Updated D2 2023 NFL Draft Top 25 D2

[Josh Buchanan]

Here is an updated top 100:

Rank	Pos	First Name	Last Name	School	Grade
1	OG	Joey	Fisher	Shepherd	6th
2	DE	Caleb	Murphy	Ferris State	7th
3	WR	David	Durden	West Florida	7th
4	OLB	Michael "Mike"	Ayers	Ashland	7th-PFA
5	RB	Darius	Hagans	Virginia State	7th-PFA
6	WR	Keilahn	Harris	Oklahoma Baptist	7th-PFA
7	OT	Jake	Witt	Northern Michigan	7th-PFA
8	OLB	Maalik	Hall	Southeastern Oklahoma State	PFA
9	RB	Emanuel	Wilson	Fort Valley State	PFA
10	WR	Braxton	Westfield	Carson-Newman	PFA
11	OT	BJ	Wilson	Quincy	PFA
12	RB	Ronnie	Brown	Shepherd	PFA
13	OG	Brent	Laing	Minnesota Duluth	PFA
14	QB	Tyson	Bagent	Shepherd	PFA
15	OT	Quinton	Barrow	Grand Valley State	PFA
16	CB	Darrious	Gaines	Western State (CO)	FA
17	SS	A.J.	McGhee	Minnesota State-Mankato	FA
18	WR	Xavier	Malone	Henderson State	FA
19	P	Ethan	Evans	Wingate	FA
20	CB	D.J.	Stirgus	Missouri Western State	FA
21	RB	TJ	Cole	Ouachita Baptist	FA
22	OLB	Trevor	Nowaske	Saginaw Valley State	FA
23	WR	Sy	Barnett	Davenport	FA
24	WR	Deshun	Kitchings	Newberry	FA
25	DE	Josh	Pryor	Bowie State	FA
26	OG	Jacky	Chen	Pace	FA
27	OLB	Charlie	Cleveland	Tiffin	FA
28	OLB	Elysee	Mbem-Bosse	Davenport	FA
29	DE	Andrew	Farmer	Lane College	FA
30	SS	Eli	Weber	Augustana (SD)	FA
31	DT	Brian	Holiday	Northwestern Oklahoma State	FA
32	OT	Nic	Melsop	Delta State	FA
33	WR	MJ	Link	UT Permian Basin	FA
34	WR	Dohnte	Meyers	Delta State	Tryout
35	WR	Jalen	Sample	Minnesota State-Mankato	Tryout
36	DT	Momar	Fall	CSU-Pueblo	Tryout
37	DT	Trey	Botts	CSU-Pueblo	Tryout
38	CB	Mason	Pierce	Colorado School of Mines	Tryout
39	TE	Brian	Walker	Shepherd	Tryout
40	DT	Jordan	Jones	Ferris State	Tryout
41	OG	James	Walker	Southeastern Oklahoma State	Tryout
42	WR	Jerome	Knapp	Kutztown	Tryout
43	RB	Tyler	King	Edward Waters (FL)	Tryout
44	FS	Tyler	Moore	Fort Valley State	Tryout
45	WR	Taj	Leslie	Northwood	Tryout
46	WR	Jeremiah	Bridges	South Dakota Tech	Tryout
47	WR	Peter	Afful	Washburn	Tryout
48	FB	Zach	Ojile	Minnesota Duluth	Tryout
49	CB	Tyler	Richardson	Tiffin	Tryout
50	DT	Zach	Howard	Northwest Missouri State	Tryout
51	RB	Ivory	Durham	Valdosta State	Tryout
