2020 NFL Draft (1st Two Rounds and Early Applicants)

Two days from now fans starved for sports (not only NFL and College Football fans) will be glued to their screens (TV/Laptop/Phone) as they follow the 2020 NFL Draft from Thursday thru Saturday.  What is usually a big-time event will probably soar to new heights even though it will be a remote, virtual selection process rather than the planned physical Las Vegas location.  For me personally, it is like a parent going through the range of emotions that one experiences at their child’s graduation.  You can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness as they go from being a child to a man or woman, while being thrilled that they are one step closer to achieving their dream.

Enough of the emotion – it’s now time to take a quick look at the 2020 NFL Draft from the perspective of a College Football fan/researcher.  I can’t think of a better place to begin than with dissecting Mel Kiper’s Mock Draft of the first two rounds (Thursday’s Draft).  The first round was light on running backs, which was no surprise, but was pretty evenly spread between all the other positions – excluding tight ends and specialists, which were shutout.  Quarterbacks started early and fast, but tailed off by mid-round, and that is when defensive backs seemed to take over.  Momentum for the defensive backfield continued through the second round, so that group would have to be considered the deepest when looking at the draft’s first day.

Something else that stood out in the first two rounds were the early entrants.  Kiper identified 40 of them in his first two rounds, with 26 of them coming in the first round – that’s 80% of the first round!  All of the defensive backs (7) and offensive linemen (5) that are expected to be selected in the first round are underclassmen, while five of the six wide receivers came out early as well – the lone exception being Brandon Aiyuk out of Arizona State. 

Teams that you should hear early and often will be no surprise:  LSU, Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.  This is mostly on the strength of those who left eligibility on the table.  And there are solid programs that you won’t hear from in the first round, (USC, Notre Dame, Washington and Texas) that will appear more than likely in the second round.  Then there are others, such as Louisiana, Southern Illinois, and Dayton, that have that one special prospect that might get called before the night is out.

Looking more closely at the numbers of those who declared early for the draft in 2020, their numbers are down slightly from the previous year – from 135 (2019) to 120 (2020).  The SEC leads the parade with 36 declaring, while the Big 10 is a distant second at 22.  Scouts have said that early entry will benefit between 30 and 40 of this entire group, while 33% (probably closer to 40%) will go undrafted.  Kiper’s mock draft seems to prove the scouts right, as he has 40 underclassmen slated to get picked on the first day – five each from LSU and Alabama.  Time will tell as to how many won’t hear their name…

You can cut and slice this in so many, many ways, but no matter what happens in the draft, there is no doubt in my mind that there will be surprises, excitement and heartbreak. But most importantly, many of us can take our thoughts away from the pandemic for a while and see, think, and talk sports for a few days!