2021 G5 NFL Prospects

Coming off a record-breaking year in which the Group of Five placed eight teams in the final AP Ranking, we look ahead to the April 29, 2021 NFL Draft.

To prepare for the draft, we at G5 Gurus have analyzed the draft rankings from six of the major prospect ranking sites/services. These sites include The Draft Network, CBS Sports (Top 150 prospects), Pro Football Network, Walter Football, Draftek, and Draft Lord.

In order for a player to be in our final analysis list they had to be ranked among the top 350 prospects in one of the services. In addition, if we were aware of a player already committing to another year of college football, we did not include them in the list.

Our analysis yielded a list of 108 players. The AAC had the clear lead with 35 of the 108 players on the list (32%). They were followed, in order, by the MWC (18), CUSA (16), MAC (15), SBC (14), and Independents (10).

BYU and Central Florida both have 8 players on the list. Cincinnati, Houston, and Memphis each placed 5 on the list. Buffalo, San Diego State, and San Jose State each had 4. In all, 45 of the 65 G5 teams had at least one player on the prospect list.

Only 5 players were ranked in all services. This isn’t a surprise as the ranking services vary in how many players they rank either overall, or by position. The four players appearing in all sites were Zach Wilson (QB – BYU), Kenneth Gainwell (RB – Memphis), Damonte Coxie (WR – Memphis), Jordan Smith (Edge-OLB – UAB), and Zaven Collins (OLB – Tulsa). 20 additional players appeared in 5 of the 6 services. 15 appeared in 4 of the services. In total, 39 of the players in the list had an average overall draft grade equal to or less than 254 (the number of players selected in the draft). 23 players had an average position ranking in the top 15 of their prospective position group.

Note, Walter Football and Draftek rank players at multiple positions. When this is done, we include all the rankings provided by the respective sites (separated by a “-“).

In summary, we believe the G5 will have somewhere between 30-35 players selected in the draft, with many more being picked up as free agents.The table below provides a comprehensive view of the 108 players that met the criteria for inclusion. The table is sortable, but be aware, due to the multiple rankings for Walter Football and Draftek, sorts on their position rank may not yield expected results.

The initial sort order of the table is by position and average rank within position.