A good thing may be coming to an end, from a Utah perspective.
For the first time in five years, there may not be a Utah tie who hears their name called during the first round of the NFL draft when the 2024 version kicks off Thursday night in Detroit.
There are no surefire first-rounders among a group of athletes in the 2024 draft class who either played their college or high school ball (or both) in the Beehive State.
That doesn’t mean prospects like offensive linemen Jackson Powers-Johnson or Kingsley Suamataia couldn’t keep the first-round streak going — both have shown up a handful of times as a potential late first-rounder in recent mock drafts.
Over the past four years, five Utah ties have been selected during the NFL draft’s first round.
By comparison, in the 20 years before the 2020 draft, there were only seven Utah ties taken during the draft’s first round — headlined by former Utah quarterback Alex Smith going No. 1 overall to the San Francisco 49ers in 2005.
The last time the state of Utah had this long of a streak of first-round draft picks came from 1998 to 2000, when a pair of Cougars and a Ute all went in the draft’s opening round in three straight years.
Historically speaking, this year’s draft class — at least from a Utah perspective — is shaping up to be like the 2019 draft, when no Utah ties went in the first round, a handful of others heard their names during the second and third rounds on Day 2, and then several other locals were picked on the draft’s final day.
How will this year’s class turn out? Will there be more breakout players like Puka Nacua, Dalton Kincaid, Fred Warner or Penei Sewell, or more draft busts like Zach Wilson?
The first round of the 2024 NFL draft takes place Thursday (6 p.m. MDT), Rounds 2-3 on Friday (5 p.m.) and Rounds 4-7 on Saturday (10 a.m.), with coverage on ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and NFL Network.
These are nine names to keep in mind from a Utah perspective as this year’s draft unfolds in Detroit.
Jackson Powers-Johnson, center
Utah tie: Corner Canyon High.
Powers-Johnson was a four-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, and over the past three seasons at Oregon, he lived up to that hype.
During the 2023 season, Powers-Johnson won the Rimington Trophy, given to the nation’s top collegiate center, and was a consensus All-American. The 6-foot-3, 328-pound Powers-Johnson didn’t allow a sack and gave up one QB hit and three QB hurries in 758 pass-block snaps over three years at Oregon, according to Yahoo Sports’ Doug Farrar.
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