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Ohio State, Mississippi State Leaders for 2020 NFL Draft Prospects

Updated June 20, 2019
By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell.

NFL teams recently held their spring scouting meeting, and while three they distributed their preseason watch list compiled by advance scouts. The watch list is shared among the teams and helps the area scouts, national scouts, and college directors identify which players they will scout for the next draft when they start visiting college campuses in training camp. Of course, new players are added and others are dropped as the season unfolds. A year ago, the preseason watch list for the 2019 NFL Draft did not have Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray or Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. They ended up being the first- and third-overall picks in the 2019 NFL Draft, so obviously a lot can and will change in the leadup to a draft. That being said, this list has the vast majority of players who will make up the 2020 NFL Draft class.

Looking over the list this year, there will be a lot of scouts going through Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State has the most players of any school on the list with 13. The Buckeyes have been a factory for NFL talent recently, with a lot of the star-studded recruiting classes from Urban Meyer producing players for the early, middle, and late rounds of NFL drafts.

After Ohio State, Mississippi State comes in second with 11 prospects. That is a testament to the great work down in Starkville by former head coach Dan Mullen, who is currently the head coach at Florida. At a place that has a reputation as tough to recruit for, Mullen and his staff brought a lot of talent to the Bulldogs program. Last year, one area scout told me that Mullen did a hell of job there as the Bulldogs had good talent for the 2019 NFL Draft - defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, defensive end Montez Sweat and safety Johnathan Abram - and for the next draft or two.

Following those two leaders, Michigan State was third with 10 prospects. Alabama, Auburn and Michigan tied with nine prospects. Here is a summary of the number of players from some of the top programs.

Ohio State: 13
Mississippi State: 11
Michigan: State 10
Alabama: 9
Auburn: 9

Michigan: 9
Notre Dame: 8
North Texas: 7
Texas: 7
Clemson: 6

LSU: 6
Oregon: 6
Florida: 5
Missouri: 5
Louisiana: 5

Ole Miss: 5
West Virginia: 5
Georgia: 4
Oklahoma: 4
Washington: 4

Washington State: 4
Miami: 3
Penn State: 3
USC: 3
Florida State: 2

Oklahoma State: 2
TCU: 2
UCLA: 2
Virginia Tech: 1
Texas A&M: 1

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