Teams dig deep for nuggets
Leave no small school stone unturned in bid to unearth best talent
The second day of the NFL draft once again helped prove the age-old truism that if a college football player has talent, the NFL will find him. That particularly applied to safeties this year.
New England selected Kyle Dugger with the fifth pick in the second round Friday, No. 37 overall. The Carolina Panthers followed by grabbing Jeremy Chinn with the final pick of the round.
Chinn played at Football Championship Subdivision power Southern Illinois, while the Patriots dug even deeper to find Dugger at Division II Lenoir-rhyne.
Of course, the football factories were also well represented.
Louisiana State tied a record with 10 players selected in the first three rounds of the draft. Alabama wasn’t too far behind with nine.
Of the 106 players drafted thus far, 30 are from LSU, Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State.
A total of 40 players from the Southeastern Conference were picked in the first three rounds, tying the most picks from one conference through four rounds. That record should be shattered on Saturday.
Dugger went from having no Football Bowl Subdivision or FCS scholarship offers to being an early second-round pick. He did so by going to a school that had never had a player picked in the top 150. He developed his game to a point where he won Division II defensive player of the year despite playing just seven games because of a wrist injury.
“Division II football, it definitely made me different,” he said on a conference call after he was selected
Friday. “The program wasn’t made to produce NFL players, so a lot of the things — if I wanted to get better, I would have to take it into my own hands as far as my work ethic, the way I approached myself, how I looked at myself on film, how I critiqued myself.”
He’ll fit right in with the Patriots. The last Lenoir-rhyne player to be drafted was defensive end John Milem, who went No. 150 to the 49ers in 2000.
Southern Illinois has a bit more of a history in the draft, including a pair of first-round picks. Still, Chinn is more than willing to play the underdog card.
“Going from zero stars and zero FBS offers to somebody trading up to draft me in the second round is definitely a dream come true,” he said on a conference call. “I’m just someone who is going to be around the football. Wherever it is I’m going to be there. I can run with anyone.”
He may have come from a smaller school, but he has ties to the NFL. His uncle is former star safety Steve Atwater.
Small school running back Darrynton Evans, a running back from Appalachian State, also has an NFL connection. He attended the same high school in Oak Hill, Florida, as 49ers running back Raheem Mostert.
Tight end Adam Trautman was picked 105th overall by the Saints near the end of the third round, becoming the first Dayton player selected in the draft since 1977.
Many of the players chosen Friday will now be playing against each other at the next level, but the draft also sometimes makes for random and unexpected connections.
Defensive end A.J. Epenesa, a standout at Iowa, was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the second round.
His first career collegiate sack came against Wyoming’s Josh Allen, who is now Buffalo’s starting quarterback.
Allen took to Twitter to joke he was only trying to make Epenesa attractive to NFL scouts.
“I was playing the long game, wanted him to be a Bill,” Allen posted.
All of the drafted players, whether from a top program or an obscure one, will have to prepare for their rookie year under unusual circumstances with offseason programs done virtually if at all due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Lions shouldn’t have to worry about their second-round pick, running back D’andre Swift from Georgia, getting into shape.
His dad Darren, who runs a gym outside Philadelphia, may have been the most jacked athlete to appear on screen all night.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @ Adamhilllvrj on Twitter.