52	WR	Josh	Johnston	Colorado School of Mines	Tryout
53	RB	Toriano	Clinton	Indianapolis	Tryout
54	CB	Nick	Whiteside	Saginaw Valley State	Tryout
55	WR	James	Letcher Jr.	Washburn	Tryout
56	SS	Cade	Pugh	Harding	Tryout
57	P	Myles	Prosser	North Greenville (SC)	Tryout
58	OG	Adam	Sieler	Ferris State	Tryout
59	WR	Ronnie	Blackmon	West Georgia	Tryout
60	OLB	Richard	Jordan Jr.	Missouri Southern State	Tryout
61	QB	Connor	Degenhardt	New Haven	Tryout
62	RB	Jamar	Thompkins	Valdosta State	Tryout
63	WR	Danny	Kittner	Mary (ND)	Tryout
64	WR	John	Hall	Northwood	Tryout
65	WR	Chris	Canaday	Wheeling (WV)	Tryout
66	QB	Harrison	Frost	West Georgia	Tryout
67	WR	Bryce	Murphy	Pittsburg State	Tryout
68	OG	Peyton	Stafford	Ouachita Baptist	Tryout
69	WR	Elijah	Harper	Adams State	Tryout
70	FS	Kenneth	Merritt	Fayetteville State	Tryout
71	TE	Dagan	Rienks	Colorado Mesa	Tryout
72	OG	Darian	Bryant	Virginia Union	Tryout
73	DT	Ellison	Jordan	Bowie State	Tryout
74	FS	Nirion	Washington	Charleston (WV)	Tryout
75	C	Hayden	Huttula	Michigan Tech	Tryout
76	RB	Devontae	Dean	Arkansas Tech	Tryout
77	FB	Ty	Snelson	Mars Hill	Tryout
78	WR	Hunter	Kaufman	West Texas A&M	Tryout
79	WR	Brendan	Beaulieu	Bemidji State	Tryout
80	DT	Charles	Ellington III	Wayne State (MI)	Tryout
81	QB	Turner	Pullen	McKendree	Tryout
82	CB	Chigozie "Chico"	Onyekwere	Newberry	Tryout
83	TE	Jeremie	Karngbaye	West Texas A&M	Tryout
84	FB	Hunter	Budke	Fort Hays State	Tryout
85	QB	Chris	Brimm	Notre Dame College	Tryout
86	TE	Nicholas "Nick"	Poterack	Wayne State (MI)	Tryout
87	WR	Jacob "Jake"	Bachman	McKendree	Tryout
88	SS	Justin	Moore	Ashland	Tryout
89	FS	Antonio	Strong	Grand Valley State	Tryout
90	WR	Manny	Ramsey	Fort Hays State	Tryout
91	OLB	Jaylen	McDuffie	Seton Hill	Tryout
92	OT	Christian	Ealey	Kentucky Wesleyan	Tryout
93	SS	Raymond	Boone	Bowie State	Tryout
94	WR	Duane	Brown	Indiana (PA)	Tryout
95	OT	Jean	Marcellus	Adams State	Tryout
96	FS	Marcus	Morgan	Newberry	Tryout
97	C	Kevin	Toote	Pace	Tryout
98	OG	Elijah	Reed	CSU-Pueblo	Tryout
99	C	Matt	Armendariz	Colorado School of Mines	Tryout
100	ILB	Sir'Zion	Dance	Tiffin	Tryout

