The NFL Draft is drawing close.
Missouri football has five players, including two potential first-round picks, who currently shape up to hear their name called in this year’s draft. The year’s three-day event will begin Thursday, April 24 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
If Mizzou is able to send a player to the NFL as a first-rounder, it would be just the second time in team history that the team has had a Day 1 pick in back-to-back years. Missouri had three straight years with first-round picks from 2009-11. Last year, defensive end Darius Robinson was the No. 27 overall pick to the Arizona Cardinals.
So, where might this year’s group of league-bound Tigers land?
Using recent seven-round mock drafts from ESPN’s Matt Miller and Pro Football Network, as well as NFL Mock Draft Database’s consensus big board, here is a synopsis of where Missouri’s top prospects currently are projected to land:
Will Missouri football OT Armand Membou be a top-10 pick?
ESPN: Round 1, No. 7 overall
PFN: Round 1, No. 11 overall
If Mizzou has a top-10 pick this year, it’s looking more and more likely to be its offensive tackle out of Lee’s Summit.
ESPN has Membou projected to land at No. 7 with the New York Jets, which is where the offensive lineman currently sits in the NFL Mock Draft Database.
Pro Football Network has Membou projected just outside the top 10, drawing the No. 11 overall pick from the San Francisco 49ers.
Luther Burden III, wide receiver
ESPN: Round 1, No. 20 overall
PFN: Round 2, No. 33 overall
Several recent mock drafts, like Pro Football Network, have Burden just falling out of the first round. First-round mock drafts from USA Today, CBS Sports and NFL.com each do not have the star Mizzou wide receiver among the first 32 picks.
ESPN still has Burden as a Day 1 player, as Miller projects the St. Louis product to land at No. 20 with the Denver Broncos. That would make him the fourth wide receiver off the board, behind Colorado’s Travis Hunter (who is entering the draft as a two-way player, also at cornerback), Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan and Texas’ Matthew ...
