By Jared Stanger
I believe the deadline for college underclassmen to declare for the 2019 draft is January 15th, and we’re already flying towards a new all-time high in terms of total players entering early.
It’s been tough to find a comprehensive listing, and certainly tougher to find one that can keep up with how fast and how many declares are coming. But I thought I’d post as many as I could, and throw in some video and a quick blurb about the players I’ve watched.
This took a few days to compile. And it will be outdated by Sunday.
Defensive End
Nick Bosa, OSU
Legacy player with the potential to end up at #1.1 overall.
Jordan Brailford, Oklahoma State
Really productive season where he showed awesome upside, but wasn’t as consistent as I’d like and faded late. Reminds me a bit of Marcus Smith.
Brian Burns, FSU
Nice athlete with effortless first step. Getting first round buzz regardless of his thin frame. Very good production and intangibles.
Maxx Crosby, Eastern Michigan
Joe Jackson, Miami
One of the thicker-bodied DE this year.
Shareef Miller, Penn State
Jachai Polite, Florida
Super explosive in his passrush. A logical first round name.
Sutton Smith, NIU
Undersized passrusher akin to Shaquem Griffin that inevitably ends up at linebacker.
Defensive Tackle
Ed Alexander, LSU
Rashan Gary, Michigan
It’s lowkey pretty easy to find a single highlight from most of the players on this list. Not Gary. But go ahead and put him in your first round mock. I’ll pass.
Kevin Givens, Penn State
Dre’mont Jones, Ohio State
Somehow people are lower on Dre’mont than they are on Gary. That is asinine. Jones is the best interior penetrator in this draft. And there are a lot.
Ed Oliver, Houston
DL tweener without a ton of passrush, but with some injury and personality redflags. My intuition is that he will eventually underperform his draft position.
Jeffery Simmons, Mississippi State
Huge off-field redflag that deserves a round or two downgrade. But otherwise 100% a 1st round talent.
Linebacker
Devin Bush, Michigan
Tyrel Dodson, Texas A&M
Joe Giles-Harris, Duke
Hugely productive player, but seemed slower in 2018 than as seen here in 2017.
Vosean Joseph, Florida
Interesting player. Especially if you can get away with him being a two-down player.
David Long, West Virginia
Undersized player but a ton of playmaking on tape.
Quart’e Sapp, Tennessee
Safety
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Florida
I’m a huge fan of Chauncey. Great positional versatility. Solid tackler. This play here is my highest hope for him: rangy, thumping single-high safety.
Taylor Rapp, Washington
I think he’s a 2nd round player that could easily climb into the 1st due to a shallow safety class. Kind of a B+ player across the board…hitting, coverage, blitzing (probably more an A).
Cornerback
Blessaun Austin, Rutgers
Sean Bunting, Central Michigan
Xavier Crawford, Central Michigan
Jamel Dean, Auburn
Clifton Duck, Appalachian State
Justin Layne, Michigan State
Layne is as close to Richard Sherman’s profile as we’ve yet seen in 6-7 years. WR convert. Same size. And quickly developing skillset.
David Long, Michigan
Julian Love, Notre Dame
Greedy Williams, LSU
Undoubted 1st round pick. Probably the best pure cover corner in the class.
Offensive Line
Venzell Boulware, Miami
David Edwards, Wisconsin
I wasn’t sold on Edwards in 2017, and another didn’t do much more.
Cody Ford, Oklahoma
Pretty interesting player. Getting a lot of mid-late 1st round buzz now that he’s declared.
Nate Herbig, Stanford
Andre James, UCLA
Michael Jordan, Ohio State
Greg Little, Mississippi
Erik McCoy, Texas A&M
Connor McGovern, Penn State
Tyler Roemer, San Diego State
William Sweet, North Carolina
Jawaan Taylor, Florida
Taylor is a bit of a creeper…the more you watch him, the more you start to like him. Really powerful. Not the quickest but he compensates with intuitive play.
Quarterback
Daniel Jones, Duke
Good luck if you need a QB this year. Jones’ under-pressure reel is pretty awful.
Jarrett Stidham, Auburn
One of the better deep ball throwers this year. But otherwise unspectacular.
Runningback
Rodney Anderson, Oklahoma
I was pretty interested in Anderson before he got hurt this year. There’s like a mix of Arian Foster and James Conner in there.
Alex Barnes, Kansas State
Darrell Henderson, Memphis
Justice Hill, Oklahoma State
Elijah Holyfield, Georgia
A short-stepping back like Thomas Rawls, but maybe a tick more speed.
Travis Homer, Miami
Was looking like a potential early round RB earlier in his Miami career, before injuries hit.
Miles Sanders, Penn State
Jordan Scarlett, Florida
I’m a huge Scarlett fan. I just want to see him work on his pass-catching.
LJ Scott, Michigan State
Devin Singletary, FAU
There will be people that find this blasphemous, but……….Barry Sanders.
Benny Snell, Kentucky
Mike Weber, Ohio State
Kerrith Whyte, FAU
Trayveon Williams, Texas A&M
Wide Receiver
JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Stanford
Unbelievable redzone threat.
AJ Brown, Mississippi
Marquise Brown, Oklahoma
Greg Dortch, Wake Forest
The odds are against Dortch becoming an elite receiver because of his size, but damnit if he isn’t a fun player to watch.
Jovon Durante, FAU
Jazz Ferguson, Northwestern State
Mecole Hardman, Georgia
Kelvin Harmon, NC State
N’Keal Harry, Arizona State
Diontae Johnson, Toledo
DK Metcalf, Ole Miss
Jakobi Meyers, NC State
Anthony Ratliff-Williams, North Carolina
Riley Ridley, Georgia
Darius Slayton, Auburn
I’m a fan of Slayton. He’s got 4.3 speed and nice body control.
John Ursua, Hawaii
Antoine Wesley, Texas Tech
Preston Williams, Colorado State
Tight End
Keenen Brown, Texas State
Noah Fant, Iowa
Zach Gentry, Michigan
Dawson Knox, Ole Miss
Alize Mack, Notre Dame
Isaac Nauta, Georgia
Dax Raymond, Utah State
Kaden Smith, Stanford
Jace Sternberger, Texas A&M
Kahale Warring, San Diego State
Caleb Wilson, UCLA
I really love the way the underclassmen have sort of intuitively filled in the gaps of where the senior class is weakest. These TE and RB declares help tremendously. The only thing unhelped, really, is the Safety class. There just aren’t that many bodies even combining Senior and Junior years.
Seattle Seamocks 