30 college football players who could go from unknown to first-round pick in 2024

Every year, multiple players find themselves outside the NFL Draft conversation, but there's a reason they call 2025 mock drafts "way too early." There are dozens of players hoping to immensely raise their draft stock.

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6. Trevor Etienne, Jr., RB, Georgia Bulldogs

Many people are at least paying attention to Trevor Etienne Jr. He’s the brother of Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne, and he just transferred from Florida to Georgia, immediately inserting him into a National Champion contender. Etienne joins a legendary running back room, but he brings the type of dynamism that he brings to the offense.

Etienne does a little bit of everything. In two years at the University of Florida, Etienne rushed for 1,472 yards and 14 touchdowns, caught 30 passes for 238 yards, and he was their primary returner. At Georgia, he’s expected to be their primary running back, taking over a role behind an offensive line where he can truly thrive.

One underrated reason why Etienne could be overdrafted is the new kickoff rules in the NFL. With this completely different kickoff combination, we expect it to have a big impact on scoring. With that, we expect teams to target players who can specifically thrive under the new rules, so that could help teams ignore Etienne’s size issues. His main goal on the kickoff is to avoid hits entirely, while that is nearly impossible out of the backfield.

Beyond his size (he’s 5’9), Etienne also got into some legal trouble this offseason. He was arrested for DUI but pled guilty to lesser charges. He’s lucky it wasn’t worse, but teams have in the past ignored less serious charges, so this wouldn’t completely disqualify him from the first round.

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