2017 NFL Draft: underrated NFL draft prospects
By jonfox
With interest in the 2017 NFL draft rising, let’s take a quick look at 5 prospects that I feel aren’t getting enough attention or are underrated.
1-Rashaan Evans, OLB Alabama
Evans ended the 2015 season on a big bang with 2 sacks of DeShawn Watson in the CFB title game. He goes into 2016 moving up the food chain at OLB: he’s currently 3rd on the depth chart. Last season as the 4th OLB, he earned snaps as a pass rush specialist. And I’ll bet money that he beats out Ryan Anderson for a starting job before too long.
He’s a junior and I’d give it a slightly better than 50% chance that he declares for the draft. Scouts and the Drfat evaluation board are going to love his physical traits and pass rush skills. If he does declare, he’d probably be one of the better dedicated pass rushers in the 2017 NFL draft. He needs to bulk up to around 240 lbs but his speed and quickness are amazing.
2-Montravius Adams, DL Auburn
Adams almost came out for the 2016 draft, but with so much competition at 1 and 3 tech tackle already in the draft, he decided to play another year and see. That was probably the smart decision considering that if Kevin Steele can improve the Auburn defense from their disappointing 2015 and if Carl Lawson can finally stay healthy, Adams’ draft stock would benefit.
Adams has the quickness to play the 1, but he’s big enough to play the 2 or 3. He’s probably a Tampa-2 1 in the NFL and that’s a role that a lot of teams are in need of. More than anything he needs to show that he can get consistent pressure on the quarterback, then his draft stock will explode like Sheldon Rankins’ did in 2015.
3-Lewis Neal, DE/OLB LSU
Neal is a very smart(he runs a business in Baton Rouge and trades on the FOREX markets) and driven player. It also helps that he has a good variety of pass rush moves for even a young NFL player. The concern from the scouts is that he doesn’t have overwhelming speed/quickness. He’s more of a throwback edge rusher at 6-2 260. He’ll get compared to Trent Cole, but he doesn’t have Cole’s speed.
Perhaps this is why he returned to LSU for his senior year. There were rumors that he didn’t get a good draft grade from the draft evaluation board and he’s probably going to take that intelligence and drive and focus them towards improving himself as a draft prospect. If you’re a quarterback who’s going to face LSU, watch out.
4-Ricky Seals-Jones, WR TAMU
Jones was a star recruit with an NFL ready body when he came out of high school, but he decided to stay in school for his redshirt junior year for some reason. The general consensus is that he would have been a day 2 pick and perhaps that wasn’t good enough for him.
Whenever he does enter an NFL draft, teams will be potentially getting themselves a better version of Laquon Treadwell. This isn’t to say that the NFL will agree with that assessment, but Seals-Jones has as good hands, better speed(slightly), better quickness and runs a more complex route tree than Treadwell did at Ole Miss.
5-Brian Allen, OL Michigan State
Allen started at guard for Sparty in 2015 and thrived. Now he moves to center to replace his departed brother Jack. He did play there in 2015 when Jack got hurt and he’s a more natural fit at center in the NFL at 6-2 306 lbs.
The question with Allen is the same one his brother faced: is his quick and fast enough to play in the NFL with the increasing use of faster plays and asking the centers to block more at the 2nd level. His brother ran a 5.3 40 time at the combine and went undrafted. Brian has run the 40 in 5 flat which should put in the 4th round right now. If he thrives at center, then he could be in the discussion for the first center off the board.