Oklahoma football: Sooners should have trio of NFL 1st-round picks
By Chip Rouse
In the 84-year history of the NFL Draft, 45 Oklahoma football players have been selected in the opening round.
The NFL scouting combine recently concluded in Indianapolis as an evaluation toll for NFL scouts and front-office personnel in lead-up to next month’s 2020 NFL Draft. According to the many mock drafts that are all over social media and the projections of NFL draft experts, there is a good chance that as many as three players from Oklahoma could go in the opening round.
Four Sooners took part in this year’s scouting combine — QB Jalen Hurts, WR CeeDee Lamb, DL Neville Gallimore and LB Kenneth Murray — and all had strong reviews. Participation in the combine was by invitation only.
Oklahoma is the only team in the country that has had at least four NFL Draft selections in each of the last 12 years, but the last time the Sooners produced more than two first-round picks was 10 years ago, when four Oklahoma players were selected in the first round in 2010, including overall No. 1 pick Sam Bradford as well as three of the first four selections in that year’s draft.
The top overall picks in both the 2018 and 2019 NFL Drafts were Oklahoma quarterbacks (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, respectively). Five Sooner players in school history have been selected as the first player taken in the annual NFL Draft (DE Lee Roy Selmon, 1976;RB Billy Sims, 1980; QB Sam Bradford, 2010; Mayfield, 2017, and Murray, 2019).
An Oklahoma Sooner won’t be drafted No. 1 overall this year, but the consensus is that as many as three, and possibly four, Oklahoma players will have their named called on the opening night of the draft on April 23.
Lamb and Murray are pretty much first-round locks if you place a lot of stock in what the majority of NFL mock drafts are saying.
Some mock drafts have Lamb as the top wide-receiver prospect and the first to come off the board, but the majority show him as one the top three receivers available, along with Jerry Jeudy of Alabama and Tee Higgins of Clemson.
At the combine, Lamb showed off his incredible pass-catching skills and route running. He had the premier catch during the combine receiver workouts, hauling in a catch above his head while spinning to his left in midair and coming down with both feel in bounds along the sideline.
Murray tweaked his hamstring on the second of his two 40-yard-dashes and did not participate in all of the on-field drills. He will have another opportunity to demonstrate what he can do at the Oklahoma Pro Day on March 11. The former OU linebacker made a strong positive impression in his team interviews at the combine, prompting one American Football Coach to remark that his interview with Murray was the best one he had ever had at the scouting combine.
Gallimore’s NFL draft stock appears to be growing by the week. At the combine last week, the 6-foot, 4-inch, 300-pound defensive tackle turned a lot of heads with his speed and quickness for a big man, Gallimore’s 40-yard dash time of 4.79 seconds was the third fastest among players at the DL classification since 2000.
Some mock drafts have Gallimore going as high as 12th through 19th in the opening round, but the more likely scenario is later in the opening rouind.
Jalen Hurts arguably was Oklahoma’s best player last season. If not the best, then a close second to CeeDee Lamb. His number certainly back that up, but there are questions about how his college skills and stats will translate in the NFL, where running quarterbacks with less than NFL quality passing skills haven’t fared very well historically (e.g., Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III).
And Hurts has made it known that he is a quarterback and is not interested in changing positions to potentially improve his NFL prospects. According to some reports from the scouting combine, Hurts did surprise some people with his arm strength and passing accuracy, but it is well known that passing skills were not his strength as a college player. He also ran the fastest 40-yard dash time (4.54 seconds) of all the quarterbacks participating at the combine.
There are as many as seven or eight NFL quarterback prospects who rank ahead of Hurts in the 2020 NFL Draft, led by LSU’s Joe Burrow, the likely No. 1 overall pick, and Tua Tagovailoa, the player who took Hurts’ starting role at Alabama.
Hurts will probably go in the second or third round.