Dee Milliner
Alabama was about as close as a college football team could come to looking like an NFL team last season. Just watching them manhandle Notre Dame in the title game gave you a sense of the level they were on. This year, I believe the player that will be the best pick in the draft is from the Crimson Tide. That is cornerback Dee Milliner.
Milliner is one of the best shutdown cornerbacks coming out of college that I can remember. At 6 feet tall, he has very good size for a cornerback. He also has very good speed, running a 4.37 40-yard dash at the combine. Though he is not a ball hawk, having only two interceptions his senior year, he did break up 18 passes, which was third all time at Alabama.
Another thing that makes Milliner so special as a cornerback is his ability to tackle. Now, tackling may not be the most important characteristic a corner can have, but it’s a nice addition when he can tackle well. Milliner finished his senior season with 51 tackles and his career at Alabama with 133 tackles.
Cornerback may not be a glamour position, but Milliner looks to be one of the best prospects in this year’s draft. Wherever he ends up, he will have success. He will be the best pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.
-Aaron Wargo
Star Lotulelei
The best player in this NFL draft might not be selected in the first 10 picks. By no fault of his own, Star Lotulelei is one of the best interior defensive linemen in recent drafts, but he has a heart condition that will scare off teams.
Although doctors cleared Lotulelei to play, his heart suffers from a low ejection fraction, which means his heart pumps about 10 percent less blood than a normal heart.
Imagine the impact Baltimore’s Haloti Ngata and Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh can have on a game by eating running backs and tossing quarterbacks to the ground. Lotulelei could be better than them.
He earned All-Pac 12 first-team honors in his final two seasons at Utah and the Pac-12’s Morris Trophy in 2011, which is awarded to the league’s top defensive lineman. Last year he became only the second defensive lineman in Utah history to be chosen as a first-team All-American.
In the past two years, Lotulelei accumulated more than 80 tackles, 20 of which were in the backfield, and 6.5 sacks, despite facing constant double-teams from opposing offensive lines.
There isn’t a clear-cut superstar player in this draft, except the player whose name already has declared him as one.
-Bobby Nightengale
