Decision day for college underclassmen … The deadline for underclassmen to file paperwork with the NFL in order to be eligible to enter the 2022 draft comes up at 4 PM ET on Monday afternoon. The fact is, though, all the top names have already declared their intentions for this year’s draft, although the number who have declared is way down from last year. Indeed, by our unofficial count 94 juniors and/or redshirt sophomores have already applied to the league for this year’s draft, whereas at this time last year the number was 130, although, of course the fact that the NCAA granted every player an extra year of eligibility because of Covid probably played a role in some player’s decisions. Then once tomorrow’s deadline passes, those underclassmen who did apply will have a 72-hour window of opportunity to withdraw their applications as long as they haven’t signed with an agent or received any improper benefits. Finally, once that period ends, the NFL will release an official list of underclassmen eligible for this year’s draft. And there are always a number of players on the list not previously known as there is no requirement that players applying for early admission actually make an announcement. As well, most of those new names tend to be very much fringe prospects without much hope of actually being drafted.
