Over the course of the next 2.5 months, you’ll be bombarded with all things NFL Draft coverage. The focus will be on which players come off the board in the first round, and which quarterbacks will make or break franchises.

There’s nothing wrong with that. But just don’t forget about the Day 3 guys.

On Day 3 of the draft the past 5 years, the SEC produced 4 Pro Bowl selections (Day 3 is rounds 4-7). That means on average, the odds are that there’s going to be at least 1 Pro Bowl player from the SEC in this year’s draft who doesn’t come off the board until that Saturday. We’ll try and figure out who that’ll be in 2019 another time.

Before we tackle that question, I thought it’d be interesting to look back at some of the recent Day 3 draft steals from the SEC (2014-18).

Here are my top 5:

5. Trent Brown, Florida OL

Year, Round, Pick — 2015, 7th, No. 244

Team — 49ers

So you know that guy who protected Tom Brady’s blindside all season? That was Brown. He was one of the big — literally — reasons the 41-year-old quarterback led the Patriots to yet another Super Bowl. That was after Brown was involved in a draft day trade last year that sent him from the 49ers to the Patriots.

Strange it was that the 49ers gave up on Brown, who started 26 games in his final 2 seasons in San Francisco. The former seventh-round pick provided tons of value after he was deemed a massive project in the 2015 NFL Draft. The 6-8, 380-pound offensive lineman earned serious praise from Von Miller, who said the former Gator was already “one of the best tackles in the NFL” after just 1 season in the league.

Apparently Miller knew what he was talking about. Now, the Patriots have a solid, 25-year-old blindside protector for their Hall of Fame quarterback.

Not bad for someone who struggled to find a home on Will Muschamp’s Florida teams.

4. Kwon Alexander, LSU LB

Year, Round, Pick — 2015, 4th, No. 124

Team — Buccaneers

Despite the fact that he led LSU in tackles as a junior and posted impressive numbers at the combine, Alexander was the 13th linebacker off the board in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Fortunately for him, though, he was drafted into an ideal situation to play in Lovie Smith’s defense, where he earned a starting job as a rookie. Even though Smith was fired, Alexander’s production didn’t taper off. A tackling machine, he racked up 380 stops in 3.5 seasons to start his career.

A torn ACL in the middle of the 2018 season was preceded by a 2016 campaign in which he finished fourth in the NFL with 145 tackles and a 2017 season in which he made his first Pro Bowl. Unfortunately the injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Alexander, who is set to become a free agent. Still, the LSU star will be more coveted than he was at the draft.

3. Trey Flowers, Arkansas DE

Year, Round, Pick — 2015, 4th, No. 101

Team — Patriots

By now, you should be sensing a theme. A major factor in whether a Day 3 pick succeeds is dependent on the situation he’s drafted into. I’d say getting drafted to play in Bill Belichick’s defense is a pretty favorable landing spot.

Flowers actually didn’t blossom until his second season because of a shoulder injury that hampered his rookie year. But better late than never. The former Razorback has been a force for the Patriots the last 3 seasons. A multi-sack game against the Bills in 2016 earned him a starting spot that he hasn’t given up. In those 3 seasons, Flowers recorded 21 sacks for a Patriots team that went to 3 straight Super Bowls.

In 2018, Flowers had his best season yet with 7.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles en route to Pro Football Focus Second Team All-Pro honors. The in-depth numbers are even more impressive:

Leave it to the Patriots to find the Day 3 gem.

2. Dak Prescott, Mississippi State QB

Year, Round, Pick — 2016, 4th, No. 135

Team — Cowboys

Even though he was one of the SEC’s most decorated players of the 21st century and he dominated the Senior Bowl, Prescott was not considered an elite quarterback prospect. It wasn’t stunning that he was a Day 3 pick after spending 5 years in Dan Mullen’s non-pro style system at Mississippi State.

Here were all the quarterbacks selected ahead of Prescott in the 2016 NFL Draft:

  • Jared Goff
  • Carson Wentz
  • Paxton Lynch
  • Christian Hackenberg
  • Jacoby Brissett
  • Cody Kessler
  • Connor Cook

Yikes. Goff and Wentz, who went in the top 2 picks, are the only quarterbacks on that list who had Prescott’s level of success in 3 seasons. A pair of Pro Bowl trips and 2 division titles under his belt, Prescott has significantly outperformed his draft slot. There’s no doubt about that.

As for whether Prescott is a Top 10 quarterback in the NFL, the jury is still out. But in 3 years, the guy already has over 10,000 passing yards, 85 total touchdowns and a 32-16 record. His emergence expedited Tony Romo’s retirement, and 3 years in, many believe he’ll be the Cowboys’ quarterback for the next decade.

For all the heat Jerry Jones takes for his recent draft picks, Prescott will go down as one of his best ever.

1. Eddie Jackson, Alabama S

Year, Round, Pick — 2017, 4th, No. 112

Team — Bears

By the time I finish writing this sentence, Jackson probably has another pick-6. It doesn’t matter that it’s the offseason. Jackson is that good.

The 2018 First Team All-Pro selection already has 5 defensive touchdowns in his first 2 seasons in the league. Just for some perspective, that’s more than the No. 5 overall pick from the 2017 draft, Corey Davis. He plays receiver.

Jackson has been the definition of a playmaker in the back end of that dominant Bears defense. In just 2 seasons, he has 8 interceptions, 4 fumble recoveries and 3 forced fumbles to go along with 121 tackles. It takes some safeties a career to rack up those numbers. Few, if any, safeties played the position better than Jackson the last 2 years.

The Bears were fortunate enough that Jackson slipped to the fourth round, which was the product of a few things. He broke his leg in October of his senior year, which meant he couldn’t participate in combine drills. It probably didn’t help Jackson’s draft stock that he only had 1.5 seasons of tape as a safety after switching from cornerback in the middle of his career at Alabama.

Needless to say, though, the move paid dividends for Jackson and the Bears.