2015 NFL Draft Picks on Display, Starring UCLA QB Brett Hundley
By Jason McIntyre
Each week this season, we’ll highlight a few games with NFL draft prospects with an eye toward the 2015 draft. Here’s week one if you missed it; here’s week two.
UCLA at Texas, 8 pm, Fox
UCLA: Brett Hundley, QB, Redshirt Junior: My love – lust? – for Hundley is well-known. Last December, I had him as a Top 10 pick. He decided to stay in school, perhaps to improve his accuracy and ability to read defenses. He’s got the arm and athletic ability to play QB at a high level, but he wasn’t ready to be thrust into the NFL and face complex defenses. In May, I had Hundley going 2nd in the 2015 draft. How good could he be with a real offensive line? Like Marcus Mariota, he’s going to be compared to Colin Kaepernick because he’s tall, runs well and has a big arm. I’ll call for 250+ passing and 100+ rushing against Texas in an easy victory (finally).
TEXAS: Malcolm Brown, DT, Junior: Perhaps the brightest spot so far on the 1-1 Longhorns. Brown has four tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble already, and he’ll be going against a much-maligned UCLA offensive line, so there’s a chance to boost those impressive, early numbers. Impressed coaches and teammates as a freshman. Quietly solid stats last year (12 tackles for loss), when he was playing in the shadow of star DE Jackson Jeffcoat. At 6-foot-3, 320-pounds, Brown’s a large but quick individual who right now is a mid-round prospect, but on the rise. Not to be confused with the Texas running back Malcolm Brown (also an NFL prospect).
Arizona State at Colorado, 10 pm, ESPNU
ASU: Jaelen Strong, WR, Redshirt Junior: Monster first season – 75 catches, 1122 yards – put the JUCO stud on all the watch lists, and when you start to look closely at Strong (6-foot-4, 210 pounds) you see a very promising, possible 1st round pick. It didn’t take long to make an impact: in his 3rd college game, against 11th ranked Stanford, he caught 11 passes for 168 yards and a TD. He’s got good, not great hands (though 3:04 of this video says otherwise) who is a bubble screen beast in the ASU offense. Occasionally looks raw running routes and in some fundamentals, but his athletic abilities make up for those weaknesses at the college level. Feels like a late 1st/early 2nd round pick, though if he slays the combine, he could push Amari Cooper/Dorial Green-Beckham to be the No. 1 pick in 2015.
Tennessee at Oklahoma, 8 pm, ABC
TENNESSEE: A.J. Johnson, LB, Senior: The Vols are 2-0, but reality will set in against the Sooners. To have any shot, they’ll need to stop Oklahoma’s powerful ground game and Johnson, who turns 23 in December, is their best shot. At 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, he’s the best pro prospect on the defense. An All-SEC defender, he’s one of the five best linebackers in the conference, and reportedly pondered entering the 2014 draft. Athletic enough that he scored six touchdowns on offense last year, all on touches near the goal line. Here’s tape of Johnson registering six tackles, a tackle for loss, and two QB hurries in a 2012 loss to Florida. Johnson projects a mid-late round draft pick.