When we media yahoos talk about “sleepers” in any draft class, it’s true what NFL teams will tell you — it’s generally a case of the media simply catching up to what those teams have known about those prospects for months. Perception versus reality means that what we’re really talking about are prospects we’re just getting around to after the top-tier players at every position.
So, maybe it’s better to say for the purposes of this exercise that the prospects you see here are the ones whose tape stands out beyond the recognition they’ve gotten. With days to hours left until the 2022 draft, these players are the ones you may not have heard of, or have experienced in passing but haven’t watched, or have watched and wondered where they might be drafted.
Any of these guys going in the first round would be a longshot, but they each have remarkable attributes that show their professional potential, and could seal their NFL futures.