The second night of the NFL Draft featured several former five-stars hearing their names called. Rivals recruiting director Adam Gorney looks back on them as high school recruits.
NFL Draft: Did we hit or miss on each first-round pick?
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Coming out of Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School, Burch was all projection – and there still might be a lot of that as a third-round selection by the Arizona Cardinals on Friday night.
At 6-foot-4 and 279 pounds, there is a lot to like about how Burch looks but it took the former five-star multiple years to really translate his game to the college level. He had 60 tackles and 3.5 sacks in his last year at South Carolina but really turned it up in his final season at Oregon with 8.5 sacks. That showing earned him a third-round spot.
Burden was the top-rated receiver in the 2022 class – one spot ahead of Tetairoa McMillan – but it was McMillan who was a first-round NFL Draft pick as Burden got selected early in the second round.
There was a lot of first-round discussion around the Missouri receiver heading into Thursday but it was only McMillan, fellow five-star Emeka Egbuka and four-star Matthew Golden picked in the first round.
Burden, who caught 192 passes for 2,263 yards and 21 touchdowns in three seasons with the Tigers, voiced his displeasure on social media about not being a first-round selection. And now the Chicago Bears have a very talented receiver with an ax to grind coming to town.
Jackson was not a five-star in high school but is worth mentioning here. Unfortunately, Jackson became Internet famous for not knowing his way around a bag drill in high school but he has certainly come a long way from then – and even laughed about that at the combine.
With some of the best physical traits in this entire draft at 6-foot-6 and 264 pounds, Jackson, who played one season at LSU before transferring to Arkansas, looks like a major steal early in the third round.
Jackson was consistently dominant in Fayetteville with 93 tackles over the last two seasons and 6.5 sacks in each of them. The Buffalo Bills might have gotten a big-time early-round steal on Friday night.
After the Under Armour Game where Johnson absolutely dominated and proved he was the No. 1 cornerback in the 2022 class, that’s exactly where we put him. He had a great career at Michigan and helped the Wolverines to a national championship but the injury bug did curtail his first-round momentum.
Even after a turf toe injury kept him sidelined, there was still a lot of mock draft chatter that the former five-star was too good to pass up in the first round. But then there was talk over the last 48 hours about a knee injury concern that pushed Johnson into the second round.
Travis Hunter, Jahdae Barron and Maxwell Hairston were the three first-round corners taken. Johnson was the first one – by the Arizona Cardinals – in the second.
What we liked about Ratledge coming out of Rome (Ga.) Darlington, enough to make him a five-star, was his mean mentality. He didn’t talk much about his recruitment; he was always going to Georgia. He just went out every time and put people in the dirt. He’s got a mullet, a bad mustache and comes with mean intentions.
Rated as the second-best offensive tackle in the 2020 class behind Georgia teammate Broderick Jones (now with the Pittsburgh Steelers), Ratledge was a multi-year starter at Georgia and very well could’ve been a first-round selection if not for multiple injuries in Athens. He was a second-round pick of the Detroit Lions.
In high school, J.T. Tuimoloau was big, heavy-handed, strong and super athletic for his size since he also doubled as a tight end for the FSP 7on7 team during tournaments. We bet that athleticism, size and toughness at the point of attack would translate well to college and that’s why he was a five-star and No. 7 overall in the 2021 class.
But Tuimoloau fell to the second round and while not necessarily a miss in rankings it would have reflected better if he was a first-rounder.
He certainly had one of the strangest recruitments in recent memory as COVID shut down all of his visits. He waited through the early and late signing periods, narrowed his list to Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, USC and Washington and then picked the Buckeyes in the summer. He was taken by the Indianapolis Colts in the second round.