The 2021 NFL Draft gave us a group of players that haven’t really existed in the NFL before: multiple first round picks that didn’t play their final season of college football.
Due to the pandemic that seems to be never-ending, players were allowed to opt out of the season with no penalty or real scrutiny, paving the way for highly touted draft prospects to begin preparing for the NFL a year early.
Six players that opted out of the 2020 college footballs season were selected in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft. Their acclimation and adjustment to the NFL will be fascinating to track this year as they jump right into professional action after a year away from the game.
Here’s how a few of these guys have performed up to this point in the preseason.
(Cornerback Caleb Farley, who was drafted by the Titans in the first round, didn’t get a blurb because he just got his first action of training camp in Week 2.)