After nine weeks of the 2017 NFL season, we have a pretty clear picture of where each team is roughly going to end up picking in the 2018 NFL Draft.

We also know that SEC players tend to dominate the first round of the draft, and this coming year should be no different. In fact, Sports Illustrated writer Albert Breer has nine SEC athletes going in the first round.

As you can see in Breer’s latest mock draft here, Alabama has five players going in round one, with LSU (two), Texas A&M (one) and Georgia (one) also having players selected:

  • No. 5 — Alabama DB Minkah Fitzpatrick — Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • No. 12 — Alabama DL Da’Ron Payne — Denver Broncos
  • No. 15 — Georgia LB Roquan Smith — Washington Redskins
  • No. 16 — Alabama WR Calvin Ridley — Baltimore Ravens
  • No. 22 — Texas A&M WR Christian Kirk — Jacksonville Jaguars
  • No. 24 — LSU DE Arden Key — Seattle Seahawks
  • No. 28 — LSU RB Derrius Guice — Pittsburgh Steelers
  • No. 30 — Alabama LB Rashaan Evans — New England Patriots
  • No. 31 — Alabama RB Damien Harris — Buffalo Bills

Obviously, there will be some draft board changes when teams are able to analyze players at the Scouting Combine, so this is just a rough estimate.

Still, for all the talk of the SEC having a down year, nine first-round selections would be a strong showing for the deep conference.