NFL Draft 2019: Who’s Getting Paid in the Belt?
Sun Belt stars are ready to flex in the NFL. Who gets Drafted?
Contact @astatefanrules
NFL Draft Thursday is a highly polished spectacle for which humble student athletes are made newly minted millionaires before a worldwide audience. It’s bright and glittery and as dull as a sack of troglodytes. NFL Draft Thursday is as scripted and predictable as WWE Raw, with an army of pundits having already predicted the results. Unless the Browns do something stupid, the draft is more or less pre-ordained.
That’s why NFL Draft Friday and Saturday is where the action’s at, brutha! Because NFL Draft Days 1 and 2 are Sun Belt Days, buddy! We own it!
Frankly, the Sun Belt generally snubs the early rounds. Arkansas State’s Tyrell Johnson was a 2nd rounder in 2008. Troy’s DeMarcus Ware was a first rounder way back in 2005. Maybe we’ve seen others? If so, I forget. Third-thru-Seven are the Sun Belt Magic Rounds. That, and UDFAs, but now I’m drifting into negative territory, and I’m a positive person.
Guys Definitely Gonna Get Drafted, Yo
Penny Hart, WR, Georgia State
Jalin Moore, RB, Appalachian State
Blace Brown, CB, Troy
Penny Hart is among the rare Sun Belt talents with the cajones to enter the Draft before his senior season. The former SBC Freshman of the Year had a swell Senior Bowl, but he may lack the necessary size to really dazzle NFL GMs.
Jalin Moore and Blace Brown are also considered Day 3 picks, though Moore and Brown both seem to look the part more than Hart, in my arrogant opinion.
Dudes That Should Get Drafted (But Mayprolly Won’t)
Ronheen Bingham, DE, Arkansas State
Clifton Duck, DB, Appalachian State
Keenan Brown, TE, Texas State
Marcus Green, WR, ULM
Ronheen Bingham is the SBC Defensive Player of the Year, and Clifton Duck was a First Team All Conference selection. Bingham’s knee and Duck’s size may be strikes against them.
Meanwhile, both Keenan Brown and Marcus Green were NFL Combine invitees with the tangibles for which GMs will risk a roll of the dice. If none or all of these guys were drafted, I wouldn’t be surprised. Though, admittedly, I’d be pretty damn pleased if all were drafted.
Future Sun Belt UDFAs
Justin Clifton, DB, Arkansas State
Deondre Douglas, WR, Troy
Jamarious Way, WR, South Alabama
Lanard Bonner, OL, Arkansas State
Justice Hansen, QB, Arkansas State
Deonte Crumitie, C, Troy
All of these guys are legendary All Sun Belt selections, with Hansen named SBC Player of the Year in 2018. Bonner turned heads at the Shrine Game, and Way participated in the NFL Combine. Look for at least one of these guys to hear his name called during the Draft.
A former notary public, Jeremy Harper is a professional writer and Chief Instigator for Storm the Castle Creative. He spends much of his free time staring blankly into space.