[Ram Tough]

It's pretty wild. Shepherd's last draft pick was Wayne Wilson (a name for you Saints fans) in 1979. And for the first time since I have been watching football, I am confident that I will hear my alma mater's name at least once over the weekend with an outside possibility of hearing it multiple times. Pretty crazy.

[canadarican]

Braxton Westfield of Carson-Newman just signed a PFA deal with Indianapolis

[twolfbenchwarmer]

Trey Botts signed a deal with the Baltimore Ravens

[washeduptiger]

NBC sports tends to do a decent job on following this

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/be...t-signings?amp

[southside]

dj sturgis mowest signs w Washington

https://gogriffons.com/news/2023/4/2...ommanders.aspx

[Josh Buchanan]

The numbers did not really shock me because I had even told Brandon that we could see as few as 2 drafted but I also thought as many as 5-6 could get picked. The major surprise for me was that Fisher and Murphy did not get drafted. People I talked to felt they would and I was honestly wondering if my 7th round projection for Murphy was too low. I was leaning towards expecting 3 or 4 drafted. I figured it was likely that Witt could be a surprise but was caught off guard with the Wingate punter being drafted. I was very impressed with him because I had him in my top 100 small schoolers since the end of the season but did not expect him to get drafted.

I would imagine that Hall has signed or got tryouts by now. BJ Wilson is coming off an injury so I am not sure if he would have signed or if it will be a little while. Cole and McGhee will both get tryouts if they are not signed.

Here is what I have as current status of my D2 top 35.

Rank	Pos	First	Last Name	School	Grade	Rd	Pick	Team
1	OG	Joey	Fisher	Shepherd	6th		Signed	San Francisco
2	DE	Caleb	Murphy	Ferris State	7th		Signed	Tennessee
3	WR	David	Durden	West Florida	7th		Signed	Dallas
4	OLB	Mike	Ayers	Ashland	7th-PFA		Signed	Seattle
5	RB	Darius	Hagans	Virginia State	7th-PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
6	WR	Keilahn	Harris	Oklahoma Baptist	7th-PFA		Signed	Atlanta
7	OT	Jake	Witt	Northern Michigan	7th-PFA	7	236	Indianapolis
8	OLB	Maalik	Hall	Southeastern Oklahoma State	PFA
9	RB	Emanuel	Wilson	Fort Valley State	PFA		Signed	Denver
10	WR	Braxton	Westfield	Carson-Newman	PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
11	OT	BJ	Wilson	Quincy (IL)	PFA
12	RB	Ronnie	Brown	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Tampa Bay
13	OG	Brent	Laing	Minnesota Duluth	PFA		Signed	NY Jets
14	QB	Tyson	Bagent	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Chicago
15	OT	Quinton	Barrow	Grand Valley State	PFA		Signed	Kansas City
16	CB	Darrious	Gaines	Western State (CO)	FA		Signed	Denver
17	SS	A.J.	McGhee	Minnesota State-Mankato	FA
18	WR	Xavier	Malone	Henderson State	FA		Signed	Atlanta
19	P	Ethan	Evans	Wingate (NC)	FA	7	223	LA Rams
20	CB	D.J.	Stirgus	Missouri Western State	FA		Signed	Washington
21	RB	TJ	Cole	Ouachita Baptist	FA
22	OLB	Trevor	Nowaske	Saginaw Valley State	FA		Signed	Detroit
23	WR	Sy	Barnett	Davenport (MI)	FA		Signed	New Orleans
24	WR	Deshun	Kitchings	Newberry	FA		Tryout	Chicago/Tampa Bay
25	DE	Josh	Pryor	Bowie State (MD)	FA
26	OG	Jacky	Chen	Pace	FA		Signed	Minnesota
27	OLB	Charlie	Cleveland	Tiffin (OH)	FA
28	OLB	Elysee	Mbem-Bosse	Davenport (MI)	FA
29	DE	Andrew	Farmer	Lane College (TN)	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
30	SS	Eli	Weber	Augustana (SD)	FA		Tryout	NY Giants
31	DT	Brian	Holiday	Northwestern Oklahoma State	FA
32	OT	Nic	Melsop	Delta State	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
33	WR	MJ	Link	UT Permian Basin	FA
34	WR	Dohnte	Meyers	Delta State	Tryout		Tryout	Atlanta
35	WR	Jalen	Sample	Minnesota State-Mankato	Tryout

[vikingfaithful]

Eli Weber of Augustana (SD) has been invited to NY Giants rookie mini camp.

