NFL teams are supposed improve their teams by drafting college players in the NFL draft. The 32 teams select players to join their teams in hopes that they snag promising . This year, Joe Burrow, Antonio Gandy-Golden, and Chase Young are players that teams could draft and make a big impact with right away.
Joe Burrow out of LSU is supposed to be the first one off the board. According to Sports Illustrated, “Burrow followed that up with one of greatest single seasons in college football history. Burrow claimed the Heisman Trophy, with the largest winning margin in history, as he posted 5,671 passing yards with 60 touchdowns and 6 interceptions over 15 games.” NFL coaches expect that success to carry over to the NFL. It’s hard to pass up on a guy who has these stats and played against top-notch teams like Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson.
The Cincinnati Bengals need a quarterback. Andy Dalton who was the quarterback for the Bengals last season. The Bengals are getting nowhere. They only won two football games last year. The Bengals want to be the winning team so they are moving away from Dalton. Many people around the league would be surprised if they did not draft Burrow. Burrow broke many records such as the most passing touchdowns. Burrow had 60 in a season in one of the toughest conferences, the Southern Eastern Conference (SEC). Previously, Colt Brennan had the record from Hawaii; he had 58 passing touchdowns in 2006. Burrow almost beat legendary Colt McCoy from Texas who has the highest completion rate. It is still standing at 76.6% and Borrow was going into his last game with a completion rate of 77.6%. Then during the last game of his college career, his wide receiver dropped some balls that caused Burrow’s competition rate to drop to 76.3%. It took almost more than a decade to become close to breaking the completion rate record. Joe Brady was the pass coordinator and wide receivers coach for LSU. He came from the New Orleans Saints as an offensive assistant who was coaching future Hall of Famer quarterback Drew Brees. Burrow had run the offense that was similar to New Orleans Saint’s NFL offense, which will help Burrow a lot in his transition to NFL from college.
In an interview with retired NFL player Jamie Martin, who won a Super Bowl with Kurt Warner and played with Drew Brees, he talked about the difference between Division I football and the NFL. Martin understands the major difference in the skill level between NFL and Division I football. Martin said, “I always laugh when there’s a really good college team like Alabama or like LSU this year and you hear people saying well LSU could beat the Bengals or the worst team in the NFL. There is no way. The difference is the best team in college is made up of you know 5, 8, 9… whatever the number is future NFL players which are the best of the best. But every NFL team is made up of 50+ NFL players and they’re all that good. There is no weak link to pick on!”
Chase Young is an impressive defensive end at Ohio State who is seeking to get to the league. According to the NFL, “He’s fairly basic as a pass rusher, with just a couple of go-to moves and an occasional inside counter, and yet he still managed 16.5 sacks in 2019. He has the traits to overwhelm many of the tackles he faces, and it won’t take long for teams to add a bull-rush, a rip-and-run and a stab counter into his repertoire.” Young is expected to go second overall in the NFL draft by the Washington Redskins.
Another guy to watch out for is Antonia Gandy-Golden. According to “Antonio Gandy-Golden Has Insane Upside (2020 NFL Draft)”, “It’s going to be hard to find players who are bigger at the WR position. Due to his size, AGG was able to absolutely dominate his competition routinely and make it look easy.” It will be hard for teams to cover him because he can go get the ball and he is big. NFL teams are comparing Golden to AJ Green. Green is really good at catching the ball in a difficult spot, and he is big.
The question remains, “Who will make the biggest impact in the NFL?” Time will tell.
