Reviewing this past weekend’s NFL draft, here’s a short piece categorizing Mountain West (and Pac-12) related things into winners and losers. This clearly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it does feature some of the trends and observations from the draft.
The star cornerback out of San Diego State was able to rise into the back of the first round in the draft, becoming the first player off the board in the Mountain West/Pac-12 world. A mid-major school producing a bona fide first-round NFL talent is something to celebrate in the transfer portal era, and Johnson also deserves some credit for staying with the Aztecs when he undoubtedly had offers to leave. Like Ashton Jeanty before him, Johnson shows that the Group of 6 is a viable path to the NFL for those who are talented enough.
The Bison technically aren’t members of the Mountain West Conference just yet, but they still had a productive draft showing. North Dakota State was actually the only school under our scope that had multiple players drafted, with wide receiver Bryce Lane and quarterback Cole Payton both hearing their names called on Saturday. For a school that played at the FCS level, that’s a nice feat, and it’s still an accomplishment even for a team in teh Mountain West.
The former New Mexico edge-rusher has had quite the rise over the past few seasons. He started his career at Montana Tech for two seasons before venturing to Idaho for another two. He then moved up a level to try his hand at FBS football with New Mexico for his last season. And Keyshawn made it a season to remember, with 52 tackles, 15 for loss, and 9 sacks. He was able to turn that into a Day 3 NFL Draft selection, where he can now compete at the highest level.
In addition to having one of the five draft picks covered on this site, including the first of those picks, the program also had seven additional players either signed as undrafted free agents or invited to NFL minicamps. The eight total players with NFL ties is more than any other team covered here. San Diego State has a strong season, but they are having an even stronger draft season here.
Each year, it seems that fewer players from Group of 6 conferences are being drafted each season, which is mainly due to them transferring to bigger schools before going pro. However, that does not mean mid-major players aren’t talented and aren’t getting NFL looks. At the time of this writing, 23 known players from the Mountain West or Pac-12 have signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents. All they need is a chance, and they will get one.
Not trying to pick on the Cowboys, but for the purposes of this article, we will highlight them. The program had a high number of players with some shot of being drafted, but ended up with no players taken in the seven rounds. The only one that was a significant surprise was tight end John Michael Gyllenborg, but it sounded like Caden Barnett was rising up on draft boards following his pro day as well. Again, it’s not so much that Wyoming had three sure-fire picks as it was they had a lot of possibilities and none heart their names called.
On a similar note, it’s a bit disappointing that the conference champion Broncos only had one NFL draft pick this year. No one aside from offensive lineman Kage Casey was projected to get picked, but more was assumed from a team the Mountain West. Also, even Casey fell down draft boards, dropping from a top 100 pick to the start Day 3. We will see if the Broncos can produce any more picks in 2027.
There were 257 NFL draft picks this year. Here's the breakdown by classification: P4: 239G6: 13FCS: 4NA: 1 It's yet another example of the talent drain for the G6 and FCS due to the transfer portal.
As mentioned above, a growing trend is mid-major talent getting raided by schools from power conferences on their way to the NFL Draft. That heavily skews the numbers, as at least a chunk of those 239 P4 drafted players started out as G6 players. Hopefully, players will realize they can still reach their NFL dreams through Mountain West or Pac-12 schools, but it will take a long time to regain hope to reverse this trend.
Your turn: What did we get right and wrong? What winners and losers would you add to this list? Comment below.