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There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and SEC football players getting drafted in the first round.
ESPN’s Todd McShay released his first 2016 mock draft on Wednesday, and 10 of the 32 players he projects are SEC players, including five of the top 11.
It’s still fairly early in the evaluation process for NFL teams, which aren’t even close to producing their own big boards yet. But time’s running out for players to put good performances on video, and performing in shorts and T-shirts and in interviews can only do so much for a player’s NFL prospects.
Here’s how the SEC’s first-round players currently project, according to McShay:
3. Ole Miss DT Robert Nkemdiche (San Diego Chargers)
7. Ole Miss LT Laremy Tunsil (Detroit Lions)
9. Florida CB Vernon Hargreaves III (Jacksonville Jaguars)
10. Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell (St. Louis Rams)
11. Alabama DT Jarran Reed (New Orleans Saints)
15. LSU CB Tre’Davious White (Oakland Raiders)
19. Alabama DT A’Shawn Robinson (Houston Texans)
22. Georgia OLB Leonard Floyd (New York Jets)
24. Tennessee CB Cameron Sutton (Pittsburgh Steelers)
25. Alabama ILB Reggie Ragland (Kansas City Chiefs)
It’s interesting to note that McShay still includes Nkemdiche as his earliest-drafted SEC player after the Ole Miss standout fell 15 feet in an apparent drug-related incident just days ago.
Also of note: The Rebels have three players in the top 10 and Alabama has three defensive players projected in the first round.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
