The 2024 NFL Draft is in the books, and the football world has already moved on to the 2025 cycle. CBS Sports NFL Draft expert Ryan Wilson has already released his early 2025 Mock Draft, and his peers have participated in similar exercises as they start to build out their big board for next year.
Of course, that also sets the stage for the teams that NFL Draft experts will follow the most on Saturdays this fall. Championships in college football are not won or lost based on how many top NFL Draft picks you have on the roster, but assembling that kind of talent is a starting point for entry in the title contention discussion.
It should come as no surprise, then, that some of the teams we are highlighting below are ones likely to be competing for conference titles and spots in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff bracket. That’s not the case for every team, but certainly for the ones that have the most players getting recognition as a top pick in next year’s NFL Draft.
Ohio State
Notable prospects: CB Denzel Burke, EDGE JT Tuimoloau, WR Emeka Egbuka, EDGE Jack Sawyer, RB Quinshon Judkins, DL Tyleik Williams, OL Donovan Jackson, RB TreVeyon Henderson
As we wrote in the NFL Draft Winners and Losers over the weekend, Ohio State had a 2024 NFL Draft that cut two ways. On one hand, four picks marked a drop-off in production after having at least six players drafted every year since 2016. The Buckeyes were nowhere close to their usual status as one of the most prolific draft pick producers, and you could consider that a rough year. But the other side of that is the handful of players who could have gone pro in 2024 but elected to come back to Columbus and lead what is going to be one of the most talent-heavy teams in the…
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