Stanford Football: Can Bryce Love be a top 3 pick like Saquon Barkley?
What are the chances that Stanford football has a top three selection in the 2019 NFL Draft? Bryce Love could end up as that guy.
Stanford football is churning out a bunch of talent for the 2018 and 2019 NFL Drafts, but the best of that could be coming in the form of one Heisman contender running back from Wake Forest, NC. Rising senior rusher Bryce Love could be the best offensive player in the nation entering the 2018 campaign. He’ll also be a top prospect for the 2019 NFL Draft.
As long as the health holds up for Love, he’ll be one of the top running backs in the 2019 class. It’s a thin class at this moment, and Love could easily slide up to the top. That could also make him a prospect of similar stature to Penn State Nittany Lions product Saquon Barkley, who was the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft to the New York Giants.
The need for running backs is not as great as it once was in the NFL Draft. Seeing someone like Barkley taken off the board so early is very rare now. It takes a talent like that of Barkley of former Ohio State Buckeyes and current Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, to be selected even in the top 5 let alone at No. 2.
Few people would question the skill at the disposal of Love. He finished second in the Heisman voting last year to only that of Oklahoma Sooners quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield. Love enters the 2018 season as the likely overwhelming Heisman favorite too.
It’s only a matter of time before we start to see how the 2019 NFL Draft class will shake out altogether. Most of the top prospects for that class at this moment play on the defensive side of the ball. A potential 2,000 yard rusher for the second straight season like Love is hard to turn away for whatever teams are selecting in the top three with a need to fill in the backfield.
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At this point, it does not look like Love is going to be of a similar level of hype to that of Barkley. Since Barkley is a bigger threat in the passing game and on special teams, he holds an edge over Love. However, Love did have a better rushing stat line in 2017 than Barkley, and a team selecting early in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft could take notice of that.