Bednarik Award Watch List 2014: Full List Released

The Maxwell Football Club has officially announced the college football stars who've earned consideration on the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award. 

The Bednarik Award has been given to the best defensive player dating back to 1995. Notable past winners include Charles Woodson, LaVar Arrington, Julius Peppers, Ndamukong Suh, Manti Te'o and Patrick Peterson.

The honor isn't a guarantee of pro success, but most of those players have gone on to have productive NFL careers, while Te'o and last year's winner, Aaron Donald, look primed for strong 2014 seasons.

This year's watch list features plenty of defensive standouts who will likely hear their name called on draft day very soon.

Here's a look at the full 2014 Bednarik watch list.

Player	Pos.	School	Player	Pos.	School
Henry Anderson	DE	Stanford	Myles Jack	LB	UCLA
Stephone Anthony	LB	Clemson	Grady Jarrett	DT	Clemson
Vic Beasley	DE	Clemson	Jordan Jenkins	LB	Georgia
Michael Bennett	DT	Ohio State	A.J. Johnson	LB	Tennessee
Joey Bosa	DE	Ohio State	Karl Joseph	S	West Virginia
Kelby Brown	LB	Duke	Eric Kendricks	LB	UCLA
Malcom Brown	DT	Texas	Hau'oli Kikaha	LB	Washington
Shilique Calhoun	DE	Michigan State	Jordan Lucas	CB	Penn State
Alex Carter	CB	Stanford	Luther Maddy	DT	Virginia Tech
Sam Carter	S	TCU	Tyler Matakevich	LB	Temple
Jeremy Cash	S	Duke	Lorenzo Mauldin	LB	Louisvile
Frank Clark	DE	Michigan	Benardrick McKinney	LB	Mississippi State
Landon Collins	S	Alabama	Ryan Mueller	DE	Kansas State
Christian Covington	DT	Rice	Shawn Oakman	DE	Baylor
Su'a Cravens	S	USC	Norkeithus Otis	DE	North Carolina
Carl Davis	DT	Iowa	Denzel Perryman	LB	Miami
Trey DePriest	LB	Alabama	Terrance Plummer	LB	UCF
Quandre Diggs	CB	Texas	Cody Prewitt	S	Ole Miss
Lorenzo Doss	CB	Tulane	Hayes Pullard	LB	USC
Kurtis Drummond	S	Michigan State	Cedric Reed	DE	Texas
Alvin Dupree	DE	Kentucky	Jordan Richards	S	Stanford
Mario Edwards	DE	Florida State	A'Shawn Robinson	DE	Alabama
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu	CB	Oregon	James Rouse	DT	Marshall
Kyler Fackrell	LB	Utah State	KeiVarae Russell	CB	Notre Dame
Devonte Fields	DE	TCU	Jake Ryan	LB	Michigan
Trey Flowers	DE	Arkansas	Frank Shannon	LB	Oklahoma
Leonard Floyd	LB	Georgia	Danny Shelton	DT	Washington
Dante Fowler	DE	Florida	Derron Smith	S	Fresno State
Kendall Fuller	CB	Virginia Tech	Jaylon Smith	LB	Notre Dame
Markus Golden	DE	Missouri	Eric Striker	LB	Oklahoma
Randy Gregory	DE	Nebraska	Charles Tapper	DE	Oklahoma
Bryce Hager	LB	Baylor	A.J. Tarpley	LB	Stanford
Vernon Hargreaves III	CB	Florida	Robenson Therezie	S	Auburn
Eli Harold	DE	Virginia	Shaq Thompson	LB	Washington
Anthony Harris	S	Virginia	Trae Waynes	CB	Michigan State
Ben Heeney	LB	Kansas	Leonard Williams	DE	USC
Chucky Hunter	DT	TCU	P.J. Williams	CB	Florida State
Martin Ifedi	DE	Memphis	Ramik Wilson	LB	Georgia

Stars to Watch

Leonard Williams, DL, USC

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Leonard Williams was one of the best defensive linemen in the country last year, and he wasn't even 100 percent. In fact, he may have been closer to "65 to 70 percent" in 2013, according to Rahshaun Haylock of FoxSportsWest.com after surgery for a torn labrum.

"I'm just expecting to just be a lot better than I was last year," Williams said. "My last season was a lot better than my freshman season so I just want to gradually continue to get better."

The USC junior is equally capable of playing on the inside or outside of the defensive line. In his two years as a Trojan, he's compiled 13 sacks and 26 tackles for loss.

Vernon Hargreaves III, CB, Florida

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

It's always scary when a freshman establishes himself as the best at a certain position. You can only wonder where he might go from there.

Vernon Hargreaves III needed only one season to emerge as one of the best lockdown cornerbacks in the country. In his first year at Gainesville, he intercepted three passes and broke up another 11. Those 11 breakups tied Janoris Jenkins' school record for a freshman.

Teams may be a bit more wary of throwing Hargreaves' way, which could lead to a drop in production. His talent will never be in doubt, but if he doesn't have the numbers, Bednarik voters might not look his way, either.

Devonte Fields, DE, TCU

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Devonte Fields' freshman season couldn't have gone much better. He was named Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and earned a first-team selection on the All-Big 12 team.

It wasn't hard to see why Fields earned so many plaudits, as he racked up 10 sacks and 18.5 tackles for loss and forced two fumbles.

Injury derailed Fields' sophomore campaign, though, so the hype train has slowly idled into station for 2014.

NFL.com's Bryan Fischer believes that with a clean bill of health, the TCU star will get back to the player he was in 2012:

"

Whether you want to call it a breakout season or a comeback year, Fields is primed to return to form after a disappointing 2013 campaign. Injuries and a few off-the-field issues limited him, and he was barely present when he was on the field. He's had a good spring and looks to be even stronger than he was when he had a terrific freshman year. If he's 100 percent, he's a nightmare for opposing offenses.

"

The Horned Frogs should be a title contender in the Big 12, and Fields' performance will go a long way toward getting them near the top.

Myles Jack, LB, UCLA

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

Myles Jack may be considered a two-way player, but he's a much better linebacker than he is a running back.

UCLA head coach Jim Mora said that Jack will get touches in the backfield, but he sounded far from committed to the idea, per Pac-12 Networks:

The Bruins sophomore was named to Phil Steele's preseason All-American team, via ESPN.com, and the college football writer believes that Jack may be destined for New York:

"

Last year Jack became the first player in Pac-12 history to be named the conference's freshman of the year on both the offensive and defensive sides. His 75 tackles were the second-most by a UCLA true freshman in school history and on offense he scored seven rushing touchdowns. If he exceeds that type of production this year, he could be a dark horse candidate to get an invite to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

"

In a way, being a two-way player may benefit Jack in the Bednarik discussion, much Tyrann Mathieu's prolific punt returns helped him in 2011.

The more attention drawn to Jack's snaps on offense will invariably lead to more voters seeing him on defense and truly appreciating how great a player he is.

Vic Beasley, DE, Clemson

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Expectations were high for Vic Beasley last season, yet he somehow managed to exceed them, registering 13 sacks, 23 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and six defended passes.

The Clemson senior could've easily entered last year's draft and made a good account of himself. Bleacher Report's Matt Miller tweeted back in January that Beasley could've earned a first-round grade:

Instead, he returned to school for his senior season and enters 2014 as one of the premier pass-rushers in the country. The Tigers lost a ton of offensive talent last year, but with Beasley leading the defense, they may be all right after all.

The only potential snag for Beasley's Bednarik campaign may be that constant double teams will lead to a drop in stats.