The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the 2016 NFL Draft has passed
The 2016 deadline for underclassmen to declare for the NFL Draft has come and gone. While a majority of these players likely represent high selections in the upcoming draft, a lot of talk surrounding Monday’s deadline has to do with the record-breaking number of underclassmen looking to make the jump to the professional level in 2016.
Enter FanDuel’s $1 Million Sunday Rush. $5 to enter with $100K to 1st place! 
In recent years, concerns have grown surrounding the number of prospects that made the decision to turn pro only to go undrafted, specifically after 98 underclassmen declared in 2014. There were measures put in place involving the projection system to curtail the number of underclassmen declaring early, and this seemed to work last season when a more reasonable 74 underclassmen made the jump to the NFL.
However, that number has already ballooned to over 100 this year, and that’s before the NFL has finalized the list of underclassmen declaring, which will be released later this week.
Here’s the unofficial list of underclassmen declaring via NFL.com. To be eligible to declare, a player must be at least three years removed from high school. This can include a red-shirt season, so juniors and sophomores make up the list of underclassmen.
While the sheer number of underclassmen means that some are going to miss out on hearing their names called in April, especially in the early rounds, there are several juniors and sophomores that are projected to make a significant splash as soon as next season. You have to look no further than current draft boards to see this. When it comes to CBS Sports, their top nine NFL Draft prospects are all underclassmen, along with 20 of their top 25.
The top QB, RB, WR and TE in the upcoming NFL Drafts are arguably all underclassmen. The top two QBs that are expected to come off the board, Jared Goff and Paxton Lynch, are underclassmen. That’s also the case with RBs (Ezekiel Elliott, Derrick Henry, Alex Collins) and WRs (Laquon Treadwell, Corey Coleman, Michael Thomas).
For those IDP owners, several defensive players will hear their names called on the opening night of the NFL Draft and carry expectations of making immediate impacts on their prospective teams, including DE Joey Bosa, CB Jalen Ramsey, OLB Myles Jack, DE Shaq Lawson and DT A’Shawn Robinson.
While the increasing number of underclassmen declaring is alarming considering the repercussions, it’s unquestionable that underclassmen continue to have a major impact on the NFL Draft.
