National Football League

Five NFL draft prospects who will exceed expectations

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, SI.com Staff/Sports Illustrated

Here on the college football side of the NFL draft, we sometimes see things a little differently than NFL scouts. Yes, some skills translate better to the pros than others, and you can’t just assess players’ NFL potential based on how successful they were in college. Still, there’s something to be gained from having watched and written about the players who will be selected over the next three days for up to the last four years (not even counting observations from when they were recruits).

From that perspective, some draft prospects seem to have slipped through the cracks. These players may not go in the first round and some may not even be drafted until much later. But after following their college careers closely, SI’s college football writers believe they could be among the biggest steals in the 2017 NFL draft.