College Sports Journal FCS 2020 NFL College Draft Top 40 Player Rankings
With the COVID-19 shutting down the college and professional athletics world this spring of 2020, there is one sporting event upcoming that involves college football players moving on to the professional ranks that sports fans can look forward to. That one event is the NFL draft taking place April 23-25.
The FCS ranks has put such talent into the NFL as Pro Football Hall of Fame members WRs Jerry Rice and Randy MossQB Kurt Warner, to go along with star QBs like Jimmy Garoppolo and Carson Wentz just to name a few.
The FCS this year has several players that look poised to make the jump to the NFL.
To recap last year’s 2019 NFL Draft, there were 12 players from the FCS ranks to be drafted into the league with the top player selected being Alabama State’s OT Tytus Howard by the Houston Texans in the first round (23rd overall), who started eight games for the team before being injured.
This year’s top two prospects look to be Southern Illinois S Jeremy Chinn and Dayton TE Adam Trautman. Both look to be picked in the top three rounds.
The NFL Draft this year will have a total of 255 picks. The first two rounds have just one pick for each NFL team (32 teams). But the NFL gives supplemental picks in the remaining five rounds (10 extra picks in Round 3, 8 extra picks in Round 4, 2 extra picks in Round 5, 3 extra picks in Round 6, and 9 extra picks in Round 7).
Below is a brief review of what I believe are the Top 40 NFL Draft prospects from the FCS and about where I believe each will land in the draft position or as a free agent pick-up to go with some video highlights of each player (NOTE: I believe there will be 15 former FCS players drafted this year):
1. Jeremy Chinn, SS, Southern Illinois (6’3″, Sr, 210 pounds) (Projected Late Second Round)
2. Adam Trautman, TE, Dayton (6’5″, Sr, 255 pounds) (Projected Early Third Round)
3. Alex Taylor, OT, South Carolina State (6’8″, Sr, 306 pounds) (Projected Mid 3rd Round)
4. James Robinson, RB, Illinois State (5’10”, Sr, 220 pounds) (Projected Mid Fourth Round)
5. Charlie Taumoepeau, TE/FB, Portland State (6’2 1/4″, Sr, 240 pounds) (Projected Late Fourth Round)
6. Dante Olson, ILB, Montana (6’3″, Sr, 240 pounds) (Projected Early Fifth Round)
7. Jonah Williams, DE, Weber State (6’5″, Sr, 275 pounds) (Projected Early Sixth Round)
8. Derrek Tuszka, DE, North Dakota State (6’5″, Sr, 246 pounds) (Projected Early Sixth Round)
9. Kyle Murphy, OG, Rhode Island (6’4″, Sr, 302 pounds) (Projected Mid Sixth Round)
10. Reid Harrison-Ducros, CB, Duquesne (5’10”, Sr, 185 pounds) (Projected Late Sixth Round)
11. Aaron Parker, WR, Rhode Island (6’3″, Sr, 208 pounds) (Projected Mid Seventh Round)
12. Isaiah Coulter, WR, Rhode Island (6’3″, Jr, 190 pounds) (Projected Mid Seventh Round)
13. Zach Sammartino, OL, Dartmouth (6’3″, Sr, 295 pounds) (Projected Late Seventh Round)
14. Ron’Dell Carter, DE, James Madison (6’3″, Sr, 269 pounds) (Projected Late Seventh Round)
15. Bryce Sterk, DE, Montana State (6’5″, Sr, 261 pounds) (Projected Late Seventh Round)
16. Alex Pechin, P, Bucknell (6’0″, Sr, 210 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
17. Manny Patterson, CB, Maine (5’10”, Sr, 180 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
18. Kevin Davidson, QB, Princeton (6’4″, Sr, 225 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
19. Chris Williams, DT, Wagner (5’2″, Sr, 305 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
20. Luther Kirk, SS, Illinois State (6’2″, Sr, 195 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
21. Josh Pearson, WR, Jacksonville State (6’4″, Sr, 205 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
22. Cam Gill, OLB, Wagner (6’3″, Sr, 240 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
23. Christian Rozeboom, ILB, South Dakota State (6’2″, Sr, 230 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
24. Zach Hall, ILB, Southeast Missouri State (6′)”, Sr, 238 pounds) (Projected Preferred Free Agent)
25. A.J. Hines, RB, Duquesne (5’11”, Sr, 225 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
26. Nick Tiano, QB, Chattanooga (6’5″, Sr, 240 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
27. Pete Guerriero, RB, Monmouth (5’10”, Jr, 190 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
28. Chris Rowland, WR, Tennessee State (5’8″, Sr, 180 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
29. Gavin Heslop, Stony Brook (6’0″, Sr, 197 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
30. Jonas Griffith, ILB, Indiana State (6’4″, Sr, 250 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
31. Nasir Player, DE, East Tennessee State (6’4″, Sr, 265 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
32. Ben Ellefson, TE, North Dakota State (6’3″, Sr, 250 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
33. Zack Johnson, OG, North Dakota State (6’6″, Sr, 315 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
34. Ben DiNucci, QB, James Madison (6’3″, Sr, 210 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
35. Eli Mencer, OLB, Albany (6’1″, Sr, 229 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
36. Aaron Patrick, OLB/DE, Eastern Kentucky (6’4″, Sr, 245 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
37. LaCale London, DT, Western Illinois (6’5″, Sr, 300 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
38. Juwan Green, WR, Albany (6’0″, Sr, 187 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
39. Riley Stapleton, TE, James Madison (6’5″, Sr, 230 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
40. Bronson Rechsteiner, FB, Kennesaw State (6’0″, Sr, 230 pounds) (Projected Free Agent)
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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Thanks for the rundown, on FCS players, that may attract some attention from NFL teams! Nit-picking here, but, putting the players year, in between their height and weight is rather quirky. Also, on prospect 19, he’s listed at 5’2″, I think that’s probably off by a foot.