Once a year, the top athletes from college football enter the NFL draft with hopes of making their lifelong dreams come true.  Of the hundreds that enter the draft, only 253 players are drafted.  Of the 253 picks this year there are some picks that stood out amongst the rest.

One of the picks that has been a big topic of conversation was the Chicago Bears’ first round pick.  They had the third overall pick, but traded up with the San Francisco 49ers to get their second overall pick.  With that second pick, the Bears took quarterback Mitch Trubisky from North Carolina.  A lot of fans, analysts and followers of the NFL were not happy with this pick.  They did not think that Trubisky should have been drafted that high, and there were much better options at the time. OHS Senior Boe Lueken said, “Drafting Trubisky is a high risk move, but they could have found their franchise quarterback”. Trubisky was not liked by the city of Chicago, so much that at the Bulls game the day after the draft, the whole stadium booed him. It seems as the years of college pro days and combines have become a thing, NFL recruiters seems to focus more on those days. Owatonna Head Football Coach Jeff Williams said, “NFL players draft stock changes a lot when it comes to their pro day performance.  Scouts don’t look at athletes careers as a whole, but more the one workout in front of the recruiters.” This is apparent in Trubisky’s case.  He only started 13 games his whole career, and in those game he was not in the running for the best college player of the year.  He had a good combine, which raised his draft stock tremendously.

Aside from the bad picks, there were plenty of good picks.  Taken first overall was Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett.  All offseason he had been the projected number one pick, and the Cleveland Browns drafted him.  Running Back Leonard Fournette was taken by the Jacksonville Jaguars at fourth overall, another highly sought after player.  There were some valuable picks in the second round of the draft.  Offensive lineman Cam Robinson from Alabama was taken in the second round by the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Robinson was projected to go in the top 15 picks, but dropped to 34th overall.

The Minnesota Vikings had a good draft as well. Aside from not having a first round pick, they still made good picks and are hopeful when looking forward to next season.  In the second round, they took running back  Dalvin Cook, a very talented athlete from Florida State.  They also drafted Offensive Lineman Pat Elflein from Ohio State University.  Elflein was voted the best Center in college football last season.

If a player did not get drafted, their dreams are not over.  Undrafted players get invited to  pre-training camps and offseason workouts from teams around the league.  These are spring workout and practices that are a head start on training camps starting in August.  Football season is right around the corner and NFL teams are starting to get ready for the long road to the Super Bowl.