Day Two Will Highlight BC's Value for NFL

The NFL Draft's second day serves as something of a bridge day for professional franchises. The picks are publicly announced, but they lack the same flair and pageantry of the first round. Impact players can turn around a franchise's fortunes, but they aren't walking across the stage to don hats and hold jerseys with the commissioner. The draft choices aren't as heralded as the Thursday night superstars, but they also aren't viewed as longshots to start or even make a roster.

The second day encompasses the draft's second and third rounds, and it's where the term "value" starts to creep into analysis. Players can be viewed as high-end talents with incredible ceilings, but they aren't first rounders. That means they cost a little bit less and can provide a little bit more reach for interested franchises. Simply put, the players aren't viewed as the same complete package as the first round, and if they are, it didn't cost a team its first round pick in the process.

The "value picks" are where Boston College athletes tend to pop up more frequently. At least one Eagle received the call in either the second or third round in each of the past three years, none of which fell past the 100th pick of available players. In 2016, Justin Simmons went 98th overall in the third round to Denver, followed by John Johnson's pick by the Los Angeles Rams at No. 91 in 2017. Last year, Harold Landry fell to the second round before Tennessee executed a trade with Oakland for the No. 41 pick, and Isaac Yiadom went to Simmons' Broncos at the No. 99 overall pick.

"It's interesting to look back at the coaches that recruited me (with) guys like (Steve Addazio) and Frank Leonard," safety Will Harris said. "They saw what they saw in me before I played on the field at BC. They saw (players like) all the guys that are out there. They saw all of our potential and all of our capabilities. They haven't said, 'I told you so,' but I'm sure they could and will."

This year's Boston College draft class is widely recognized as its deepest. The volume of talent headed for the professional ranks rivals any college in any year, and a number of intriguing prospects have incredibly high ceilings. Chris Lindstrom will represent the centerpiece of the BC draft class after earning the No. 14 overall selection from the Atlanta Falcons, but the rest of BC's eligible talent offers some unique possibilities.

Allen is atop that list. He projected to a first round pick among a variety of experts throughout the entire college season, but he also plays in one of the deepest positions in the NFL Draft. Every year, a first round pick falls back and becomes a steal for a team in the second or third round, the combined result of a number of differing factors. Teams passed on a number of high end talents this year, including offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor and quarterback Drew Lock. That likely means that someone will get a top-end talent with a "later pick," resulting in stolen value for a player like Allen.

Others are more nondescript. Harris, for example, should enter the second day in the same breath as Simmons, Johnson and Yiadom, and he stands poised to become the "next one" in the budding ranks of professional Eagle defensive backs. He came to BC as a three-star recruit but possessed a unique, flexible skill set that could have made him a running back or wide receiver. The Eagles committed to him as a safety, and his ensuing development saw him turn into a big body capable of dishing out punishing hits.

He had 75 tackles last season, including nine-tackle performances against Miami and NC State, the latter of which had six solo takedowns. He separately had eight tackles in two other games. The only game in which he didn't record five tackles was the Holy Cross game where he also didn't play as BC rotated in its depth players.

It was part of a career in which he recorded 225 tackles, 139 of which were solo. He had 83 tackles and over five for losses during his junior year, and he added five interceptions during a career that had 41 starts at safety.

"Development and recruiting are a combination of what BC does," he said at pro day. "We have good leadership. All of our coaches are a wealth of knowledge, and we can pick their brains 24 hours a day or seven days per week. We learned so much from them."

ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr. ranks Harris as the ninth-best safety, but the Eagle captain is probably one of the most intriguing prospects at his position. He ranked fourth at the NFL Combine in the 40-yard dash and the bench press and finished sixth in the vertical jump. His broad jump was substantially better than Johnathan Abram, the top-ranked player at the position.

"I just wanted to show versatility (at the combine)," Harris said. "I pride myself on playing anywhere in the field, capable of playing in the box, in space (or) in the slot. We were a multiple defenses (set) here, so I had to play a range of different spots. I wanted to show (scouts) that I could move fluidly."

Harris is a logical "value selection" within the Boston College draft pick because he's a proven commodity, but the value picks also tend to include players with, as Kiper loves to say, "tremendous upside." Those are players with developmental possibilities, the similar type of athlete that was recruited to BC. They're diamonds in the rough because they were impact players in college but didn't necessarily stand out on paper for a variety of reasons. A team can look at them, though, because they both fill a need and represent someone who can blossom under that particular franchise's developmental program.

That's a player fit for someone like Tommy Sweeney. He came to BC as a two-star recruit but developed the versatility needed for the tight end position. He developed a reputation as a two-way tight end and ended his career as the kind of player that could both catch and block in any scenario. He isn't the centerpiece of the draft class because of Lindstrom or Allen, but he is still the kind of player who can be anything a franchise wants him to become.

He finished his career as an All-ACC First Team choice with almost 1,300 career receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He had 99 receptions but doubled up as a secondary blocker in one of the ACC's best rushing attacks. Understanding his strengths dives well beyond the statistics from the Combine, instead diverting into his ability to execute a game plan or follow instruction. His intelligence is off the charts, and that was a big reason why he became the perfect Eagle. It's also what gives him extreme value for a mid-round pick in the NFL Draft.

"Guys that come here are two stars or three stars and weren't given a chance," Sweeney said. "But we're beating the teams that overlooked us. There's a lot of the run game and pass game (for tight ends) at the NFL level. Our feedback is that we do it the right way. And if it's not broken, don't fix it, right?"

It's well-known how BC provides mid-round value picks to NFL franchise. These players carve out NFL careers by being malleable and convertible under almost all circumstances. They aren't perceived as superstar athletes, but they're the players who form the foundation of championship runs. They aren't the players who get the first round treatment with the hats, pictures and cameras. They are, though, the players that are truly for the football people. BC carves out its niche in those rounds because it knows how to churn out professional talent. On Friday, someone new will join those ranks.

Day Two Will Highlight BC's Value for NFL

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Will Harris

Harold Landry

Chris Lindstrom

Tommy Sweeney

Isaac Yiadom

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