A pair of Syracuse football players (Alton Robinson, Kendall Coleman) appeared in a prominent mock draft on Monday. Here are the details.
With Super Bowl 54 officially behind us, it’s now NFL draft season!
This means the attention now turns to a pair of former Syracuse football studs in Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman.
So far so good, we’ll start with Coleman who was up to bat at the annual East-West Shrine Game a few weeks back.
Kendall dominated in practice creating some palpable buzz among the NFL draft analysts and more importantly the NFL teams in attendance. If that wasn’t enough NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah labeled Coleman his “defensive MVP” of the week.
"“Coleman was the most consistent player all week. His dip-move is outstanding and no one here at the Shrine Bowl had an answer for it.”"
The following week his former running mate on the defense Alton Robinson got his opportunity to shine at the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Unfortunately unlike Coleman, Alton was wildly inconsistent during practice all week leading many scouts to question how he would translate to the pros.
Luckily we were just talking about practice as Allen Iverson once said. When we got to the actual Senior Bowl game, Alton showed his true colors.
He dominated in the game registering a pack of sacks and arguably could’ve had a third if he wasn’t held on a play. Robinson displayed an array of pass-rushing moves from ripping inside, to a bull rush, to a speed rush on the outside and it all proved effective.
On Monday Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller revealed his first full seven-round mock draft that featured 255 selections. Here’s where he pegged the two former Syracuse football stars.
In Matt Miller’s simulation, Alton Robinson ended up going in the backend of the fourth round as a compensatory selection of the Seattle Seahawks. Depending on which draft expert you speak with, Alton’s perceived draft stock varies.
At the Senior Bowl, most people suggested Alton was a “day two” selection which means he’d go in between the second and the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft. In this mock draft, he goes slightly later than that as an early “day three” pick.
Regardless it appears Robinson is destined to be the highest-drafted Syracuse football player since the 2014 NFL Draft when Jay Bromley (74th overall pick in the third round) and Marquis Spruill (168th overall pick in the fifth round).
Although Alton wasn’t the only former Syracuse player to hear his name called, Kendall Coleman also earned a spot in Matt Miller’s seven-round mock draft. Coleman ended up being taken near the beginning of the seventh round in this simulation.
This would also be the first time since 2014 that two former Syracuse football players got taken in the same draft.
In all of the simulations, Coleman has floated in this range going near the end of the 2020 NFL Draft.
There are two bits of good information to note here: firstly this is just one man’s opinion, so whether you like the placement or hate it is irrelevant.
The other slice of information is the draft isn’t tomorrow, it’s in late April. This means there’s plenty of time to change people’s opinions of your NFL draft stock with the NFL Scouting Combine in late February and Syracuse’s Pro Day which is expected in March.