Clemson and Oklahoma are two of the powerhouses in college football. Clemson has dominated the ACC for the last half decade, winning two national championships and five straight ACC titles during that stretch, while Oklahoma has won five straight Big 12 titles. Each program has sent dozens of players to the NFL over the last decade, and both Clemson and Oklahoma will have at least one first round pick in two weeks. Which school will have more? Well, that’s something you can bet on at BookMaker.
Clemson +127
Oklahoma -160
Both Clemson and Oklahoma have at least one surefire first round pick. For the Tigers, that player is linebacker Isaiah Simmons. Simmons is a lock to be selected in the top ten, and he could be taken in the top five given what we saw from him at the NFL Combine. He checked in at 6’4 and 238 pounds, and he blew everyone away by running a 4.39 40-yard dash.
Simmons is exactly the kind of linebacker teams want in the modern era of the NFL. He has the size to stop the run, and the speed to spy on quarterbacks and cover running backs in the flat or tight ends over the middle. Every mock draft shows Simmons as a lock to be taken in the first round.
The consensus is the same with CeeDee Lamb. In a draft class full of talented receivers, Lamb might be the best of the bunch. He isn’t a burner or a physical freak with a 4.5 40-yard dash and only 11 repetitions on the bench press, but he is an excellent route runner and phenomenal at separating himself from defensive backs. Lamb has one of the quickest 10-yard split times, and that ability to get open quickly will ensure he is a first-round pick.
In addition to those two first round prospects, Clemson and Oklahoma each have two additional players that could be selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. For the Tigers, wide receiver Tee Higgins and cornerback A.J. Terrell are both likely to be selected in either the late first round or in the first half of the second round.
Higgins would stand a better chance of being a first round pick if he wasn’t in the deepest wide receiver draft in recent memory. He has prototypical size and a superb catch radius, but his lack of top-end speed and average route running means that he could fall into the second round.
Terrell has the size and speed you want in a cornerback. At 6’1, he isn’t as likely to be bullied off the ball as smaller cornerbacks, but there are other reasons he might slip out of the first round. Terrell isn’t a great tackler, and he sometimes struggles to locate the ball on deep routes.
As for the Sooners, linebacker Kenneth Murray and defensive lineman Neville Gallimore could sneak into the first round despite the problems we’ve seen from Oklahoma’s defense over the years. Murray was OU’s best playmaker on defense in 2019, and his ability to consistently fill the right gap and make plays in the backfield would have probably led to him being a certain first round pick 10 years ago. However, his subpar cover skills and lack of top-end speed mean he is likely a second round selection.
Gallimore’s speed is what makes him a potential first round pick. The 300-pound defensive lineman ran a 4.79 40-yard dash in Indianapolis, and that had scouts double checking their stopwatches. He was seen as a mid-round pick before clocking that time, but it’s tough to see him sneaking into the first round. Speed is great, but interior linemen need strength more than anything else, and that’s something he needs to work on at the next level.
I love Clemson to have more first round picks than Oklahoma. The Tigers should be favored over the Sooners in this proposition, as Higgins and Terrell both have a better chance of being first round picks than Murray and Gallimore. Terrell is the most likely first round pick of the four due to his size as a cornerback, making Clemson a sharp play.
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