The college football Week 1 slate is upon us, and the team of draft evaluators and CFB analysts at Pro Football Network are here with instant takeaways from the weekend slate. Find our immediate reactions to all the action from start to finish in college football’s Week 1 Saturday games.
Taking into account all of the weekend’s slate of action, our CFB/Draft department will all be on hand for their instant reactions as they come in. For clarity’s sake, each takeaway, reaction, and result will be culminated by the initials of the analyst responsible. TP for Tony Pauline, CM for Cam Mellor, IC for Ian Cummings, OH for Oliver Hodgkinson, and JF for James Fragoza.
The best corner you never heard of?
12:35- Phil Jurkovec looks sharp in the early going against Rutgers. I have been generally impressed with his accuracy and pass placement during the opening drives. All to often in the past, Jurkovec made receivers work to hard to come away with the catch- not today.
12:20- We just saw why i have Boston College receiver Zay Flowers graded as a 6th round prospect. At 5-feet-9-inches and just over 170 pounds, Flowers is fast but lacks the elite second gear, which prevented him from catching the long pass on third down. He looks like a 4.47s forty guy, which isn’t bad, it’s just not day two material.
11:50 AM: Week 1 on the college football schedule has several top-ranked matchups throughout the day and evening as well as a lot of teams taking on cream-puff opponents.
The fun starts right at noon as Rutgers travels to Boston College. The big matchup here is BC signal-caller Phil Jurkovec and wideout Zay Flowers against Max Melton, the potentially dominant cornerback from Rutgers.
Jurkovec returns from an injury that sidelined him for the second half of 2021. He’s got a big arm but can be all over the place with throws. Flowers is a reliable intermediate-range target that can also double as a return specialist. He’s small and lacks the deep burst. Both grade as Day 3 prospects on my board.
Max Melton is brother to Bo Melton, the seventh-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks presently on the team’s practice squad. Max is more athletic than his older brother, who blew up the Combine, timing 4.34s in the 40, touching 38 inches in the vertical jump, and running 6.98 in the three-cone.
Melton flashed brilliance last season as a sophomore, and though I have him rated as a third-round prospect, some in the scouting community believe he has first-round potential. I’m told if Melton has a big season he’s likely to enter the NFL draft.
The other game to keep an eye on is Sam Houston State making the short trip to get pounded by Texas A&M. The Bearkats have had a solid FCS/IAA program in recent years, but I’ll be interested in watching a pair of transfers on the field today.
BJ Foster showed me a lot of ability early in his career at Texas before slipping through the cracks. I have him graded as a PFA. Likewise, running back Dezmon Jackson was explosive during his short stint at Oklahoma State before making the move to Sam Houston. He comes with nice size and power, yet has never been really productive. TP
