NFL Draft: Who can be the next Zach Wilson for BYU Football?

While BYU Football fans can’t expect a second overall NFL Draft pick anytime soon, there are quite a few players who could hear their names called early in the next few NFL Drafts.

Zach Wilson was the highest ever NFL Draft pick for BYU Football. Let’s not pretend that we can expect this to happen every year, or even every ten years. That is a problem us fans have sometimes. We expect things to always get better. Already, I’ve heard fans say that BYU needs to have three draft picks next season or else 2020 was a “fluke”.

Let’s calm down a bit.

2020 was a historic season in every aspect for BYU Football. While it is right to expect improvement, it isn’t right to expect every season to be just as special, unless your name is the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, Alabama Crimson Tide or Lone Peak High School. That doesn’t mean we can’t hope for an upward trajectory, just not year to year perfection.

Improvement is sort of like the stock market. A stock will spike before falling back down again. The hope is that a spike is high and strong enough that it lifts the overall stock even after it starts to fall again. BYU Football is the same way. 2020 was a spike. The hope is that once things level out again, BYU will go from a consistent 6-8 win team, to a consistent 8-10 win team.

The same can be said about BYU players drafted or signed to the NFL. Nine out of the 15 players who walked on Senior Night are now on NFL rosters. That is a spike higher than what we saw Dogecoin do this past week. It was capped by Zach Wilson going No. 2 overall. Can this be matched next year? VERY UNLIKELY. Can BYU have an upward trajectory going forward in relation to the draft? ABSOLUTELY.

This brings up the question of who? Who could be the next Zach Wilson? Not in the sense of going No. 2 overall, but in the sense of raising their draft stock to the point of being a first rounder. The good news is, there are quite a few.