[zimmy21]

The numbers did not really shock me because I had even told Brandon that we could see as few as 2 drafted but I also thought as many as 5-6 could get picked. The major surprise for me was that Fisher and Murphy did not get drafted. People I talked to felt they would and I was honestly wondering if my 7th round projection for Murphy was too low. I was leaning towards expecting 3 or 4 drafted. I figured it was likely that Witt could be a surprise but was caught off guard with the Wingate punter being drafted. I was very impressed with him because I had him in my top 100 small schoolers since the end of the season but did not expect him to get drafted.

I would imagine that Hall has signed or got tryouts by now. BJ Wilson is coming off an injury so I am not sure if he would have signed or if it will be a little while. Cole and McGhee will both get tryouts if they are not signed.

Here is what I have as current status of my D2 top 35.

Rank	Pos	First	Last Name	School	Grade	Rd	Pick	Team
1	OG	Joey	Fisher	Shepherd	6th		Signed	San Francisco
2	DE	Caleb	Murphy	Ferris State	7th		Signed	Tennessee
3	WR	David	Durden	West Florida	7th		Signed	Dallas
4	OLB	Mike	Ayers	Ashland	7th-PFA		Signed	Seattle
5	RB	Darius	Hagans	Virginia State	7th-PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
6	WR	Keilahn	Harris	Oklahoma Baptist	7th-PFA		Signed	Atlanta
7	OT	Jake	Witt	Northern Michigan	7th-PFA	7	236	Indianapolis
8	OLB	Maalik	Hall	Southeastern Oklahoma State	PFA
9	RB	Emanuel	Wilson	Fort Valley State	PFA		Signed	Denver
10	WR	Braxton	Westfield	Carson-Newman	PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
11	OT	BJ	Wilson	Quincy (IL)	PFA
12	RB	Ronnie	Brown	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Tampa Bay
13	OG	Brent	Laing	Minnesota Duluth	PFA		Signed	NY Jets
14	QB	Tyson	Bagent	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Chicago
15	OT	Quinton	Barrow	Grand Valley State	PFA		Signed	Kansas City
16	CB	Darrious	Gaines	Western State (CO)	FA		Signed	Denver
17	SS	A.J.	McGhee	Minnesota State-Mankato	FA
18	WR	Xavier	Malone	Henderson State	FA		Signed	Atlanta
19	P	Ethan	Evans	Wingate (NC)	FA	7	223	LA Rams
20	CB	D.J.	Stirgus	Missouri Western State	FA		Signed	Washington
21	RB	TJ	Cole	Ouachita Baptist	FA
22	OLB	Trevor	Nowaske	Saginaw Valley State	FA		Signed	Detroit
23	WR	Sy	Barnett	Davenport (MI)	FA		Signed	New Orleans
24	WR	Deshun	Kitchings	Newberry	FA		Tryout	Chicago/Tampa Bay
25	DE	Josh	Pryor	Bowie State (MD)	FA
26	OG	Jacky	Chen	Pace	FA		Signed	Minnesota
27	OLB	Charlie	Cleveland	Tiffin (OH)	FA
28	OLB	Elysee	Mbem-Bosse	Davenport (MI)	FA
29	DE	Andrew	Farmer	Lane College (TN)	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
30	SS	Eli	Weber	Augustana (SD)	FA		Tryout	NY Giants
31	DT	Brian	Holiday	Northwestern Oklahoma State	FA
32	OT	Nic	Melsop	Delta State	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
33	WR	MJ	Link	UT Permian Basin	FA
34	WR	Dohnte	Meyers	Delta State	Tryout		Tryout	Atlanta
35	WR	Jalen	Sample	Minnesota State-Mankato	Tryout

Jalen Sample was signed by the Washington Commanders

[Josh Buchanan]

Jalen Sample was signed by the Washington Commanders

Thanks. I found a couple others as well. Maalik Hall signed with Jets.

[Josh Buchanan]

Here is the top 35 with updated signings and tryouts. BJ Wilson was hurt so I don't know if he will be delayed or has signed and I just have not seen it.

