The NFL is built upon what college football provides. Every year, there’s a focus on incoming rookies and players who are going to make an impact for their new teams, but where did those players come from? What did they look like as underclassmen in college? How productive were they? The goal of this article is to help provide analysis that will improve readers ability to identify NFL players who are still in college. Each week, there will be four players evaluated and given an NFL projected draft position based on their current historical indicators.
There are many tidbits and clues the NFL leaves behind pertaining to what they’re looking for in an NFL Draft prospect. The basic strength, speed and athleticism are factors in building a skill position player, but it’s clear there’s more to it than that. When reviewing the NFL Draft over the last two decades, there’s statistical trends and traits NFL teams look for before selecting players as well. This article, which highlights players not yet draft eligible, will highlight those factors.
THE PROSPECTS
Darius Bradwell (RB, Tulane)
Tulane, as a whole, has a lot of exciting players on its offense heading into the 2019 season. Between Braswell, Corey Dauphine and Darnell Mooney (reviewing him today as well), they should have a significant step up on the rest of their mid-major conference competition in 2019. I only caught a few games live in 2018 of Tulane, but luckily, it was their (arguably) best performance of the season against Memphis. Bradwell is big, listed at 6 foot 1 and 230 pounds. He converted from QB and hasn’t looked back. In 2018, Bradwell finally got a real opportunity and thrived. 2018 had 205 touches in it for Bradwell, and he produced 1,147 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns. In combination with Dauphine, Tulane had one of the best running games in the AAC. Tulane struggled horribly to throw the ball, despite having two solid WRs. The QBs from 2018 are both gone, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be more effective in that facet moving forward. This is good news for the RBs, though against tougher teams it could condense the field and become an issue. Bradwell has a good combination of power and speed, and he should be able to accumulate enough production to get the attention of NFL decision-makers. Bradwell does run a bit upright, but we’ve seen that work for a few RB prospects over the last decade, so it’s not a real concern. Ultimately, Bradwell is still learning the position, and if he continues to improve like he has the previous three seasons, you’d expect 2019 to be special.
PROJECTED DRAFT ROUND: 5th-to-7th Round – Bradwell is unlikely to test out in an elite fashion, which is really the only way for smaller conference RBs to get selected early. He still has a shot to be drafted early-ish, on day two, but for now, it’s smart to go with a conservative projection.
Similar Prospect(s): Ryquell Armstead
Darnell Mooney (WR, Tulane)
Mooney is a very exciting small school prospect, that has already thrived in less than stellar conditions. Mooney is on the smaller side of things, and by on the smaller side of things, I mean he’s tiny. Listed at 5 foot 11 and 175 pounds, Mooney is going to need to pull off some special things in 2019 to get the attention of NFL decision-makers. With that said, he’s well on his way with what he put out there in 2018. From both a film and production standpoint, Mooney was fantastic in his junior season and displayed a versatile and elusive skill set. Mooney obviously thrived on downfield targets and was very, very quick after the reception. Mooney is very likely to test out in an elite fashion in agility drills and displayed on multiple occasions that he has solid straight-line speed as well. With longtime Tulane WR Terren Encalade graduating in 2018, there’s virtually no ceiling on just how big of a role Mooney will have in 2019. The quarterback situation isn’t guaranteed to be better in 2019, so there could be a lot of games where the passing game is tough to watch, but there should be a lot of confidence in the season-ending totals being exciting.
PROJECTED DRAFT ROUND: 4th-to-6th Round – Mooney has enough skills, that even with a slender frame, he should be able to impress with his production profile and athletic testing.
Similar Prospect(s): Clyde Gates, Aldrick Robinson
Tyler Vaughns (WR, USC)
Vaughns is a prospect who came to USC with a lot of hype and has delivered, though maybe to a lesser degree than some expected. Vaughns has put a versatile skill set out there for NFL scouts to evaluate, and while his production regressed in 2018, there’s reasonable context behind it. Vaughns is listed at 6 foot 2 and 185 pounds. He has long arms and is great in contested catch situations. There are some concerns from an athleticism standpoint, but his ability to win in a variety of ways should limit the concerns of his ability to translate to the NFL. Vaughs had a great Freshman season, producing 809 receiving yards and five touchdowns on 57 receptions (14.2 per reception). He was clearly one of the leaders of the offense, despite being a youngster. In 2018 USC welcomes one of the top WR recruits in the country onto their team in Amon-Ra St. Brown. Brown, due to talent (and probably some stipulation in him committing to USC), commanded a significant role in the offense in his first season. That, along with Michael Pittman’s emergence from the grave in his Junior season. Add in a Freshman QB (JT Daniels) who struggled in a big way in conference play, and a dip in yardage makes sense. Vaughns actually had more receptions in 2018, but his yards per reception dropped by almost three yards to 11.6. Vaughns played closer to the LOS because, well, he could, whereas Pittman and St. Brown (I’m guessing), had less versatility in the slot. This is a POSITIVE for Vaughns, not a negative. Versatility in production and role is incredibly valuable.
PROJECTED DRAFT ROUND: 2nd-or-3rd Round – Vaughns is once again going to have a crowded depth chart to battle production, but if he does decide to declare early, there’s a very good chance his stock boosts last minute.
Similar Prospect(s): Robert Woods, Keenan Allen
T.J. Simmons (WR, West Virginia)
Simmons is a tough eval at this stage. West Virginia was stacked with incumbent college talent at WR and had a senior-laden team that was competing for the Playoff for most of the season. Barring injury, there was no chance that Simmons was going to eat into the role David Sills and Gary Jennings had. Even Marcus Simms was going to be tough to steal a role from. Simmons, a transfer from Alabama, was relegated to fourth WR In the offense in 2018, which resulted in him accumulating only 28 receptions, 341 yards and one touchdown. This is obviously underwhelming, ESPECIALLY compared to the WR prospects that have been evaluated so far. The thing is, however, sometimes there needs to be a little projection on the current season. Simmons comes into 2019 as the only WR who played significant snaps last year still on the roster. Sills and Jennings went through the NFL draft process, and Simms just entered the supplemental draft. Simmons has an enormous opportunity to put together a high volume season, and even though it’s a transition season for the team, this could be a huge year for Simmons. In his limited reps, Simmons produced in a YAC-based fashion, showing great strength after the catch, and nice hands on close to the line of scrimmage routes. Simmons is listed at 6 foot 2, 200 pounds, and appeared even bulkier than that by the end of 2018.
PROJECTED DRAFT ROUND: 3rd-to-5th Round – This is just about as close to guessing as it gets. Simmons needs to put together a nice season to get into this type of range, and while I’m confident he will..projecting a guy with 341 career receiving yards as a potential top three rounder is high variance.
Similar Prospect(s): Too Early To Tell
