Auburn football: Could Smoke Monday join former teammates in NFL?

The 2022 NFL Draft is coming up this weekend, and Auburn football will have several former players looking to hear their names called including Roger McCreary, Zakoby McClain, and Chandler Wooten, among others.

After a standout career on the Plains as a key member of the Tigers’ defense, safety Smoke Monday is one of the other hopefuls trying to break into the pros.

A two-year starter for the Tigers, Monday finished his four years on the Plains with 172 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, six sacks, 13 passes deflected, and five interceptions–three of which he ended up returning for touchdowns. He was named to the second-team All-SEC in both 2020 and 2021.

According to Auburn Daily, five potential landing spots for Smoke Monday in the NFL are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New York Jets, the Indianapolis Colts, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Los Angeles Rams. The first two of those five destinations would make it so that Monday would potentially be reunited with former Auburn football teammates.

In the past few years, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have drafted several former Auburn players, including John Franklin III, Carlton Davis, Jamal Dean, and KJ Britt. Each of those players except John Franklin III (who is now a Tampa Bay Bandit in the USFL) are still on the Bucs, and although Monday only played with Britt, it would be great to have so many Auburn football players on the same team.

On the other side of the country in New York, the Jets have also accumulated their fair share of former Tigers in Carl Lawson, CJ Uzomah, and Jamien Sherwood. Smoke Monday and Jamien Sherwood played together at Auburn for three years, both as defensive backs, until Sherwood entered the draft in 2021 and was selected by the Jets in the fifth round.

Smoke Monday is expected to go later in the Draft, most likely in the fifth or sixth round.