With only two players taken in the NFL Draft, Tennessee football’s 2020 class has lots to prove. Here are other small but productive Volunteers classes.
Hey, they had more players taken than four other Tennessee football NFL Draft classes in the 2010s, including 2019, when they had nobody taken. But the Vols still had a smaller than usual draft class for 2020 with only two players taken.
Darrell Taylor to the Seattle Seahawks in the second round and Jauan Jennings to the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round give Rocky Top a great chance at solid NFL productivity going forward. Both are in good situations.
Dominick Wood-Anderson signing with the Seahawks, Marquez Callaway signing with the New Orleans Saints and Nigel Warrior signing with the Baltimore Ravens all as undrafted free agents only increase that likelihood. Daniel Bituli is also likely to sign with somebody once he cleans up his medical issue.
So when it’s all said and done, Tennessee football is likely to have six guys with legitimate shots at making NFL rosters despite only two people taken in the NFL Draft. As a result, despite a light draft class, they could be loaded in productivity.
That wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened. UT has plenty of draft classes as small as this one or even smaller that ended up having lots of pro productivity. In this post, we’re going to rank those classes.
The classes will be judged on the level of success players from it had at the next level, whether or not they were drafted. However, no more than two former Vols can be selected in a draft for the class to qualify. Again, this is a specific look at classes that were light on draft picks but pretty heavy on production.
So let’s go ahead and break down which years Vol fans are expecting this year to most emulate. These are Tennessee football’s five most productive NFL Draft classes that had two or fewer people actually selected.