The deadline for college football players across the country to declare for the 2023 NFL Draft has come and gone. I’m sorry if you intended to throw your name into the mix but slept through your alarm (college kids, am I right?), but it’s too late. Your punishment is that you have to stay in school for another year.
The NFL’s loss is college football’s gain, however. Some players weren’t eligible for the draft — the NFL has a rule requiring all players to be at least three years out of high school before entering the draft — while others took advantage of name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities to return for another season. Players return to iron out some kinks in their game and to make actual, legitimate money — perhaps more than they would’ve made as mid to late-round picks.
Who are the players coming back for another season that will be the talk of the draft process a year from now? I’ve put together a list of 20 names to follow ordered by position. No, I did not include every player in the country, so I’m sorry if the player on your team didn’t make the list. It does not mean I hate them. But I do love these players, so let’s get to them.
Caleb Williams, QB, USC: If Williams was eligible to go to the NFL this spring, odds are he’d be the favorite to go No. 1 overall. NFL teams are always looking for comps with prospects, and Williams is truly the most Patrick Mahomes-like quarterback in the college game. That’s not to say he’s as good as, or will be as good as, Mahomes in the NFL. But Williams does a lot of similar things to Mahomes. Oh, and he won the Heisman while playing for a coach in Lincoln Riley who has helped mold multiple Heisman winners and No. 1 draft picks. Rest assured, NFL scouts will spend the next year picking him…
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