Gophers football: ‘Our deepest (NFL) draft class’ could be on the roster in 2024 – InForum

The Gophers football program had five players selected in the 2020 NFL draft, the school’s most picks in the modern era.

But Minnesota has the potential to break that record next spring, according to head coach P.J. Fleck, who said earlier this week that “this could be our deepest draft class.”

Fans don’t have to take Fleck’s word for it alone.

The 2024 NFL season just started this past weekend, so it’s tough to predict what every college program’s draft class will look like come April, but there’s one good place to see how talented each program’s pool of prospects could become. The Senior Bowl, the premier postseason college all-star game, featured just 19 teams nationwide with 11 or more players on the preseason watch list. Minnesota was one of them.

For comparison, Minnesota had 11 total players on Senior Bowl watch lists in 2022-23. Two of them were repeat prospects, and the U. finished with a total of four draft picks over the past two years.

But the Senior Bowl watch list has more than doubled since the U.S. drafted five players to the NFL in 2020. This year’s watch list has expanded from 720 prospects last year to 859 this year, growth attributed to the NFL changing its eligibility rules to allow draft-eligible underclassmen to participate in the all-star games. For reference, only 374 players were named to the 2019 watch list.

Topping Minnesota’s Senior Bowl watch list for next year’s draft is left tackle Aireontae Ersery, who has garnered a lot of attention as a potential first-round draft pick, followed by defensive end Jah Joyner, who has garnered more attention in fall camp. Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy had high hopes for U quarterback and watch list member Max Brosmer, according to an NFL.com article in August.

The eight other players on the U’s roster are receiver Daniel Jackson, cornerback Justin Walley, kicker Dragan Kesich, running back Marcus Major, defensive linemen Jalen Logan-Redding and Danny Striggow, and offensive linemen Quinn Carroll and Tyler Cooper.

“But nobody’s sitting there talking about one superstar, and that one superstar isn’t making all the plays,” Fleck said. “It’s a collective distribution of talent that people have a responsibility to do and a job to do. Everybody’s excited to do that for each other.”

When the Gophers drafted five players in the 2020 draft — the most since selecting five in the 12-round draft in 1990 — it followed an 11-2 season in 2019. Those five draft picks played a huge role in the U’s banner season — safety Antoine Winfield Jr., receiver Tyler Johnson, defensive end Carter Coughlin, linebacker Kamal Martin and cornerback Chris Williamson.

At 1-1 this season, Minnesota will need to exceed expectations of 5.5 preseason wins amid a tough schedule to match that dream season in 2019. The U.S. can build on last week’s 48-0 win over Rhode Island and play Nevada (1-2) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Heading into Week 1 of the NFL season, the Gophers had 18 former players on their 53-man NFL roster, including last year’s lone pick, safety Tyler Nubin of the New York Giants.

Here’s the Gophers’ nine-game Big Ten schedule, followed by the number of players on each opponent’s Senior Bowl roster for the 2025 NFL draft:

September 21 — Iowa (8)
September 28 — Michigan (14)
Oct 5 — USC (11)
October 12 — UCLA (10)
Oct 26 — Maryland (6)
November 2 — Illinois (4)
November 9 — Rutgers (6)
November 23 — Penn State (13)
November 29 — Wisconsin (13)