Oklahoma football: Sooners likely to have 3 first-rounders in April NFL Draft
By Chip Rouse
According to several NFL draft experts, including Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports, there is a good chance that three Oklahoma football players will be drafted in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft.
The website 247Sports is reporting that Wilson likes the chances of Sooner wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, linebacker Kenneth Murray and defensive tackle Neville Gallimore being selected in the opening round of this year’s draft when it takes place April 23-25.
If three Sooners are drafted on the opening day of the 2020 NFL Draft, it will be the first time in 10 years that as many as three Oklahoma players were first-round selections in the same year.
Lamb, a consensus All-American this past season and, arguably, Oklahoma’s best player in 2019, will most likely be the first Oklahoma player selected in the April draft.
Wilson has him going 13th to the Indianapolis Colts in his mock draft, but some projections have Lamb as a top-10 pick. Of course, this is just one expert’s opinion, but it is a pretty good bet that the player they call “TD CeeDee” will not be on the board after the first 20 selections.
Murray was Oklahoma’s best defensive player this past season and is a fairly good bet to go in the opening round, but probably a late first-rounder or possibly even early in the second round.
Gallimore had a strong senior season for OU and is being projected as a good first-round possibility with solid upside in several NFL mock drafts. If the Canadian native does go in the first round, it almost certainly will be later in the round. He could also fall as late as the third round, but that would be a bit surprising if he does.
Four Sooners were selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft, including three of the first four overall picks (QB Sam Bradford, No. 1; DT Gerald McCoy; and OT Trent Williams, No. 4). TE Jermaine Gresham was the 21st overall player selected in that draft.
Only three other times in the history of the NFL Draft have as many as three Sooners been selected in the first round.
Ninety-five Sooners have been selected in the 83-year history of the NFL Draft. Oklahoma is the only school that has had at least four players drafted in each of the previous 12 years.