We are about to head into one of the best weekends of the year, the NFL Draft. As usual, the SEC is expected to have a dominant showing. I decided to take a look at who I believe will be the first player off the board from every SEC school.
Alabama - CB Terrion Arnold
A lot of people have Alabama Edge Rusher Dallas Turner bookmarked as the Tide's highest draft pick (and being the first defensive player off the board), but I am going with Arnold.
Arnold has been steadily climbing draft boards, and has started to get top-10 pick hype. Couple that with Laiatu Latu from UCLA being seen by some as the draft's top pass-rusher and you very well could get Arnold off the board before Turner.
Arnold was a two-year starter with the Tide. This past season, he totaled 63 tackles, 5 INT's, 12 PBU's, 6.5 TFL, one sack, and one FF. He is not only strong in coverage, but is a very good tackler and run-defender from the corner position.
In fact, PFF gave him an 84.9 coverage grade and a 90.6 run defense grade last season. He has career totals of 108 tackles, 6 INT's, 20 PBU's, 7.5 TFL, one sack, and one FF. I expect Arnold to be a top 15 pick who could go in the top 10.
Arkansas - K Cam Little
Cam Little is arguably the top kicker in the draft class, and thus could go off the board earlier than people expect. Little went 20/24 (83.3%) on Field Goals in 2023, and did not miss an Extra Point in his College career.
His longest Field Goal in 2023 was a 56 yarder. He was 11/12 on FG's inside 39 yards, plus was a solid 4/5 on kicks of over 50 yards on the year. Little also had an 85.5% touchback rate on Kickoffs for the year.
For his three-year college career, Little was 53/64 on Extra Points (82.8%) and 129/129 on Extra Points. In his career he was 34/36 (94.4%) on kicks inside 39 yards and was 7/11 (63.6%) on FG's of over 50 yards.
I expect Little to be a Day 3 pick. I also think Beaux Limmer and Dwight McGlothern could be the first Razorback off the board as well.