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2015 College Football National Signing Day: What Impact Has It Had on NFL?

Taking a look at college recruiting and how it has impacted the NFL in recent years.

Nigel Cook (Daytona Beach News-Journal)

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.

SBN Signing Day Coverage: Live Updates, Results TV, Streaming Schedule

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.