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Star Lotulelei was, at one point, considered a potential number one draft pick in today's NFL draft. However, after a health scare involving his heart, his draft stock took a fairly substantial hit. Even though he's passed important tests since, and it's been suggested his heart condition could be due to dehydration, Star has had trouble regaining his position in this year's draft and, unless the Kansas City Chiefs surprise tonight, it's unlikely he'll go number one.
In fact, Star might not even go in the top-ten anymore - something that seemed implausible prior to his heart concerns.
Still, there is no consensus on Star's position. Rob Rang of CBS Sports has him going three to Jacksonville, while Peter King of Sports Illustrated believes Green Bay will pick him with the 26th pick - a dramatic fall for a player who, as I said, was thought as a number one pick just a couple months ago.
Of course, these mock drafts don't mean a lick and the fact so many pundits have Star going anywhere from top-five, to not even top-20, proves as much. You're supposed to take 'em with a grain of salt. But that doesn't change the fact that some teams have appeared to cool on Star and because of that, he's no slam dunk now. He'll go in the first round, most assuredly, however, anything beyond that is up in the air right now.
I've rounded as many mock drafts as I could find and you can get a sense of what the consensus is trying to say about Star:
Site | Draft Position | Team |
SI | #26 | Green Bay |
AP | #17 | Pittsburgh |
NFL | #18 | Dallas |
NFL | #3 | Oakland |
NFL | #4 | Philadelphia |
NFL | #10 | Tennessee |
NFL | #13 | New York Jets |
NFL | #15 | New Orleans |
NFL | #14 | Carolina |
NFL | #1 | Kansas City |
CBS | #4 | Philadelphia |
CBS | #7 | Arizona |
CBS | #10 | Tennessee |
CBS | #11 | San Diego |
CBS | #11 | San Diego |
CBS | #4 | Philadelphia |
ESPN | #4 | Philadelphia |
FOX Sports | #5 | Oakland (via trade) |
Yahoo! Sports | #15 | New Orleans |
Star's best draft position comes from NFL.com's Akbar Gbajabiamila - though he made that prediction back at the beginning of April. The worst, as I already mentioned, is from Peter King, who thinks Star will go at the end of the first round.
We'll see who's right tonight.
The NFL Draft will air on ESPN and the NFL Network starting at 8:00 ET.
Good luck to Star, and all the other players who are eligible to be drafted. Hopefully it's a good day for Utah.