The 2021 NFL regular season is in the books. We’ve still got a great postseason stretch to look forward to, and we’ll of course be bringing you free picks on the side and total of every game. This time of year is always a bit sad as things wind down, but fortunately this year’s offseason should still bring plenty of excitement.
As soon as the Super Bowl is over, the combine, free agency and the draft will be right around the corner. With that in mind, we thought we’d take an early look at the 2022 NFL Draft. There will be plenty of betting opportunities when the draft rolls around, and we’ll definitely have tons of draft prop bet content, but right now let’s just talk about some prospects. Here are five guys to keep an eye on as the process heats up, with a couple big names and a couple of sleepers:
1. QB Matt Corral – Ole Miss Rebels
Let’s start things off with a quarterback. It’s certainly not the best, but this is one of the most interesting quarterback classes in years. What makes it so interesting is that none of the passers seem like sure things, and there’s plenty of disagreement about how they should be ranked. Usually, there’s a clear top one or two signal-callers. But for the 2022 NFL Draft, nobody has any idea how the QB pecking order is going to shakeout. Corral, Sam Howell (UNC), Kenny Pickett (Pitt), Malik Willis (Liberty), Desmond Ridder (Cincinnati) and Carson Strong (Nevada) seem to be the clear top six.
But they’re all kind of just jumbled together, and at this point there’s zero certainty about in which order they go. To me, Corral is the most intriguing. Corral has led a dynamic passing attack at Ole Miss the last couple of years, but how much of that was just due to playing in Lane Kiffin’s system? I see a lot of variance here, which is why I can’t wait to see how his pre-draft process plays out. Corral also just suffered a potentially significant ankle injury in the Sugar Bowl, adding another complicated wrinkle. There’s going to be a lot to monitor here.