Final Underclassmen Draft List

On Monday, the NFL released the approved list of college underclassmen who will be available for the April 2009 Draft.

There are 46 names on the list, one of the smallest totals in the last five years.

Juniors and sophomore-red shirts had until January 15th to apply for entrance into the draft. Then, they had until Midnight Sunday to pull their name out of the draft if they had not hired an agent.

Several players apparently did that, because some of the players who were on the initial list are not on the approved group by the league. WR Brandon LaFell at LSU changed his mind and decided to return to school.

Here are the numbers over this decade of players who declared for the draft and the number of underclassmen who were selected:

Here are the 46 players that have been declared eligible by the NFL for the 2008 Draft. Early projections say somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 could be selected in the first round. Read More..

The Underclassmen List For ‘09 Draft

College underclassmen that had the ability to enter the 2009 NFL Draft had until 4 p.m. CST to file their paper work with the league.

The players who could jump were those that played last year as juniors or sophomore-redshirts.

Two big names announced that they were making the move to pro football on Wednesday: Southern Cal QB Mark Sanchez, who is coming off a big performance in the Rose Bowl against Penn State. Plus, Florida WR Percy Harvin is making the jump after being part of the Gators national championship team.

Three big name players said on Thursday they would stay in school, including Florida LB Brandon Spikes and Ole Miss pass rusher Greg Hardy.  Both were surprises since the draft does not have much in the way of pass rushers and both would have been probable first round selections, maybe as high as the top half  of the initial round.

There may be a few players who slipped in under the radar in the last hour or so, but right now here are the major college players who have entered the draft, listed by position:

The Top Ten – Version #1

Now that the New Year’s Day bowl games are completed, there are only a handful of college players left who are still preparing to play a game.

The best among those finished with their seasons are pondering the future. Specifically, sophomore redshirts and juniors are trying to decide if they should enter the NFL Draft.

Underclassmen have until January 15 to submit their names to the NFL to be included in the ‘09 talent pool. Despite comments last week from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying there would be no rookie wage cap next year, agents are still telling college players that if they want to guarantee the type of pay day that draft choices have received in recent year, ‘09 is the year to jump.

We spent time talking with two NFL teams and scouts from two other clubs and pulled together the bobgretz.com top 10. This group includes players who have not yet declared for the draft, and in fact, may choose to stay in the college ranks for another season.

But the NFL guys all think the underclassmen on this list will jump.

We picked 10 because of the Chiefs position as the No. 3 choice in the first round. If the team uses that selection, their choice is in this list. Now, if they should decide to trade down, I wouldn’t expect them to go much beyond the 10th spot. If there are as many underclassmen jumping in as the league expects, the pick at No. 10 will be a very, very good player.

As the weeks and months go on, we’ll adjust this list accordingly, but here’s version No. 1.

TOP 10 PROSPECTS FOR 2009 NFL Draft

*-underclassmen who have not yet declared for NFL Draft.