Auburn football had just one player (Roger McCreary) selected in the 2022 NFL Draft this past weekend.
The Tennessee Titans brought on the only Auburn man to hear his name called throughout the entire three-day event with the No. 35 pick in the second round with the third pick of the draft’s second night.
That cannot be repeated in 2023.
After having six Tigers selected in both the 2019 and 2020 drafts, that number shrunk to four in 2021. There’s a troubling downward trend that has gotten us to the point where only Vanderbilt has produced fewer draft picks in the SEC:
Only Vanderbilt with zero (0) is behind Auburn (1) in the SEC by 2022 NFL draft picks.
— Brian Stultz (@brianjstultz) May 1, 2022
Unacceptable? Yes. Bryan Harsin’s fault? Not at all.
Bryan Harsin and co. caught flak from the Opelika-Auburn News’ Justin Lee, who believes the performance was indicative of a serious leadership issue on the Plains:
"Unacceptable. That’s the word for it. Failure. That’s another. Auburn had only one player taken in the NFL Draft this weekend, the program’s lowest since the dog days after the 2012 season, and no one around Auburn should take this shortcoming lightly."
We’re not willing to go that far yet. Several could-be pros decided to return to the Auburn football program in 2022, making this year’s class a shallow one for the sake of sprucing up the roster for the upcoming campaign this fall.
Next year’s class will be deeper. And it will be because of the following five Auburn stars set to be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft: