NFL Draft Passes on OU Football Prospects in Round One
By Chip Rouse
Round one of the 2016 NFL Draft labored on into the late evening hours on Thursday, and when it finally ended, 31 rounds after the No. 1 pick was made by the Los Angeles Rams to get things underway, it represented a total white wash for OU football prospects.
That wasn’t really unexpected, given the somewhat limited prospect list of Sooners whose collegiate eligibility had either ended or, in the case of defensive back Zack Sanchez, had declared early for the draft.
That all will change on Friday, with rounds two and three on the docket, which means 64 more players will join the select ranks of NFL draftees.
The Sooners with the highest probability of being drafted first, and quite likely in the first 32 picks on Friday, is wide receiver Sterling Shepard. The All-Big 12 selection and No. 2 in OU history in receiving yardage has been gaining steam in the months and weeks leading up to the 2016 NFL Draft, and some experts even believed Shepard was a possible late first-round pick.
That did not happen, however, which increases the odds that the talented and highly popular Sooner receiver will go off the board in the second and no later than the third round.
Many NFL draft experts have compared Shepard to another uber-talented former Big 12 receiver, Tyler Lockett of Kansas State, who is of a similar size with exceptional ability and faced similar questions when he entered the NFL Draft a year ago.
Lockett was a third-round selection of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2015 NFL Draft and had an outstanding debut season in the NFL. The career Big 12 receiving leader was the No. 2 on the Seahawks in pass receptions last season and was among the NFL leaders in kickoff returns.
“I truly believe that Sterling Shepard can make the same impact that I had, and it all goes on him being able to go to a team that will be able to utilize him to the best of his ability,” Lockett said of the Oklahoma wide receiver in an interview with the Tulsa World newspaper and cited in a subsequent article in the Oklahoma City Oklahoman.
ESPN NFL draft guru Mel Kiper has projected Shepard going to the San Francisco 49ers in the third round with the 37th overall pick. If that were to come to pass, the leading receiver in OU’s explosive Air Raid offense last season would be the fifth player to be drafted on Day Two of this year’s draft.
“He’s nailed the draft process,” Kiper said recently about of the Sooner wide receiver. “He’s done everything well. He’s got all the intangibles in the world.
Two other Sooner NFL hopefuls who have a fair chance of hearing their names called in rounds two and three on Friday are cornerback Zack Sanchez and defensive end Charles Tapper.