The trickle-down effects of an NCAA-imposed rule which benefitted student-athletes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are rippling into the NFL.
The NCAA allowed for eligibility relief for student-athletes who were actively participating in the 2019-'20 spring, 2020-'21 fall, and 2020-'21 winter sports seasons in Division I.
Football, of course, is classified within the fall sports calendar, thus permitting players from 133 Division I schools the opportunity to -- essentially -- play a year of college football for free and without spending another year of eligibility.
This has mainly held consequence within the high school recruiting scene, as a backlog of prospects since the 2020 school year has pushed pieces around the college football landscape, mainly through the transfer portal. But, on the back-end of the proceedings, it also is forcing the hands of prospects to prepare for the NFL at later stages because of the extra year of eligibility and subsequently the transfer portal adding another year for players to hone their skills at the college level.
When all of the complexities are boiled down, the impact on the NFL is not just a deeper draft class; it is an "old" draft class by comparison.
"We're not opposed in an effort to pinpoint someone that might be special, but we do truly believe there is great depth in this draft," Mike Tomlin said Monday on the South Side. "We're ready and comfortable for whatever, and I'll be specific why we feel this is a deep draft. I think it's another byproduct of COVID. There's some veteran guys in this draft. I mean, there's guys with six years of college football playing experience and five years of college football playing experience, and I just think that that's one of the reasons why that it is so deep. It's just another byproduct of COVID."
Tomlin talked Monday more about the proceedings utilized within the pandemic in scouting players for the draft and how virtual tools are being blended with the way things "were" done pre-pandemic in order to vet prospects as much as possible. This extends to the pre-draft interviews held via Zoom or other virtual means, and it branches into finding more about a player's personal and medical history.
There are more ways -- more now, than ever -- for anybody to jump onto the internet find out information about someone, much less a Division I student-athlete which has more than likely had the majority of his career covered on some form of medium. Between the in-person and virtual visits conducted by Tomlin and Omar Khan, those methods are nearly weighed equally nowadays.
"It's a variety of things that determine that," Tomlin said. "Sometimes we're trying to gather medical information, sometimes we're trying to spend another intellectual football day with them. Maybe we didn't get any exposure to them because they were non-Combine or non-Senior Bowl or we didn't go to their universities, and so there's several reasons why a guy can fall into that 30-visit list, and those are some examples of why. Medical, a football get-to-know, a lack of exposure because they weren't invited to something, or things of that nature."
According to the prospect database from Establish the Run, the youngest prospect in the 2023 draft pool is a face that should at least be familiar to the Steelers by virtue of being next-door neighbors.
Born Oct. 5, 2002, Pitt running back Israel Abanikanda checks in at 20.3 years old, which is four months younger than the second-youngest prospect on the board. The oldest prospect, per Establish the Run, is Louisiana tight end Johnny Lumpkin, who was born Sep. 3, 1997, and is 25.3 years old. Players in this draft range anywhere from the high school recruiting classes of 2016 and 2020, as players will have to have been out of high school for at least three years in order to be draft eligible.
As noted above by Tomlin, there are several players who have played several seasons of football in college before filing their names in the 2023 Draft. The majority of the draft class comes from the high-school recruiting classes of 2018 and 2019, which means the average player would have spent between four and five years in a Division I program.
I asked Tomlin Monday if the influx of veteran players is noteworthy during the interviewing process:
"I think you notice it, but I also just think you look at the general age of the guys," Tomlin said. "Whenever we put a guy's profile up, you've got the basic measurable information: Height, weight, speed, et cetera, and date of birth is a component of it. I'd imagine the average date of birth for this draft class is significantly higher than maybe the previous years, and there's a specific reason why: the global pandemic."
The average age of the Steelers' seven draft picks in 2022 -- Kenny Pickett, George Pickens, DeMarvin Leal, Calvin Austin, Connor Heyward, Mark Robinson, and Chris Oladokun -- was 22.4 years old, with Oladokun being the oldest at 24, and Pickett edging Heyward by 230 days as the second-oldest at 23 years old. Pickens had barely turned 21 before he was drafted.
The oldest player to be drafted by the Steelers in 2021 was Isaiahh Loudermilk, who was 23 at the time.
According to data from Defector, the average age of the 2022 draft class was 24 years old. That average age from 2022 is certain to spike up this year, given the age grouping present within this draft and with more players from the 2017-'21 recruiting classes taking the main stage for the next few drafts to follow.
