5 college teams most hurt by the 2017 NFL Draft
By John Buhler
With all the early entrants set for the 2017 NFL Draft, which five Power 5 college football teams will be hurt the most by this spring’s NFL Draft.
As the 2016 college football season has come to a close, many of the sport’s best players will be entering the 2017 NFL Draft. Some players have exhausted their four years of collegiate eligibility, while other top prospects have opted to enter the draft a year or two early.
With every class that graduates in college football, another strong one is sure to come in. That being said, there are a few high-profile programs that won’t be happy to see so many of their best players going pro.
Here are the five Power 5 programs that have been hurt the most by the 2017 NFL Draft.
USC Trojans
Pac-12, South
While things are humming along just fine with Clay Helton’s USC Trojans football program, he may have hoped a few underclassmen would have opted to play one more year of college football for his emerging Pac-12 powerhouse.
USC finished as the No. 3 team in the country, won the 2017 Rose Bowl and have a star in redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Darnold. Can USC win the Pac-12 and get to the 2018 College Football Playoff? Absolutely, but the Trojans will be missing three huge pieces from their dominant 2016 team: offensive lineman Zach Banner, cornerback Adoree Jackson and wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster.
Banner was a redshirt senior and was going pro anyway. Still, he was a beast on Helton’s offensive line and should be a second to third-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. His father was a Pro Bowl offensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders in Lincoln Kennedy. Banner offers a ton of upside as an offensive line prospect.
However, Jackson and Smith-Schuster were only true juniors in 2016. Jackson projects as a second-round pick and Smith-Schuster could be a mid-to-late first round pick, so financially, going pro might make sense for these two players. That being said, had they returned to USC for their senior seasons, the Trojans would be an overwhelming favorite to win the Pac-12 and reach the College Football Playoff.