2017 NFL Draft: Plug-and-Play Starters Who Can Be Found Outside of Round 1

We're less than two weeks from the 2017 NFL draft kicking off in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the league returning where it all started. Yes, the NFL draft is just people writing names on cards and reading those cards in front of television screens, but these decisions, for better or worse, will impact NFL teams for at least the next four years.

While most of the current focus nationally is which first-round prospect is visiting with which teams, there are more than just 32 or even 50 prospects in this draft class. A total of 256 will be drafted on draft week. With that in mind, we came up with eight players, who aren't in any first-round mocks, who should be early starters in their NFL careers.

We'll explain why they are overlooked and why they present such value to teams, despite the fact that in this particular draft class they aren't considered talented enough to step on stage and don the hat of the team in control of their first professional contract.

Brian Hill, RB, Wyoming

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Craig Bohl, who won three straight FCS national championships at North Dakota State, has a program building in Laramie, Wyoming. With of help of 2017 draft prospects in running back Brian Hill and interior offensive lineman Chase Roullier, not including potential future first-round pick quarterback Josh Allen, the Wyoming offense was able to lead the Cowboys to just their second eight-win season since 1998, the same year some of Bohl's players were born.

In three years with Wyoming, Hill recorded 4,287 rushing yards and 35 rushing touchdowns, with 22 of them coming last season. Had Hill returned to school, he would have been the nation's top returning back in terms of yards and touchdowns.

The 21-year-old, who won't turn 22 until the second week of November, has still flown under the draft radar, despite playing in about as close to a "pro-style offense" as you're going to see at the college level. The traditional mold of an every-down running back is a frame of at least 5'10" and 200 pounds, with at least a 40-yard dash time of under 4.60 seconds.

Of running backs at the combine with those measurables, Stanford's Christian McCaffrey, a projected first-round pick, per CBS Sports, had the best three-cone time. After his time, though, Hill is in second place. He's this year's Jordan Howard or David Johnson, the underrated athlete with all of the college production you could ask for that the NFL, or at least mock drafts and media scouts, haven't quite taken to.

George Kittle, TE, Iowa

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George Kittle isn't for everybody. He's just under 6'4" and weighed in at 247 pounds at the NFL combine. For teams that plan on starting a move tight end, one who plays as a wing player when attached to a formation, he could be a better fit than Miami's David Njoku or Mississippi's Evan Engram, who are projected to go rounds before him, per CBS Sports.

Kittle is one of the better run-blockers in the class, which bodes well not only for going after defenders at the point of attack, but blocking across the formation in that wing look, a strong trend for teams that run inside zone out of single-back shotgun formations. The NFL is starting to realize the struggles of running the ball in the shotgun, and wing tight ends help solve that problem.

The Iowa tight end is also a better-than-advertised pass threat. He ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash at the combine and a 7.00-second three-cone time at his pro day, according to NFL Draft Scout. He only caught 48 balls in his Hawkeyes career, but in the right NFL offense, he could record more receptions in a single season than he did in his college career.

Taylor Moton, OL, Western Michigan

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Since 2007, here is a list of all of the first-round offensive line prospects who had short shuttles of 4.58 seconds or less and three-cone times of 7.73 seconds or less:

• Eric Fisher
• Brandon Scherff
• Jake Matthews
• Jack Conklin
• Taylor Lewan
• Nate Solder
• Ja'Wuan James
• Anthony Castonzo
• David DeCastro
• Duane Brown
• Eric Wood
• Joe Staley

Even in the first round, those bodies are rare. Western Michigan's Taylor Moton hit those marks but still isn't being projected as a first-round pick, per CBS Sports. This draft isn't "weak" at the offensive tackle position, evaluators just don't have their eyes in the right places.

Moton played guard and right tackle for the Broncos, so it's understandable why teams didn't immediately have him on their radars, but he stood out in head-to-head battles with Ohio's Tarell Basham and Wisconsin's pass-rushing duo of T.J. Watt and Vince Biegel at the end of the season. Down at the Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Alabama, I said he was the most consistent tackle prospect of the bunch all week.

Moton will be a second-round pick who in two years will be as good or better than the likes of Wisconsin's Ryan Ramczyk, but whoever drafts him won't have to pay the premium for the tag of "Badger left tackle" or have to worry about recovery from a hip surgery.

Pat Elflein, IOL, Ohio State

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After not playing much in his first two years at Ohio State, Pat Elflein finished his career as a three-year starter, with two years at guard and his most recent at center.

At center, he won the Rimington Trophy for the best center in the game, one of the few high notes on a Buckeye season that was a struggle offensively after losing running back Ezekiel Elliott, left tackle Taylor Decker, receiver Michael Thomas, quarterback-turned-receiver Braxton Miller, tight end Nick Vannett and quarterback Cardale Jones in the first four rounds of the 2016 NFL draft.

Elflein was asked to do a lot more than most centers at Ohio State. He wasn't just sliding to the A-gap in pass protection or playing inside zone in the ground game. He was pulling and folding like he was Jason Kelce.

Most of his low lights were when he was asked to pull to the C-gap, going one-on-one with edge defenders, in pass protection off of play action to mimic the team's running game. Most teams aren't going to ask their centers to do that at the next level.

He's a finisher on the offensive line, and when former New York Jet Nick Mangold is still on the market, when 35-year-old Andrew Whitworth just signed a three-year, $33.75 million contract with the Los Angeles Rams, you have to think that NFL teams with a center need have their eye on someone in this draft class. That someone has to be Elflein, who could also play guard in a man-heavy blocking scheme. If he can pull and fold from center, he can do it from guard.

