The second day of the NFL Draft is in the books and here are some news and notes from Rivals National Columnist Mike Farrell.
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THE QUARTERBACK RUN
The run on quarterbacks at the end of the second and top of third round is interesting. While the Minnesota Vikings and Houston Texans took former five-stars in Kellen Mond from Texas A&M and Davis Mills from Stanford respectively, former two-star Kyle Trask from Florida was picked ahead of both with the last pick of the second round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Trask is in a great situation learning behind Tom Brady.
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TRANSFER FINDING SUCCESS
Transfers are all the rage these days and it’s interesting to see a few second-day picks find success elsewhere. Numerous players drafted on Friday started at other programs, such as Kelvin Joseph, Landon Dickerson, Aaron Robinson and Trey Sermon. Joseph started at LSU and landed at Kentucky as was taken in the second round by the Dallas Cowboys while Dickerson started his career at Florida State and was drafted out of Alabama by the Philadelphia Eagles. Robinson was an Alabama recruit who transferred to UCF and was taken in the third round by the New York Giants and Sermon played for Oklahoma before starring for Ohio State and being taken by the San Francisco 49ers in the third right.
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FIVE-STARS OFF THE BOARD ON DAY 2
There were plenty of five-stars drafted on Friday in addition to Mond and Mills. In the second round, the Jacksonville Jaguars selected former five-stars Tyson Campbell from Georgia and Walker Little from Stanford while the Bengals took Clemson offensive lineman Jackson Carman and the Carolina Panthers took LSU wide receiver Terrace a Marshall. In the third round, the Minnesota Vikings took Ohio State offensive lineman Wyatt Davis and the Denver Broncos took Ohio State linebacker Baron Browning.
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DRAFTED AFTER SWITCHING POSITIONS
I always find it interesting to see which players switched side of the football and successfully landed in the NFL Draft. Devonte Williams from North Carolina was drafted early in the second round by the Denver Broncos and of course played running back but he was recruited mainly as a safety to start with by most programs. The Minnesota Vikings took North Carolina linebacker Chazz Surratt in the third round, but he started his career as a quarterback. The Las Vegas Raiders took Virginia Tech safety Divine Deablo was a receiver coming out of high school. Baltimore Ravens third-round cornerback pick Brandon Stephens from SMU is also intriguing to me as he fits in the transfer and side of the ball discussions. He played running back at UCLA before becoming a standout defensive back at SMU.
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VALUE SELECTIONS IN DAY 2
DT Christian Barmore, New England Patriots — I had the Alabama DT as a first-round value and rumors of attitude and a lack of coachability led to a slide but Bill Belichick will solve that.
DT Levi Onwuzirike, Detroit Lions — The Washington star was my No. 1 DT and is great value here in the second round.
S Trevon Moehrig, Las Vegas Raiders — This could be the steal of the draft as I had TCU’s Moehrig as a top-10 overall talent and he slid to be safety No. 3 and a second-rounder.
LB Azeez Ojulari, NY Giants — I expected the Georgia hybrid to go in the first round and the Giants got a steal here in the second.
LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Cleveland Browns — I had the Browns taking him at No. 26 overall and they landed the Notre Dame star at No. 52.
DE Ronnie Perkins, New England Patriots — I was waiting and waiting for the Oklahoma rush end to land somewhere and he was my last top 30 player taken and is great value in the third round for the Patriots.
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UNDER-THE-RADAR AS HIGH SCHOOL PROSPECTS
Finally, there are always those players we never heard of much if at all in high school that become great stories. Maybe we should start scouting players who land at FCS North Dakota State a little better as Tennessee Titans second-round offensive lineman pick Dillon Radunz was not on our radar out of Minnesota. Buffalo Bills third-round offensive lineman Spencer Brown from Northern Iowa was also unranked and was listed as 6-foot-8 and 244 pounds out of high school. But no one can blame us for Div. III offensive lineman Quinn Meinerz who was drafted in the third round out of Wisconsin-Whitewater by the Denver Broncos. He didn’t have any FBS or FCS offers at all.
