Two Hundred and fifty-four names were called over seven rounds of the 2019 NFL Draft last weekend. Eight of those, or approximately one out of every 30 draft selections, were Oklahoma football players.
Now that the annual NFL player auction is over for another year, the narrative has changed from mock drafts to grading the actual draft classes for each NFL team.
At least one source has taken a different tack. Sam Hellman of 247Sports writes:
"“Every college uses the NFL Draft to tout its value in recruiting, but some schools have stronger arguments than other(s).”"
Hellman reports that Spotrac.com, which touts itself as “the largest online sports team and player contract resource on the internet, looked at all the college draft classes, including the eight selected from Oklahoma, and come of with a top-25 ranking based on the projected contract value of each school’s draft picks.
To get to a total contract value, according to Hellman, the projected estimates by Spotrac include signing bonus and the projected full contract payout of the individual draft picks if a player sticks through the duration of the contract.
Based on this analysis, the 2019 Oklahoma NFL Draft class, headed by No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray, now a member of the Arizona Cardinals, ranks as the class with the fourth highest contract value ($69.6 million) among the major college programs. You can see the full top-25 breakdown by clicking here.
Not surprisingly, Alabama, whose 10 NFL Draft picks this year led all college teams, is ranked No. 1 as the class with the highest projected market value. The projected value of the Crimson Tide draft class, according to the Spotrac analysis, is $85.6 million.
Clemson, with six NFL Draft picks, ranks second, with a total projected value of $73.1 million. Ohio State, with nine draft picks, is third ($72.1 million), and Mississippi State rounds out the top five at $45.1 million.
Here is what 247Sports’ Hellman had to say about Oklahoma’s No. 4 ranking in the Spotrac analysis:
"“The first overall pick in the draft represents $35 million in projected total value, and makes it two years in a row for the Sooners to do so. Kyler Murray can also expect a $23.5 million signing bonus from the Arizona Cardinals. Oklahoma’s offensive line (NFL picks Cody Ford, Ben Powers, Dru Samia and Bobby Evans) made plays all year on the gridiron. When it comes to contracts, they represent another $17.5 million in combined value between the four of them. First-round (wide) receiver Hollywood Brown sprints his way to 11.7 million of his own in Baltimore.”"