NFL Hot Press: Other Schools Watchlist Info

*Walt taking 2014 and 2018

Charlie Campbell, Senior Draft Analyst Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell for updates. Led all NFL media in draft rumor accuracy in '15, '16, '17, '18, and '20 Led all NFL media in correct picks for the 2017 and 2019 NFL Drafts 2021 NFL MOCK DRAFT - WALT'S | CHARLIE'S ROUND: 1

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Other Schools Watchlist Info

Updated Aug. 7, 2018
By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell.

In keeping with a series looking ahead to 2019, I caught up with scouts who have done advance work on the 2019 class. While the majority of NFL scouting departments are meeting in the month of April to finish their draft boards ahead of the impending NFL Draft, some team scouts are on the road traveling to college campuses to start work on the draft that is a year away. These scouts share their player ratings with scouting services like National and Blesto. Almost every team in the NFL is either a member in National or Blesto, with more teams a part of National. In May, the Blesto teams, including the Bills, Giants, and Steelers, met in Florida to go over 2019 NFL Draft prospects. In continuing the series, this week’s topic is how other top schools stack up with NFL prospects this year. Recently, we disclosed that Ohio State had the most players graded out as having early-round potential – nine – on team’s preseason watch lists.

While the Buckeyes lead the way with nine players viewed as having early-round potential entering the 2018 season, a few other universities are close to the Buckeyes. The school that came just a hair from tying Ohio State was Clemson, which had eight players on the preseason watch list. The Tigers were all alone in second place. There was a large tie for second place with Alabama, Notre Dame and Washington having seven prospects.

There were some other interesting totals on the watch list. Another sign of parity in college football was Kentucky having five prospects and Missouri having four prospects to lead the SEC East, with Florida only having two players. A depressing sign for local recruiting in the power house state, Florida, Florida State and Miami combined for only six players.

Here is a tally of some of the schools of note and the amount of prospects who made the preseason watch list circulated among NFL teams.

Clemson – 8
Notre Dame – 7
Alabama – 7
Washington – 7
Kentucky – 5

Missouri – 4
Mississippi State – 4
USC – 4
Oklahoma – 4
Wisconsin – 4

Auburn – 3
Boston College – 3
N.C. State – 3
Northwestern – 3
Texas – 3

Florida – 2
Florida State – 2
Miami – 2
Michigan – 2