Oklahoma football: Your guide to OU players in the NFL Draft day one
With less than 24 hours before the 2019 NFL Draft, Oklahoma football is once again on the tip of everyone’s tongue thanks to potential overall No. 1 pick Kyler Murray.
The Sooners are used to being in this position as one of only three schools to produce two No. 1 overall picks at quarterback (the others being Stanford and Cal), but the Sooners’ day one draft story goes much deeper than its headliners. For one thing, the Sooners, who haven’t fielded multiple first round picks in the same year since 2009, could see as many as three players go off the board before Thursday night’s festivities come to a close.
We have backgrounds, the top last-minute rumors and a predicted landing spot for all three Oklahoma football first-round prospects.
Kyler Murray
Background: You probably don’t need my help to know all the storylines surrounding Murray. Just flip on ESPN and wait for 10 minutes. They’ve been swirling nonstop for the past three months since the former Major League Baseball top ten pick and Heisman Trophy winner decided to pursue football full time and declare for the draft following his junior year.
The stories: Yes, by now Arizona is picking at No. 1 and Kliff Kingsbury has an affinity for Murray, who he once said he would take with the No. 1 pick if he ever had a chance. Kingsbury is in the NFL to give the pure Air Raid a chance at the next level and who better to run it than the guy who guided Lincoln Riley’s offense to one of the most efficient seasons in the history of college football in 2018. There’s an elephant in the room of course — the Cardinals already have a young quarterback in Josh Rosen.
The Cardinals are going to play this one as close to the vest as possible all the way up until they make their announcement to kick off the draft most likely. Yes they have been talking up Rosen at every turn, but it could very well be the equivalent of talking up your trade in at the car lot. There’s also Mel Kiper, who says there’s a 99.9 percent chance the Cardinals take Murray at No. 1.
Our prediction: The noise is great, but the bottom line is still the same, Murray is going to go first to Arizona, hook up with Kingsbury and set the NFL on fire with a pro football version of the Air Raid.