Jordan Travis, Brock Bowers and T'Vondre Sweat headline All-College Football Team for the 2024 NFL Draft
The 2024 NFL Draft finally arrives Thursday, so tis the season for mock drafts, player and positional rankings and rumors galore.
But before we turn the page on a host of future pro standouts, what about an All-College Football Team for the diehards?
While my team might differ from yours, it still features a nice mixture of future NFL stars, college hipsters and dudes real ones know about.
Notably, this is not a projection of NFL upside or future, but a collection of my favorite players from the 2024 draft-eligible class.
So here’s my 2024 All-College Football Team for the 2024 NFL Draft:
OFFENSE
QB Jordan Travis, Florida State
RB Blake Corum, Michigan
RB Cody Schrader, Missouri
WR Malik Nabers, LSU
WR Rome Odunze, Washington
WR Ladd McConkey, Georgia
TE Brock Bowers, Georgia
All-Purpose: Ainias Smith, Texas A&M
OT JC Latham, Alabama
OG Zak Zinter, Michigan
C Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon
OG Cooper Beebe, Kansas State
OT Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State
Talk about a fun offense.
In a loaded year of quarterbacks, Jordan Travis might not get drafted, but the former Seminoles’ star has been one of the most enjoyable quarterbacks to watch develop over the last six years! He started his career at Louisville, then transferred to FSU where he was buried on the depth chart behind the likes of James Blackman, Alex Hornibrook and McKenzie Milton. And yet, Travis was the quarterback who ultimately led the Seminoles out of the wilderness and back to national relevancy.
He didn’t have the biggest arm or even eye-popping athleticism, but he was clutch — routinely coming up with timely plays. It was such a bummer that a broken leg ended his college career — and kept FSU out of the College Football Playoff.
Corum and Schrader have been two of the most productive workhorse tailbacks in the country over the last two seasons. Corum scored a ridiculous 45 rushing touchdowns the last two seasons, becoming one of the crucial anchors of Michigan’s title run.
Schrader led D-II in rushing with over 2,000 yards for Truman State in 2021, and then two years later, was a First Team All-American after rushing for a SEC-best 1,627 yards. Neither Corum or Schrader have electric traits, but they’re competitive, balanced tailbacks who ate up yards for offenses that relied on their ability to do so.
My quarterback and running backs won’t be top draft picks, but there’s no reason to get cure at wideout or tight end. All four players here are studs and future stars in the league.
Nabers is as smooth as a receiver I’ve seen in some time. He just glides past defenders. He was a big-play machine at LSU (34 catches over 20 yards in 2023) and has a dizzying amount of highlights the last two seasons. Odunze has long reminded me of AJ Green, with fluid play-making skills and the ability to just snatch the ball in midair.
McConkey and Bowers were foundational pieces on Georgia’s back-to-back national title teams. The inside/outside duo gave opponents fits when they were lined up next to one another. McConkey might look like a diminutive country farm boy, but he would torch defensive backs with his sudden speed and elite route runner. Bowers needs no true explanation. He’s among the greatest tight ends ever, and was a nightmarish matchup for defenses with his ability to kill them as a receiver or jet-sweep rusher.
My All-College offensive line is a mixture of high-end prospects and a couple of veteran grinders. Latham has been a name to know since he was a 5-star prospect coming out of IMG. He’s enormous, and when the Alabama tackle was right, he would just engulf defensive ends as both a pass and run blocker.
At the other tackle spot, Fuaga has some of the most fun run-blocking clips of the last few years. The Oregon State tackle (who could end up at guard in the NFL) would just stone defenders into the turf — and then excitedly sprint to the second level to find another victim.
On the interior, Beebe, Powers-Johnson and Zinter is a group I’d roll with every day of the week — for the NFL — twice on Sundays. We’re talking versatile, mean maulers.
Beebe played right tackle, left tackle and left guard for Kansas State, earning First-Team All-Big 12 at two different spots. Zinter was the heart and soul of Michigan’s two-time Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, starting 42 straight games before breaking his leg in the Wolverines’ third-straight win over Ohio State in 2023. Powers-Johnson, whose name alone is awesome, doesn’t have quite the experience of Beebe or Zinter, but he’s a freaky athlete who even played defensive tackle in a pinch for Oregon in the Ducks’ bowl game in 2021.
DEFENSE
DL Jared Verse, Florida State
DL T’Vondre Sweat, Texas
DL Jer’Zhan Newton, Illinois
DL Laiatu Latu, UCLA
LB Payton Wilson, NC State
LB Cedric Gray, North Carolina
DB Cooper DeJean, Iowa
DB Kool-Aid McKinstry, Alabama
DB Mike Sainristil, Michigan
DB Javon Bullard, Georgia
DB Kam Kitchens, Miami
Verse is one of college football’s golden transfer portal success stories — going from no-name recruit at Albany to two-time All-American at Florida State as a powerful edge rusher. Latu is a similar feel-good transfer story, starting his career at Washington and then being medically disqualified which required him to step away from football for more than two years. He returned to the field at UCLA in 2022 and instantly became one of the most ruthless pass rushers in the country (24 sacks the last two seasons).
On the interior, Sweat and Newton couldn’t be built more differently, yet both were fantastic players who instantly caught your eye. Sweat is 6-5, 370 pounds on a light day, but moves like a silverback gorilla with surprising speed and agility. Newton is only 6-foot, 304-pounds with small arms, but he’s like a crocodile with lightning quickness and ferocious power. Both were highly productive players, especially the last two seasons.
At linebacker, neither Wilson or Gray project to go before the end of Day 2, but the two ACC standouts have been two of the most fun linebackers to track in recent years — albeit for different reasons. Wilson was the star on a really good NC State defense who could do a little bit of everything (17.5 TFLs, 6.0 sacks, 9 PBUs, 3 INTs in 2023). He was always dinged up, yet played with relentless toughness and effort. He had a chase-down tackle in a blowout loss last year that was one of the most memorable plays of the season for NC State. Meanwhile, Gray played on some awful UNC defenses, yet the two-time All-ACC performer was the lone dude who could actually make plays. He was always around the football (over 100 tackles in the last three seasons).
My defensive backfield consists of several names likely to be called in the first two rounds this weekend, but these guys were also fantastic college players. DeJean was a lockdown corner and elite punt returner for several seasons, and is the best white defensive back since? Jason Sehorn? Kool-Aid McKinistry was a former 5-star prospect with an all-time name, and then he lived up to expectations by having a solid career for the Tide.
Sainristil started his career as a receiver and then turned into a do-it-all corner/nickel and the backbone of Michigan’s defense that propelled the Wolverines to three straight Big Ten titles and a national championship.
At safety, Bullard was undersized and not overly fast, but he was one of the most instinctive defensive backs in the country in the last few years. He oozed swagger with a smile, and had a knack for making gigantic plays for Georgia’s defense. Lastly, Kitchens always seemed miscast as a Miami safety who looked (and played the part) — yet was always on crappy teams. He isn’t a dynamic athlete, but he had legit ball skills (11 interceptions the last two seasons), and whenever the Hurricanes did make a play on defense — it was probably by No. 5.
SPECIALISTS
K Harrison Mevis, Missouri
P Tory Taylor, Iowa
RS Xavier Worthy, Texas
The Thiccer Kicker with the Hawkeyes’ Aussie bomber? Need I say more here? Mevis and Taylor have been beloved specialists for several seasons now, and both will sorely be missed in 2024.