The NFL draft begins April 30 in Chicago, with all 32 teams looking for the next great pro talent to emerge from the SEC.

We’ll take a position-by-position look at the SEC’s draft prospects in the days leading up to the event. We started with running backs and we continue with receivers.

The big question that looms in the SEC at receiver is how many of the conference’s best will leave early after the 2015 season? Third-year players like Laquon Treadwell (Ole Miss), Travin Dural (LSU), Marquez North (Tennessee) and Josh Reynolds (Texas A&M) will be eligible for entry, and Auburn senior Duke Williams could be the No. 1 overall receiver in the 2016 draft.

RELATED: Rankings, potential NFL fits for the SEC’s draft-eligible WRs

This year, only three SEC receivers entered the NFL draft early: Alabama’s Amari Cooper, Auburn’s Sammie Coates and South Carolina’s Shaq Roland.

Let’s take a look at some of the news, projections and buzz at the position entering this year’s draft.

BIGGEST STAR: Amari Cooper, Alabama

Sometimes college players are good, but even strong fans don’t realize they’re first-round talent until the draft approaches.

Amari Cooper is not one of those players. Alabama’s all-time leading receiver smashed almost all of the school records once held by D.J. Hall or Julio Jones, finishing third in this year’s Heisman Trophy voting. Ever since he got through the season and pre-draft evaluation period without a catastrophic injury, he’s been a lock to get selected in the first round.

The only question is, which team will take him, and at which slot will he get picked?

Here are a few of the most recent mock draft projections:

Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN — Oakland Raiders, No. 4 overall
Rob Rang/Dane Brugler, CBS — Oakland Raiders, No. 4 overall
Charles Davis, NFL.com — Oakland Raiders, No. 4 overall
Pete Prisco/Will Brinson, CBS — Chicago Bears, No. 7 overall
Lance Zierlein/Brian Baldinger/Bucky Brooks, NFL.com — Chicago Bears, No. 7 overall

No matter what he says, Raiders QB Derek Carr would love the team to draft Cooper or Kevin White to give him a No. 1 target. But new coach Jack Del Rio is a defensive guy, and may want an edge rusher to pair with Khalil Mack. That could trump the team’s need at receiver, depending on who’s available when Oakland is on the clock.

Will GM Reggie McKenzie go after Cooper?

RISING: Chris Conley, Georgia

Conley didn’t shatter the world record in the standing long jump like Byron Jones, but he did unleash a 45-inch vertical and run a 4.35-second 40-yard dash, measurables that sent NFL personnel scrambling to re-watch video of his college games.

Unfortunately for Conley, there’s an abundance of talent at receiver, and he still has a few weaknesses that will keep him from vaulting up into the huge-money rounds.

Still, Conley has made a steady climb during the pre-draft evaluation period.

If the right team falls in love with him, Conley could sneak into the end of the second day as a late third-round pick. More likely, he’ll be one of the “best players available” on your TV broadcast during the draft’s final day on May 2. That’s up from the sixth or seventh-round projection he received before the NFL Combine.

Georgia’s run-heavy offense limited his production, but he also didn’t perform as well as his physical attributes suggest he should.

His average agility and tendency to play small against big, physical defensive backs hurts him. He tends to run away from people rather than make would-be tacklers miss, and his yards after the catch may be limited at the next level. He can make impressive, acrobatic catches due to great body control and wonderful hands, and he’s got plus speed. He tracks the deep ball well and took advantage of his targets at Georgia.

FALLING: SEC receivers

If you count former Missouri and Oklahoma receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, the SEC can claim three receivers that definitely get drafted (Cooper, Auburn’s Sammie Coates) and one who almost certainly will get drafted (Conley).

Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess. Some players who have a chance to get selected in the sixth or seventh round if they can convince the NFL they’ll be good on special teams: Missouri’s Bud Sasser, Texas A&M’s Malcome Kennedy and Alabama’s DeAndrew White.

The SEC produced seven receivers drafted in the first four rounds in 2014, including several players who made huge impacts as NFL rookies (Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Jordan Matthews). Overall, the ’15 group appears to be a weaker crop of SEC receivers.

NON-SEC PLAYERS TO WORRY ABOUT

  • Kevin White, West Virginia
  • DeVante Parker, Louisville
  • Jaelen Strong, Arizona State
  • Nelson Agholor, USC
  • Breshad Perriman, UCF

THREE BIGGEST QUESTIONS

  1. Will Amari Cooper be the first wide receiver selected in this draft?
  2. Will Green-Beckham or Coates get selected in the first round?
  3. Beyond Cooper, Green-Beckham, Coates and Conley, no player is a sure-fire draft pick. How many SEC-affiliated receivers will get drafted?

THREE TO WATCH FOR 2016

  1. D’haquille Williams, Auburn
  2. Laquon Treadwell, Ole Miss
  3. Malcolm Mitchell, Georgia

RECENT BUZZ

  • The Miami Dolphins recently invited Coates for a private workout — each team is allowed to bring in 30 players pre-draft — potentially to evaluate the former Auburn receiver for his merit with the No. 47 overall pick in the second round.
  • From the Florida Sun-Sentinel article on the visit: “Coates, who averaged 21.4 yards per reception in college, has rare speed and excellent size (6-foot-1, 212 pounds). He’s viewed as a vertical threat because of how he was used in Auburn’s spread offense. But Coates runs rough routes, consistently plays too high, has tightness in his hips, and has been plagued with concentration lapses, which lead to easy drops. His Senior Bowl week of practice was described as average by most draft experts, which explains why his draft stock has fallen slightly.”
  • Sasser, a former Missouri receiver, ran somewhere between 4.45 and 4.52 at Missouri’s pro day, according to media reports. CBS Sports recently moved him up eight spots to their No. 37-ranked receiver available in the draft, projecting him as a fringe seventh-round pick or undrafted free agent. Sasser didn’t get an invitation to the NFL Combine.
  • NFL.com’s Charles Davis recently ranked Alabama’s White on his 2015 NFL draft all-underrated team. Wrote Davis: “White was overshadowed by Amari Cooper at Alabama. He was a terrific special-teams player with the Crimson Tide and had an excellent pro day. He’s going to be a nice find for a team in the middle-to-late rounds.”