How many quarterbacks will be selected in the top five? Could three wide receivers be taken in the top 10? Where does Georgia tight end Brock Bowers fit best?
These are among a host of questions being asked ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft. Here’s one more: Who are the under-the-radar prospects poised to be draft steals?
On the latest edition of “The No. 1 College Football Show with RJ Young,” host RJ Young provided his top five diamonds in the rough for the upcoming draft. Let’s count them down.
5. Iowa P Tory Taylor
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RJ’s thoughts: “I think [he is] a great comp to Pat McAfee. When you talk about Tory Taylor’s leg, and you talk about Pat McAfee’s leg, yes, they’re both actual. They point at their right legs, and, yes, they have absolute hammers. … Tory Taylor averaged 46.3 yards per punt at Iowa. Pat McAfee averaged 46.4 yards per punt in the NFL over 575 punts. It’s also important to note that Tory Taylor is the most decorated punter of all time. That is not hyperbole; that is a fact. He is a unanimous and consensus All-American. As a matter of fact, not only did they root for punts at Iowa, which is perfectly Iowa, but I bet that Kirk Ferentz thought of Tory Taylor as his offense. Given the style of defense they played, and remember Phil Parker was the Broyles Award winner because his defense has been legitimately awesome the last couple of years and their offense has been all-but-nonexistent, Tory Taylor was your best chance to score outside of pick-six, strip-sack, fumble, return for touchdowns …
“I think that if you are going to select a specialist in the NFL draft, this is the first one to go off the board.”
4. South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler
RJ’s thoughts: “He’s supposed to be what Caleb Williams was at Oklahoma, absolutely gets benched for Caleb Williams in 2021, goes into the portal, comes out with Shane Beamer and becomes his quarterback for the last two years. Three out of four years, he’s passed for at least 3,000 yards, and when you talk about value, which is what a diamond in the rough is, a tremendously talented player that is undervalued, I think as we get down the list of quarterbacks, Rattler’s going to be right there. … if you’re looking at a guy that you want to draft that you think could be your heir apparent a little bit later on, I think you can do worse than Spencer Rattler. As a matter of fact, news is Dak Prescott ain’t getting an extension; that’s what Trey Lance is for. I think that’s what Spencer Rattler can be for an NFL franchise.
“He’s smart; he’s savvy; he’s taken his lumps; he’s come back. I’m very excited to see what his future looks like as a professional after stints at Oklahoma and South Carolina, playing in the Big 12 and the SEC, understanding what it means to play quarterback at a high level.”
Michigan’s Blake Corum headlines RJ’s Top 5 NFL Draft Diamonds in the Rough
3. Texas LB Jaylan Ford
RJ’s thoughts: “I liked Jaylan Ford in 2022, but that’s not saying much because everybody liked Jaylan Ford in 2022; he had 119 tackles and four picks. However, his production took a step back as the team got better in 2023, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think 91 tackles in 2023 on a team that won its first Big 12 championship since 2009 and made its first trip ever to the College Football Playoff is because of him. … the heart and soul of that [Texas] defense [was] Jaylan Ford because if that dude wasn’t holding down the middle we’re talking about Anthony Hill not being able to come flying off the edge to be the special talent that he is at outside linebacker. The comp here for me is Kenneth Murray Jr. He is that much of a tackle machine. He is that good inside, and he can run with tight ends, and he’ll come downhill in a hurry.
“He has speed. We just don’t think of it in the same way that, say, we think of someone running [a] 4.3/4.4 [40-yard dash]. Linebackers that can fly 4.5/4.6s are still fast, especially in these short distances where you got guys like Jaylan Ford who know how to play football, which is another way of saying he ain’t taking no false steps. He sees it, he fires. That is a thing that is difficult to teach. … I think he’s going to be able to play a long time at linebacker in the NFL.”
2. Michigan RB Blake Corum
RJ’s thoughts: “People are kind of out on Blake Corum because he basically had the same year that Jaylan Ford had, so he had an outstanding year in 2022, rushing for over 1,400 yards on a team that made the College Football Playoff, on a team that won a Big Ten championship, blew out his ACL. Comes back, rushes for 1,200 yards on a team that goes 15-0, undefeated, wins a National Championship, and somehow he ain’t that good. I’m sorry, what? No, that’s not how that goes. The comp for me in the NFL is Josh Jacobs. Does he have the speed of Josh Jacobs? No, but he does have the work rate because that was what Jon Gruden was drafting all the way back when the Raiders still played for Jon Gruden. It was ‘I need a tailback that can carry the load and can put up with the amount of pressure that I’m going to put on him to be an every down back.’ Blake Corum can do that for you.
“I would not be shocked to find out in the second, third, fourth round that Blake Corum ends up going to the Los Angeles Chargers to play behind Justin Herbert for Jim Harbaugh once again. Outstanding talent, outstanding player who was also in graduate school [in] his last year at Michigan.”
1. Wisconsin RB Braelon Allen
RJ’s thoughts: “The comp for me at 6-foot-2, 245 [pounds] is Derrick Henry. Sneer if you want, but those of you that remember Braelon Allen’s freshman year and sophomore year know exactly what I’m talking about. This was a 17-year-old who became an 18-year-old, became a 19-year-old-turning 20 who was wrecking Big Ten competition, playing tailback at Wisconsin when we still thought of it as being built by the tailback and the offensive line. His production took a step back in a big way in 2023, but that’s because the offense that he was playing in changed dramatically. He goes from back-to-back years of rushing for 1,200 yards to just 984 on the ground [last season]. Phil Longo had changed the offense to feature more of the quarterback and the wide receivers, less on ‘hey, we’re going to hand the ball off to the tailback and play complementary defense like we come to know with Paul Chryst, all the way back to Bret Bielema and so on’ …
“If you can go get youth at that position, at tailback, a position that wears out very quickly and maybe get a little bit more length on his career, you go do that, especially with the pedigree of being a Wisconsin tailback like Jonathan Taylor, Montee Ball, Melvin Gordon.”
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