From 2013-2023, there have been 171 FCS players drafted. One position group, especially lately, stands out.
The FCS has had great success sending offensive linemen to the NFL Draft. Since 2018, 19 o-linemen have been selected.
Eight of these 19 picks were in the first four rounds with three hearing their name called in the first round.
- 2023 2nd Round — Cody Mauch, North Dakota State
- 2022 1st Round — Trevor Penning, Northern Iowa
- 2022 1st Round — Cole Strange, Chattanooga
- 2022 4th Round — Cordell Volson, North Dakota State
- 2021 2nd Round — Dillon Radunz, North Dakota State
- 2021 3rd Round — Spencer Brown, Northern Iowa
- 2019 1st Round — Tytus Howard, Alabama State
- 2018 3rd Round — Brandon Parker, North Carolina A&T
Many of their stories sound the same. While the power programs want high school linemen who already look the part, the FCS has thrived on under-developed recruits who may need 3-4 years of college strength and conditioning.
Six-foot 5. 230ish pounds. Multi-sport athlete in a rural town. These are the guys the FCS has seen picked early in the NFL Draft.
Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning went from a 6-foot-4, 210-pound high school junior playing in the lowest level of 11-man football in Iowa to a 6-foot-7 and 320-pound first-round draft pick. His UNI teammate Spencer Brown, also an Iowa native, went from a 6-foot-8, 238-pound freshman to a 6-foot-9, 321-pound senior who then got selected in the third round.
Chattanooga’s Cole Strange was a defensive end recruit out of Tennessee. He made the switch to OL early in his Mocs career and developed into a first-round NFL talent.
NDSU’s Cody Mauch and Cordell Volson played 9-man North Dakota HS football and then blossomed into second and fourth-round draft picks. Mauch arrived at NDSU as a 6-foot-4, 234-pound walk-on tight end. He left as a 6-foot-5 and 300-pound All-American left tackle.
NDSU in particular has a strong pipeline to the NFL. The Bison had four former offensive linemen starting games in the NFL last season.
“They do a great job taking athletic bodies and putting good weight on them,” NDSU linemen and 2024 draft prospect Jalen Sundell told HERO Sports. “I don’t think there is anything we didn’t do at NDSU in our offense. We did everything out of every personnel. It makes us prepared for the next level.”
The 2024 draft class from the FCS is again strong with offensive linemen. Of the 15 FCS players invited to the NFL Combine, eight were OL:
- C.J. Hanson, Holy Cross
- Anim Dankwah, Howard
- Kiran Amegadjie, Yale
- Nick Gargiulo, Yale/South Carolina
- Jalen Sundell, North Dakota State
- Garret Greenfield, South Dakota State
- Mason McCormick, South Dakota State
- Josiah Ezirim, Eastern Kentucky
“Once you get down to the nitty-gritty, we’re big people, we have the size, and we can show it on the field,” Hanson told HERO Sports at the combine. “We may not play against the highest level, but that’s why we get the all-star games to show it. Football is football. If you got it, you got it.”
In Draft Scout’s latest rankings, six FCS o-linemen are projected draft picks:
- Kiran Amegadjie, Yale (2nd-3rd round)
- Mason McCormick, SDSU (4th-5th)
- C.J. Hanson, Holy Cross (6th)
- Jalen Sundell, NDSU (6th-7th)
- Garret Greenfield, SDSU (7th)
- Josiah Ezirim, EKU (7th-HPFA)
The Missouri Valley Football Conference, where teams like UNI, NDSU, and two-time defending national champs SDSU play, has especially seen success in developing NFL talent. The league has had 12 players (all positions) selected in the first four rounds since 2020.
In 2022, the MVFC had more draft picks (9) than FBS conferences like the MAC, Sun Belt, and CUSA.
“The Missouri Valley can hang with anybody,” McCormick told HERO Sports. “I would like to think that there’s not many teams that would beat [SDSU] at all levels. We compete at a super-high level. We get super-high-caliber kids at our program. And we develop them. We’re competitive in practice week in and week out, and it’s paid off.”
Draft Scout has 22 FCS players in its latest Top 360 prospects for the 2024 draft, 10 of which are from the MVFC. SDSU has five players ranked.
“I think a lot of them come in underrecruited,” Greenfield told HERO Sports. “They didn’t get a lot of Power Five interest coming out of high school. They come in with a chip on their shoulder and are out to prove something from the day they get there. It speaks to the coaching staffs too. The players have to buy in, but good coaches make good players too. I just think there is a lot of talent in the FCS level, and each and every year more and more people are starting to realize that.”
