Miami Football: Top 3 prospects for 2022 NFL Draft
After having four players selected in the 2021 NFL draft, who are some of Miami football’s top prospects for next year?
Miami football had a successful 2020 season, going 8-3 and being ranked in the top-10 for much of the season, despite some ugly losses to Clemson and North Carolina.
Miami had five players exit early to the 2021 NFL draft and four of those five guys got drafted with Jaelan Phillips and Greg Rousseau going in the first round, Brevin Jordan in the fifth round, and Quincy Roche in the sixth round.
The Hurricanes return an abundance of experience and talent to their team in 2021 and that should mean that they have another good crop of prospects that could be drafted early next year.
Miami football was one of the teams that benefitted the most from the new NCAA “super seniors” rule, where a free year of eligibility was granted to anyone that decided to play during the pandemic last season.
D’Eriq King returns for his sixth season as a collegiate quarterback and one of the reasons for that is to show that he can be a pocket passer at the next level, which is something that has been questioned about King.
Other guys that made the decision to return include wide receiver Mike Harley Jr, safety Bubba Bolden and offensive tackle Jarrid Williams.
Those guys did not receive a high enough draft grade to consider coming out last season and they are hoping that another season in Coral Gables will raise their draft stock. The Hurricanes have big hopes for a big season in 2021 and if that happens, that should raise the draft stock of several players on the roster.
Here are who I think will be Miami’s top three prospects for the 2022 NFL draft.
3. Mike Harley Jr
One of Miami’s weakest positions last season was at wide receiver. Miami lacked a true threat to win those 50/50 balls and highly touted recruits Dee Wiggins and Mark Pope have had trouble with drops so far in their career.
One guy that started to emerge as the season went on was Mike Harley Jr. Harley became D’Eriq Kings go-to receiver and was a nice deep threat. Harley finished the season with 57 catches for nearly 800 yards and he is looking to build off of those numbers and have a monster senior season.
Harley will have to compete with new transfer receiver Charleston Rambo for catches, but Harley is the leader of the receiver room and I think that he can grow and be a bigger threat than he was last season. Right now I think Harley projects as a fifth or sixth-round pick, but with a big season, Harley could sneak into round two or three.