Missouri football might be gearing up for a record year at the 2024 NFL Draft.
With two weeks remaining until the draft, the Columbia Daily Tribune ran 20 mock draft simulations across four different sites — Pro Football Network; NFL Draft Buzz; Sportskeeda; and NFL Mock Draft Database —to determine likely landing spots for this year’s class of Tigers.
Seven Mizzou players are currently projected to hear their name called over the three-day, seven-round event in Detroit between April 24-26. Some MU grads, like defensive end Darius Robinson and cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr., are carrying first-round potential.
Missouri’s previous high for draft selections in the modern era was seven in 1981. The Tigers have had six players selected on multiple occasions, most recently in 2009 and 2015.
Here is where Missouri’s draft-eligible players could potentially land:
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Missouri football DE Darius Robinson to the Carolina Panthers in second round
If Missouri football has a first-rounder, it’s Darius Robinson.
But the most common landing spot for the former Missouri team captain, who will hear his name called his hometown Detroit, is with the first pick in the second round of the draft, No. 33 overall, to the Carolina Panthers under new head coach Dave Canales.
Robinson led Missouri with 8.5 sacks as part of 14 tackles for loss last season, his first as an edge rusher after switching from defensive tackle over the offseason.
The switch appears to have paid dividends, with multiple mocks projecting Robinson to hear his name called in the first round, with potential landing spots including the Detroit Lions at No. 29 or the Baltimore Ravens at No. 30.
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CB Ennis Rakestraw Jr. to the Los Angeles Chargers
Robinson and Ennis Rakestraw Jr. likely won’t be separated by too many spots when the draft rolls around.
Rakestraw’s most common draft destination was with the Los Angeles Chargers early in the second round, No. 37 overall, but a close second came with Detroit with the 29th selection in the first round.
Rakestraw sat most of the 2023 season, but told the Columbia Daily Tribune on his Missouri Pro Day on March 22 that teams had given him the reassurance that his injury woes aren’t likely to affect his draft ranking. The only team he hadn’t met with, he said, were the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.
Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine to the Arizona Cardinals
Kris Abrams-Draine had about the most consistent landing spot of all Missouri’s prospects in the simulated drafts.
Of the 20 mocks, the corner was picked between picks No. 66 and 75 on 12 occasions. The most common landing spot for that early third round selection was to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 71 overall, which the Cardinals acquired from the Tennessee Titans.
Abrams-Draine led the SEC in passes defended last season with 13, including four interceptions. Around his pro day, Abrams-Draine told a pool of reporters he met with Patriots, Panthers, Giants, Saints and Giants.
OT Javon Foster to the Pittsburgh Steelers
Javon Foster, Missouri’s mainstay left tackle from the past three seasons, looks like an early Day 3 pick in most mocks, with his most common landing spot the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round with the 119th overall selection. Most mocks don’t have Foster falling further than the fifth round.
Foster is a Detroit native, meaning, like Robinson, he’s likely to find his new home in his hometown. The offensive tackle was a key figure in Cody Schrader’s sensational year at running back, and graded among the nation’s best pass blockers on PFF.
LB Ty’Ron Hopper to the Arizona Cardinals
Linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper split opinion in his mocks, with a five-round variance in his draft number, but most often ended up as a sixth-round pick with the Arizona Cardinals. The Tribune’s mock drafts had teams taking Hopper with picks between the third and seventh rounds.
Three drafts had the linebacker heading along I-70 to the Kansas City Chiefs, either in the third round with the 95th-overall pick or in the fourth round with the 131st-overall pick.
Hopper missed Missouri’s Cotton Bowl win with an injury. He was a standout at weakside linebacker after transferring to the Tigers from Florida in 2022, notching 133 total tackles, including 20 for loss, in 23 appearances.
S JC Carlies to the San Francisco 49ers
Free safety JC Carlies is projected as a late-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers, with both sixth- and seventh-round selections mocking him out west.
Some drafts had Carlies hearing his name called as high as the fifth round, usually also to the 49ers, while others had him dropping out of the draft altogether.
Carlies was Missouri’s leading tackler in each of the past two seasons. He has nine career interceptions in Columbia.
RB Cody Schrader to the Baltimore Ravens
Missouri’s star running back from the 2023 campaign has a sixth-round projection to the Baltimore Ravens, which is the same round and team as the last running back selected out of Mizzou in the NFL Draft: Tyler Badie in 2022.
Schrader led the SEC in rushing and broke Missouri’s single-season rushing record with 1,627 yards on 276 carries. His highest mock came at No. 137 in the fifth round to the New England Patriots, and his lowest draft projection was to the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 252 in the seventh round.
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Top Mizzou NFL draft prospects of all time
Missouri has had the No. 4 overall selection the NFL Draft on two occasions: offensive tackle Russ Washington to the then-San Diego Chargers in 1968; and defensive end Justin Smith to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2001.
Since Smith, Missouri has produced eight first-rounders, including five between 2009-11, when Jeremy Maclin, defensive tackle Ziggy Hood, linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, defensive end Aldon Smith and quarterback Blaine Gabbert all were Day 1 picks.
Mizzou’s most recent first-rounder was defensive end Charles Harris in 2017, when he was taken with the 22nd overall pick by the Miami Dolphins.
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