Jaleel Johnson, DL, Iowa

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This defensive line class is bad. Last year, there were five defensive linemen over 290 pounds who were drafted in the first round in DeForest Buckner, Sheldon Rankins, Kenny Clark, Robert Nkemdiche and Vernon Butler. This year, there may only be one in Michigan State's Malik McDowell, and that's only if teams can get over the former super recruit and current NFL draft invitee's effort questions.

If you dig a little deeper, though, you'll find a diamond in Iowa City playing for the Hawkeyes. Jaleel Johnson led his team in sacks this past year, the first for a defensive tackle since Mike Daniels, who was overlooked as an "undersized" player, landed with the Green Bay Packers as a fourth-round pick and is playing at a near Pro Bowl level for a 3-technique.

Johnson doesn't have a true position, which is making his projection a bit hard. He's not really an explosive 3-technique, but he's not really a body-eating nose tackle, either. He didn't test well at the combine, but that hasn't stopped prospects in the past.

If Johnson plays somewhere that has Carolina's mold on defense, where their value in defensive tackles is that they can play on either side of a guard on any given play, he could quickly become a star, on the same track as the Panthers duo of Kawann Short and Star Lotulelei.

Derek Rivers, EDGE, Youngstown State

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Derek Rivers is Youngstown State's career sack leader. At the Senior Bowl, I didn't think another pass-rusher had a more consistent week than him, unless you count Temple's Haason Reddick who will likely play off the ball in the NFL.

He has the lower body athleticism of a future double-digit sack player. Of the 37 pass-rushers drafted in the second round from 2005 to 2015, only four, LaMarr Woodley, Connor Barwin, Carlos Dunlap and Paul Kruger, ever recorded a double-digit sack season. Pass-rushers come off the board as fast as quarterbacks, and they never see the open market. That's why whoever lands Rivers on Day 2 of the draft will have a massive steal.

In the last dozen drafts, only six college pass-rushers were drafted in the top 100 with Rivers' 40-yard dash time (4.61 second) and three-cone time (6.94 seconds) or better while weighing over 245 pounds:

• Von Miller
• Vic Beasley
• Anthony Barr
• DeMarcus Ware
• Connor Barwin
• Cliff Avril

Those six players combine for 18 double-digit sack seasons, with Barr, who plays off-the-ball linebacker after "slipping" to the Minnesota Vikings, being the only player without a sack total that high. Miller, Ware, Barwin and Avril have all posted multiple double-digit sack seasons, while Beasley led the NFL in sacks in his second year in the NFL.

Rivers is a year or two away from being one of the NFL's premier pass-rushers, but the school he went to will influence a front office's decision more than it should. He was his school's all-time sack leader. He did well against FBS competition both in-season and in his all-star game looks. He blew up the combine. There isn't a gauntlet left for the FCS prospect to dominate to show that he should be a team's top pass-rusher. 

Raekwon McMillan, LB, Ohio State

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In three years at Ohio State, Raekwon McMillan recorded 275 total tackles, 18 tackles for a loss, six sacks and 10 pass deflections for the Buckeyes. Until mid-November, McMillan will still just be a 20-year-old. Somehow, he's out of sight and out of mind in this deep linebacker class.

There are more storylines around the off-the-ball linebacker position, a non-premier position, in 2017 than one can remember in recent draft classes. Reuben Foster of Alabama was a projected top-five pick in January but didn't play at the Senior Bowl, hasn't been able to workout with a shoulder issue and was sent home from the combine after arguing with a hospital worker, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

On the other hand, Haason Reddick of Temple, a former walk-on defensive back and All-AAC defensive end, started his off-the-ball transition during Senior Bowl week, which was a hit. There's also T.J. Watt of Wisconsin, J.J.'s younger brother, and Tyus Bowser of Houston, who no one is certain if they would be every-down pass-rushers in the NFL.

Add Vanderbilt's Zach Cunningham and Jarrad Davis from Florida, who is making a late surge up media boards, and you get the world we live in where McMillan, who has no major flaw in his game, isn't even getting burn on draft-specific websites.

If McMillan falls to the 40s or 50s later this month, everyone will be looking back at how a flawless 20-year-old with production from a football factory slid under everyone's noses.

Budda Baker, DB, Washington

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Budda Baker is 5'10". That is the start of every single one of his scouting reports. Defensive back is a position of size and speed, as it's the only reactionary space position in the sport. The density of Pro Bowlers coming from the first round and density of the top athletes at the position going in the first round isn't a coincidence.

Baker isn't going to be an outside cornerback. That's not part of the deal with shorter defenders who have never played outside in their college careers. He played as an overhang player last year after playing as a single-high player for the majority of the two years beforehand.

He could be a strong safety, a free safety or a nickel cornerback. That's what makes him such a great candidate to start early, even if the defensive back position is probably the highest jump from college to the NFL, other than quarterback and maybe the offensive line. Baker recorded 9.5 tackles for a loss last season, and his contribution in the run game should make him a solid overhang option in the NFL, despite his size.

In the passing game, you're measured by your athleticism. Baker's 4.45-second 40-yard dash and 6.76-second three-cone are going to make him a problem for NFL teams. In the last decade, only eight defensive backs have posted better numbers than that and were drafted in the first round:

• Patrick Peterson
• Stephon Gilmore
• Darrelle Revis
• Leon Hall
• Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
• Desmond Trufant
• Jason Verrett
• Bradley Roby

Every single one of those players was a hit. In the second round, the number drops to three defensive backs:

• Eric Rowe
• David Amerson
• Terrence Wheatley

The chances are, Baker is going to be a Pro Bowler at some point in his career based on those who he's lumped in with athletically. He'll be a second-round pick and a two-contract starter, despite his size and ambiguous positional projection.