The B-Gap: Five NFL draft names that will be called earlier than you think
By Sam Robb O’Hagan
Every year, 30 NFL teams keep the same tweet up their sleeves as they watch the two teams competing in the Super Bowl; importantly, two teams that are not them. They watch the Super Bowl and they wait, and they wait, to empty the chamber of their Twitter drafts when the Super Bowl, which, again, they are not in, finally ends.
When the final whistle sounds, the 30 NFL teams not at the big game send the same tweet, commemorating the unofficial start of the next league year and reminding their fans to forget the gravity of what they just watched and focus their attention to the 2023 season. The most creative of this year’s crop came from the Carolina Panthers, a calmly charismatic announcement from a team with one of the more significant offseasons in its last decade ahead of them.
Why the depiction of the melodrama of a social media intern logging into Twitter and hitting send on a basic, uninspiring promotional tweet minutes after the Super Bowl? Because it underscores a critical dynamic in the NFL, in that it never stops, whether the action be on the field for the two teams that make it to the Super Bowl or in the front office for the annual team that enters the second half of the regular season with one win.
It’s the sport that never sleeps, the moment the Super Bowl ends and the next year unofficially begins is already two or three months into the offseason for most of the NFL’s teams. Just last week, two of the most important functions of the pre-draft process — the Reese’s Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl — were held in Mobile, Alabama and Las Vegas, respectively.
With both of those events comes the first big ascent up the board for most of the draft’s annual risers, the NFL’s best kept secrets whose names end up being called much earlier than anyone on the outside looking in had expected. This year it’s no different, so here are the five names with the most potential to rise up the board between now and April’s NFL Draft:
No. 5: Keion White, EDGE, Georgia Tech
The prototypical NFL EDGE prospect that will have DCs licking their chops
Recruited as a two-way star coming out of high school, White started his college career as a tight end at Old Dominion before committing to life as a defensive end and transferring to Georgia Tech.
At 6-foot-4, 280 pounds with a complete arsenal of outstanding physical traits, White more than looks the part as a future star defensive lineman in the NFL. His athleticism jumped off the field at the Senior Bowl last week, the type of athlete that will have NFL defensive coordinator’s lining up for the right to coach.
Good coaching he will need, as White is still learning at a position he’s only accumulated one year of starting experience. But with the right mentorship, his path to becoming a star pass-rusher is immediately apparent.
In an EDGE class that is struggling for consensus evaluations after Alabama’s Will Anderson, White’s outstanding physical tools could easily propel him into the first 31 picks.
No. 4: Matthew Bergeron, OL, Syracuse
He’s just good. Really, really good.
Betting the over on an offensive tackle’s over/under on draft night is never a bad investment, but with Bergeron, who can play as both a tackle and a guard, it’s as close as you’ll get to printing money.
At the Senior Bowl last week, Bergeron, a four-year starter on either end of Syracuse’s offensive line, played a majority of his ball on the interior, showcasing rare and highly-coveted versatility.
At 6-foot-4 with 33-and-⅝ inch arms, Bergeron is a good mover with quick feet who does great work in space. That, combined with play-strength and hand placement concerns, and Bergeron could project as a guard in a zone-running scheme in the pros — and a darn good one at that.
But four years as a starting tackle is four years as a starting tackle, a plethora of experience at one of the most valuable positions in the sport. Even if his role as a tackle will have to come as a reliever in the NFL, Bergeron’s ability at tackle will be extremely valuable to all 32 front offices.
Bergeron is versatile, experienced, and most importantly, an offensive lineman. However early you have him leaving the board, it’s probably not early enough.
No. 3: Devon Witherspoon, DB, Illinois
Born to be a DB, in spirit and in practice
Four years ago, Witherspoon was a zero-star recruit out of Pensacola, Florida, and a walk-on for a Big Ten program that hadn’t completed a winning season in eight years.
Illinois’ winningest season since 2007 and four productive individual campaigns later, and Witherspoon has a real chance to be the first defensive back selected at the 2023 NFL draft.
Witherspoon’s story off the field seamlessly translates to his play on the field. He plays corner like he’s got nothing to lose, aggressively hunting for ways to employ his unwavering physicality, both in run defense and in coverage.
His frame pales in comparison to some of the other top corners in the class at just 6-foot and 180 pounds, but that hasn’t stopped him from making physical contact a pillar of his game.
‘Got that dog in him.’ ‘Desperate to compete.’ ‘Your favorite corner’s favorite corner.’ Any football cliche that you can come up with, Witherspoon lives and breathes. He just has it, an intangible energy about him that is almost screaming, for whoever wants to listen, that he was born to be a starting NFL corner.
N0. 2: Zay Flowers, WR, Boston College
An undersized but electric, do-it-all playmaker
Flowers is just so easy to fall in love with.
Boston College’s all-time leading receiver with 3,056 yards on 200 receptions over his four years in Chestnut Hill, Flowers has quietly assembled a resume strong enough to generate serious second-round buzz.
After his performance at the East-West Shrine Bowl last week, loud second-round chatter is turning into quiet first-round whispers. Flowers was far and away the best player on the field in Las Vegas, with a complete-package skillset and electric athleticism to match.
Flowers is impossibly quick, both as a route-runner and with the ball in his hands, and is impressively savvy in his use of his acceleration and overall speed. He’s undoubtedly undersized — the Shrine Bowl measured him at 5-foot-9 and 172 pounds — but Flowers still impressed with his ball-tracking and competitiveness at the catch point.
Beyond the tape, Flowers has every intangible that an NFL team will look for. He elected to attend the Shrine Bowl, despite a late invite from the more-prestigious Senior Bowl, out of respect to the event he committed to first.
In an interview with The Bootleg Football Podcast in Las Vegas, Flowers explained that he chose to stay at BC for his entire college career out of appreciation for the program that was willing to take a chance on him.
Flowers is confident, loyal, and above all, really, really freaking good.
The only thing that will stop him? The Patriots offense (whose coaching staff worked with him at the Shrine Bowl) when New England drafts him with the 14th pick.
No. 1: Anthony Richardson, QB, Florida
He’s like Josh Allen, except he’s actually like Josh Allen, for real this time
The NFL-consuming public loves to compare young, unpolished quarterbacks to Josh Allen, in a precarious rendition of the transitive property that implies Allen’s sudden and meteoric rise to NFL stardom can be replicated by every big, athletic quarterback that comes after him.
There’s only one problem — none of the quarterbacks for which that calculus has been applied to are anything like Allen, neither through their skillset nor their athletic traits.
But Florida’s Anthony Richardson? He — and only he — is like Josh Allen.
Richardson is a towering 6-foot-4, 232 pounds (the Buffalo Bills list Allen at 6-foot-5, 237 pounds), with one of the few arms comparable to Allen’s that will ever grace the NFL, as well as a legit shot at clocking a 4.40 second 40-yard dash at the Combine.
Richardson isn’t just the most athletically gifted passer in this year’s class, he’s one of the most freakishly talented quarterbacks to ever enter the draft, capable of unleashing blinding fastballs to any spot and the field and running around — or through — any defender that confronts him.
He’s a natural improviser, too. Any questions that were lingering about his ability outside of the pocket were shut down after his viral mid-air pump fake into a touchdown pass against Utah in September.
His ball of ultra-rare physical ability isn’t completely unrefined, either; Richardson consistently impressed with his pocket-presence over his lone season as the starter in Gainesville, a tint of polish rarely found in college quarterbacks.
(Warranted) accuracy questions withstanding, Richardson’s once-in-a-generation potential will be too enticing to a quarterback-needy top of the draft for him to fall out of the top half of the first-round.