The NFL playoffs continue this weekend for eight NFL teams still competing for a chance to hold the Lombardi Trophy above their heads, but the path to the draft is also fully underway for college football’s top draft prospects and NFL franchises looking to add quality additions to their rosters in 2024 and beyond. This could be a pretty big draft year for Penn State with multiple players receiving first-round hype. A new mock draft from one NFL draft expert sees two of Penn State’s top draft prospects going in the first round in April.
Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network shared his first mock draft for the 2024 NFL draft on Friday, and it included Penn State offensive lineman [autotag]Olu Fashanu[/autotag] and defensive end [autotag]Chop Robinson[/autotag]. Neither player being placed in the first round of this mock draft is surprising given the draft hype for each this draft cycle. Where Jeremiah has each placed may be interesting to note, however.
Jeremiah has Fashanu slotted to go with the no. 13 pick to the Las Vegas Raiders. Fashanu has widely been considered a top-10 caliber player, and many mock drafts believe he will go within the first 10 picks. But Jeremiah currently sees Fashanu being the third offensive tackle off the board, and not the first. While many draft analysts have considered Fashanu the top offensive lineman in the draft pool, Jeremiah has him being the third offensive tackle off the board with Notre Dame‘s Joe Alt going no. 7 to the Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets selecting Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga at no. 10 overall.
“Teams are split on Fashanu,” Jeremiah noted in his summary of Fashanu. “After a dominant 2022 season, he took a step back in 2023. But the talent is still immense.”
Jeremiah has Robinson going to the Houston Texans with the no. 23 pick. That would be a great addition for the upstart Texans, who would get to add Robinson to the defensive line on a defense that was already led by the no. 3 overall pick in last year’s draft, linebacker Will Anderson Jr. from Alabama.
The Texans currently have the no. 23 pick from the Cleveland Browns, so that pick is locked into place no matter what the Texans do in the remainder of the NFL playoffs after their wild-card victory last weekend (ironically, against the Browns).
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