ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. appeared on a conference call yesterday afternoon, and discussed several topics involving late April’s NFL draft, including Michigan prospects Maurice Hurst and Mason Cole.
Both are expected to be drafted within the first five rounds, despite major questions surrounding each of them.
For Cole, the main question is whether he projects better as a center or tackle at the next level — he played both throughout his career at Michigan, but his future position is still a topic of debate.
Hurst has a much bigger issue surrounding him. He was held out of the NFL combine in early March after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat, but has since been cleared by cardiologists at Michigan and Harvard, and participated fully in U-M’s March 23 Pro Day.
Despite being cleared, it’s still fair to wonder how much (if at all) the heart issue will affect his draft stock.
“I think Hurst is back in the discussion for the first round,” Kiper explained. “It’s now up to the individual teams to assess him with their own doctors.
“If you take the medical aspect out of it, he played like a late first/early to mid-second round pick — at least that’s how he projects to the NFL. It just depends on your teams’ system — if you want an explosive three-technique, then you’d look at him.
“It also depends on the scheme, and he doesn’t fit everybody’s. I didn’t put him in the first round of my latest mock draft, but we’ll see moving forward. I’ll come out with my mock 4.0 next week and then my fifth right before the draft.
“I’d say he’s a borderline first-round pick, depending on how teams view him.”
Notes
Despite being fully cleared, the heart condition has definitely scared some teams away from Hurst. Prior to it, there was speculation he could even be a top 15 pick, but as Kiper mentioned above, he's now viewed as a late first, early to mid-second round pick.
His size is another aspect that will probably scare some teams away — he measured in at just 6-1, 291, at U-M's Pro Day. An ideal weight for defensive tackles in the NFL is over 300 pounds, and at 6-1, he's likely too short to be moved out to defensive end.
Hurst's biggest attribute is his speed and explosiveness. At the NFL combine in early March, NFL Network's Mike Mayock explained that Hurst is "a quick explosion guy — one gap and go," and also noted how "quick and powerful he is off the ball."
As a fifth-year senior at U-M last year, Hurst racked up 14.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, and as a result was named a consensus All-Big Ten and All-American performer.
Kiper was next asked which position — tackle or center — best suits Cole in the NFL.
"I think it’s center," he explained. "His arm length precludes the tackle spot. I don’t think he’ll be one of the top three centers taken though — I think James Daniels from Iowa, Billy Price from Ohio State and Frank Ragnow from Arkansas are your top three, and they’ll all go early.
"I see Daniels going in the first round, and if it wasn’t for a torn pectoral, I think Price would also go in the first round — he's likely a second-rounder now though.
"Ragnow will probably be taken in the second or third. UCLA's Scott Quessenberry also had a great workout — he and Mason Cole are the next centers in line. I think third to fifth round is a decent projection for Cole.”
Notes
As mentioned above, Cole is viewed as a bit of a tweener. He may be a bit short — measured in at 6-4, 308, at Michigan's Pro Day — to play tackle in the NFL, but also only played center for one year (2016) at Michigan.
Cole's biggest attribute is his toughness and consistency.
He started all 51 games of his U-M career, a feat that is nearly unheard of nowadays for collegiate linemen.
In doing so, he became the first freshman in Michigan history to start a season-opener on the offensive line, when he lined up at left tackle against Appalachian State in 2014.
The recent success of U-M offensive linemen in the draft — most notably, Graham Glasgow with the Detroit Lions — could bump Cole's status up a bit.
Kiper's projection of third to fifth round seems to be spot on.
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