Hutchinson, Thibodeaux Among 21 Players to Attend NFL Draft
The 2022 NFL Draft will kick off on Thursday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the Jacksonville Jaguars on the clock with the number one overall selection.
Slated to be in Vegas are 21 of the top collegiate prospects who have confirmed their attendance ahead of the draft, headlined by two of the top three favorites to be selected first overall, Aidan Hutchinson out of Michigan and Evan Neal from Alabama.
Travon Walker, a former Georgia Bulldog, has not yet confirmed his attendance, but he’s the current odds on favorite to be picked first at -150 on the FanDuel Sportsbook. The defending National Champion Bulldogs have three players officially attending in fellow defensive standouts Devonte Wyatt, Nakobe Dean, and Jordan Davis.
Ohio State and Alabama are the two other high profile schools with multiple players attending. Those include wide receivers Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave for the Buckeyes, while Jameson Williams joins the aforementioned Neal from the Crimson Tide.
Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network spoke with the media ahead of the draft on Thursday and believes that there are some great wide receivers in this class, even if they currently aren’t being projected as top-10 picks.
“I absolutely believe there are top 10 wideouts because I had Garrett Wilson as my fifth player in my final update which comes out next week. I moved him up a spot. He is my fourth highest-rated player in this draft. Drake London is my seventh highest-rated player in this draft. I feel like they’re two of the 10 best players. It just comes down to do these teams want to do that early.”
The Southeastern Conference currently boasts the highest number of confirmed attendees with seven, which is followed by the Big Ten with four, the PAC-12 with four, and the Atlantic Coast Conference with three.
Round 1 of the draft will begin at 8 PM ET on Thursday, April 28th, followed by Rounds 2 and 3 on Friday, with the draft concluding on Saturday for Rounds 4-7.
This will be the first-ever NFL Draft held in Nevada from the home of the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
The players confirmed to attend this year’s NFL Draft:
| 1) | Matt Corral | QB | Mississippi |
| 2) | Charles Cross | OL | Mississippi State |
| 3) | Jordan Davis | DL | Georgia |
| 4) | Nakobe Dean | LB | Georgia |
| 5) | Ikem Ekwonu | OL | North Carolina State |
| 6) | Sauce Gardner | CB | Cincinnati |
| 7) | Kyler Gordon | CB | Washington |
| 8) | Kyle Hamilton | S | Notre Dame |
| 9) | Aidan Hutchinson | DE | Michigan |
| 10) | Zion Johnson | OL | Boston College |
| 11) | Jermaine Johnson | DE | Florida State |
| 12) | George Karlaftis | DE | Purdue |
| 13) | Devin Lloyd | LB | Utah |
| 14) | Drake London | WR | Southern California |
| 15) | Evan Neal | OL | Alabama |
| 16) | Chris Olave | WR | Ohio State |
| 17) | Kayvon Thibodeaux | DE | Oregon |
| 18) | Jameson Williams | WR | Alabama |
| 19) | Malik Willis | QB | Liberty |
| 20) | Garrett Wilson | WR | Ohio State |
| 21) | Devonte Wyatt | DL | Georgia |
