:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45624058/Leonard_Williams_National_Signing_Day.0.0.jpg)
The road to the NFL is long. For some, it starts in the creases of the map in towns and not-towns that fill in the spaces between the hubs on the highway. Others pull in the attention of city-borne scouts and bag men and funnelers and all the other shady half-jobs that make up college recruiting.
It's an inexact science, but it is a science.
Today, high school seniors can officially sign binding letters of intent to attend a school in the fall and join their football team. It's kind of a big deal. So I thought we could take a look at signing day, and ranked prospects in general, to get a sense of the news as it comes through the college pipeline today.
First, let's just look at the top 10 prospects by the two major scouting outlets from the last couple of years and see how they've panned out since, let's say, 2010 (throwing out 2014 since some of those guys haven't even really gotten their college careers going):
| Name | POS | School | Scouts Rk. | Rivals Rk. | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | |||||
| Ronald Powell | DE/OLB | Florida | 1 | 1 | Drafted by New Orleans (2014, 5th round) |
| Jackson Jeffcoat | DE | Texas | 2 | 12 | UDFA taken by Seattle (2014) |
| Dominique Easley | DE | Florida | 3 | 7 | Drafted by New England (2014, 1st round) |
| Jordan Hicks | OLB | Texas | 4 | 16 | Expected late draft pick in 2015 |
| Michael Dyer | RB | Auburn | 5 | 11 | Potential draft pick in 2015 |
| Lamarcus Joyner | CB | Florida St. | 6 | 14 | Drafted by St. Louis (2014, 2nd round) |
| Robert Woods | WR | USC | 7 | 6 | Drafted by Buffalo (2013, 2nd round) |
| Seantrel Henderson | OT | Miami | 8 | 2 | Drafted by Buffalo (2014, 7th round) |
| Matt Elam | S | Florida | 9 | 25 | Drafted by Baltimore (2013, 1st round) |
| Jonathan Dowling | S | Florida | 10 | 176 (?!) | Drafted by Oakland (2014, 7th round) |
| Kyle Prater | WR | USC | 45 | 3 | Potential draft pick in 2015 |
| Sharrif Floyd | DT | Florida | 25 | 4 | Drafted by Minnesota (2013, 1st round) |
| Keenan Allen | WR | Cal | 33 | 5 | Drafted by San Diego (2013, 3rd round) |
| Owamagbe Odighizuwa | DE | UCLA | 17 | 8 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Da'Rick Rogers | WR | Tennnessee | 30 | 9 | UDFA taken by Buffalo (2013) |
| Marcus Lattimore | RB | South Carolina | 19 | 10 | Drafted by San Francisco (2013, 4th round) |
| 2011 | |||||
| Jadeveon Clowney | DE | South Carolina | 1 | 1 | Drafted by Houston (2014, 1st round) |
| Anthony Johnson | DT | LSU | 2 | 17 | UDFA taken by Miami (2014) |
| Cyrus Kouandjio | OT | Alabama | 3 | 4 | Drafted by Buffalo (2014, 2nd round) |
| Isaiah Crowell | RB | Georgia | 4 | 23 | UDFA taken by Cleveland (2014) |
| Karlos Williams | S | Florida St. | 5 | 8 | Potential draft pick in 2015 (RB) |
| Christian Westerman | OT | Auburn | 6 | 27 | Potential draft pick in 2016 (G) |
| Malcolm Brown | RB | Texas | 7 | 10 | Potential draft pick in 2015 |
| La'el Collins | OT | LSU | 8 | 6 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Tony Steward | ILB | Clemson | 9 | 13 | Unlikely draft pick in 2015 |
| Jeff Driskel | QB | Florida | 10 | 32 | Transferred to play 2015 at Louisiana Tech; Unlikely draft pick in 2016 |
| Curtis Grant | LB | Ohio St. | 46 | 2 | Unlikely draft pick in 2015 |
| George Farmer | WR | USC | 12 | 3 | Unlikely draft pick in 2015 |
| De'Anthony Thomas | ATH | Oregon | 16 | 5 | Drafted by Kansas City (2014, 4th round) |
| Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix | SS | Alabama | 19 | 7 | Drafted by Green Bay (2014, 1st round) |
| Ray Drew | DE | Georgia | 13 | 9 | Expected late draft pick in 2015 |
| 2012 | |||||
| Mario Edwards | DE | Florida St. | 1 | 3 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Johnathan Gray | RB | Texas | 2 | 5 | Potential draft pick in 2016 |
| Dorial Green-Beckham | WR | Missouri | 3 | 1 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Noah Spence | DE | Ohio St. | 4 | 9 | Transferred to play 2015 at Eastern Kentucky; Expected draft pick in 2016 |
| Keith Marshall | RB | Georgia | 5 | 48 | Potential draft pick in 2016 |
| Landon Collins | SS | Alabama | 6 | 17 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| D.J. Humphries | OT | Florida | 7 | 2 | Expected late draft pick in 2015 |
| Davonte Neal | ATH | Notre Dame | 8 | 107 | Transferred to Arizona; Unlikely draft pick in 2017 |
| Andrus Peat | OT | Stanford | 9 | 32 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Eddie Goldman | DT | Florida St. | 10 | 7 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| Shaq Thompson | SS | Washington | 16 | 4 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 (OLB) |
| Jonathan Bullard | DE | Florida | 37 | 6 | Expected draft pick in 2016 |
| Stefon Diggs | WR | Maryland | 13 | 8 | Expected mid-draft pick in 2015 |
| Jameis Winston | QB | Florida St. | 14 | 10 | Expected early draft pick in 2015 |
| 2013 | |||||
| Robert Nkemdiche | DE | Ole Miss | 1 | 1 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 (DT) |
| Carl Lawson | DE | Auburn | 2 | 4 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
| Vernon Hargreaves III | CB | Florida | 3 | 2 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
| Mackensie Alexander | CB | Clemson | 4 | 42 | Solid redshirt freshman in 2014; TBD |
| Laremy Tunsil | OT | Ole Miss | 5 | 14 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
| Matthew Thomas | OLB | Florida St. | 6 | 15 | Impressive redshirt freshman in 2014, marred by early season suspension and injury-tinged 2013 campaign; TBD |
| Jaylon Smith | OLB | Notre Dame | 7 | 3 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
| Kelvin Taylor | RB | Florida | 8 | 38 | Potential draft pick in 2017 |
| Derrick Henry | RB | Alabama | 9 | 36 | Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
| Eddie Vanderdoes | DT | Notre Dame | 10 | 21 | Transferred to UCLA; Expected early draft pick in 2016 |
Again. Inexact science, but science. Rankings aren't perfect, but they do correlate overall to prospect quality and what the NFL gets from its unofficial minor league.
So what to watch for today? Well it's now 11:40 ET as I write this. We've already got a ton of news and flips, and consensus #1 overall recruit DE Byron Cowart is headed to Auburn despite some clear overtures from Florida. But there's plenty coming up after the midday mark.
Mammoth Texas DT Daylon Mack announces in a bit, likely choosing between Texas A&M & TCU. Snoop's son, Cordell Broadus, is choosing between some Pac-12 options. DE terror CeCe Jefferson is picking out an SEC school (thought Florida St. might have a shot). Wide receiver, and real person not Key & Peele sketch name, Equanimeous St. Brown has to pick between Notre Dame and some west coast options. And stud CB Iman Marshall has a wide array of suitors to choose from.
Many of these guys will end up becoming significant NFL prospects in a few years. Some will end up occupying the backend of rosters. Some will have seen better days by the time they come to the end of their college careers.
But for the ever watchful eye of the Shield, today marks the first day many of these kids will fall under the purview of the NFL. Might want to keep some of these names in your pocket, because history tells us we'll be seeing and hearing about most of them for years to come.