Which BYU football players might be drafted in 2026? – Deseret News

Let’s face it, the 2025 NFL draft was a major disappointment for BYU’s football program.

For the first time since 2020, and second time since 2015, no former Cougar heard his name called in the Annual Player Selection Meeting.

That was quite surprising, considering that the Cougars went 11-2 in 2024, had one of the better senior classes in recent memory, and had a lot of outstanding performances at the Big 12’s Pro Days in Frisco, Texas, in March.

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On the bright side, the whiff in the draft is a testament to the coaching job Kalani Sitake and his staff did in 2024, taking a team with a relatively inexperienced starting quarterback in Jake Retzlaff and no real superstars to one of the best seasons in program history. As the Deseret News pointed out last November, the MVP of the BYU football team in 2024 was the team itself.

Togetherness and the culture of accountability propelled the group that wasn’t given the credit it deserved when the College Football Playoff bids were handed out, or in last weekend’s draft. BYU, which finished with a No. 13 national ranking in 2024, was one of six Power Four programs that didn’t have a player drafted, joining Duke, Wake Forest, Baylor, Houston and Mississippi State.

None of those other programs finished in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll. That doesn’t mean the Cougars are happy with how everything went down; Sitake has made putting players into the NFL a priority, and makes it a part of his recruiting pitch.

Rival schools will undoubtedly point out to recruits that no BYU players were taken in the 2025 draft.

The good news is that after the draft, eight former Cougars were given opportunities to continue their…


Source link : https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/04/29/byu-football-nfl-draft-2025-shut-out-which-players-next-year/

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Publish date : 2025-04-30 03:00:00

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