2017 NFL Draft: Biggest winners and losers of Bowl Season

With the national championship approaching, there were a handful of NFL draft prospects who helped or hurt their stock during their respective bowl games.

There is officially only one bowl game remaining, and it’ll be a thrilling matchup between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

NFL draft scouts were likely present at all 40 other bowl games, especially the ones that featured some of the biggest names in college football. For some players, their draft stock was boosted in a big way with some dominant bowl game performances, but others struggled or were injured and potentially cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For those of you who weren’t able to catch all of the bowl games this year, let’s take a look at the prospects who were the biggest winners and losers during bowl season.

Winner: Budda Baker, S, Washington

The Washington Huskies may have lost to Alabama in the Peach Bowl, but that doesn’t mean that some of their players had bad games. In fact, some of Washington’s bigger names stood out in the loss, including safety Budda Baker.

Baker was all over the field for the Huskies, consistently making plays in coverage or against the run. He finished the Peach Bowl with six total tackles, a sack and a pass breakup, but his impact was felt beyond the box score.

Scouts have been concerned about Baker’s size at the safety position, coming in at just 5-foot-10 and 192 pounds. Despite his smaller than ideal frame, Baker showed the type of fearlessness and aggressiveness against Alabama that NFL teams are looking for in a safety prospect.

The star Huskies safety is instinctive and fast enough to cover the whole field while also being an aggressive tackler. While he had already solidified himself as a Day 2 prospect heading into the Playoff, this game against Alabama has convinced me that he’ll likely go early in the second round or possibly even sneak into the first.