Last year, the SEC had the No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick in Texas A&M DE Myles Garrett, who was chosen by the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland once again has the No. 1 overall pick following an 0-16 season, but don’t expect them to pick another former SEC player to start the 2018 NFL Draft.

However, there will still be plenty of SEC standouts hearing their name called in the first round of April’s draft, as NFL.com analyst Daniel Jeremiah has 10 ex-SEC stars in his first-round mock draft.

His full first-round projections can be found here, but here are the 10 SEC players he expects to be chosen early:

  • No. 4 — Alabama DB Minkah Fitzpatrick — Cleveland Browns
  • No. 10 — Georgia LB Roquan Smith — Oakland Raiders
  • No. 21 — Alabama DL Da’Ron Payne — Buffalo Bills
  • No. 23 — Georgia OL Isaiah Wynn — Los Angeles Rams
  • No. 24 — Alabama WR Calvin Ridley — Carolina Panthers
  • No. 27 — Texas A&M WR Christian Kirk — New Orleans Saints
  • No. 28 — LSU DB Donte Jackson — Pittsburgh Steelers
  • No. 29 — South Carolina TE Hayden Hurst — Jacksonville Jaguars
  • No. 30 — LSU DE/OLB Arden Key — Minnesota Vikings
  • No. 31 — Alabama LB Rashaan Evans — Philadelphia Eagles

Interestingly, Jeremiah has only two SEC players going in the top 20, but then eight going in the last 12 picks of the first round.

There will likely be some wheeling and dealing come April, and we haven’t had the scouting combine yet, so all of these could change in the coming weeks.