Rank	Pos	First Name	Last Name	School	Grade	Rd	Pick	Team
1	OG	Joey	Fisher	Shepherd	6th		Signed	San Francisco
2	DE	Caleb	Murphy	Ferris State	7th		Signed	Tennessee
3	WR	David	Durden	West Florida	7th		Signed	Dallas
4	OLB	Mike	Ayers	Ashland	7th-PFA		Signed	Seattle
5	RB	Darius	Hagans	Virginia State	7th-PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
6	WR	Keilahn	Harris	Oklahoma Baptist	7th-PFA		Signed	Atlanta
7	OT	Jake	Witt	Northern Michigan	7th-PFA	7	236	Indianapolis
8	OLB	Maalik	Hall	Southeastern Oklahoma State	PFA		Signed	NY Jets
9	RB	Emanuel	Wilson	Fort Valley State	PFA		Signed	Denver
10	WR	Braxton	Westfield	Carson-Newman	PFA		Signed	Indianapolis
11	OT	BJ	Wilson	Quincy	PFA
12	RB	Ronnie	Brown	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Tampa Bay
13	OG	Brent	Laing	Minnesota Duluth	PFA		Signed	NY Jets
14	QB	Tyson	Bagent	Shepherd	PFA		Signed	Chicago
15	OT	Quinton	Barrow	Grand Valley State	PFA		Signed	Kansas City
16	CB	Darrious	Gaines	Western State (CO)	FA		Signed	Denver
17	SS	A.J.	McGhee	Minnesota State-Mankato	FA
18	WR	Xavier	Malone	Henderson State	FA		Signed	Atlanta
19	P	Ethan	Evans	Wingate	FA	7	223	LA Rams
20	CB	D.J.	Stirgus	Missouri Western State	FA		Signed	Washington
21	RB	TJ	Cole	Ouachita Baptist	FA		Tryout	Minnesota/Philadelphia
22	OLB	Trevor	Nowaske	Saginaw Valley State	FA		Signed	Detroit
23	WR	Sy	Barnett	Davenport	FA		Signed	New Orleans
24	WR	Deshun	Kitchings	Newberry	FA		Tryout	Chicago/Tampa Bay
25	DE	Josh	Pryor	Bowie State	FA		Signed	Washington
26	OG	Jacky	Chen	Pace	FA		Signed	Minnesota
27	OLB	Charlie	Cleveland	Tiffin	FA
28	OLB	Elysee	Mbem-Bosse	Davenport	FA
29	DE	Andrew	Farmer	Lane College	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
30	SS	Eli	Weber	Augustana (SD)	FA		Tryout	NY Giants
31	DT	Brian	Holiday	Northwestern Oklahoma State	FA
32	OT	Nic	Melsop	Delta State	FA		Signed	LA Chargers
33	WR	MJ	Link	UT Permian Basin	FA
34	WR	Dohnte	Meyers	Delta State	Tryout		Tryout	Atlanta
35	WR	Jalen	Sample	Minnesota State-Mankato	Tryout		Signed	Washington

[Eagle74]

Unfortunately, not a great NFL Draft for D2 this year. However, I was glad to see some players getting a chance with priority free agent contracts after the draft was completed.

[Josh Buchanan]

Unfortunately, not a great NFL Draft for D2 this year. However, I was glad to see some players getting a chance with priority free agent contracts after the draft was completed.

We have definitely seen better. Several players were close. I felt going in we could see just 2 drafted or could see as many as 5 or 6. Even though there was not a mid round or above player this class is solid. I think we will see several of these make a 53 man roster or practice squad. I believe that if Harris had run 4.5s instead of the 4.7 he did at pro day that he would have gotten drafted.

[Eagle74]

I agree, I too believe some players were close, and I have to give a shout out for Wingate's Punter Ethen Evens for getting selected by the Rams.

[Predatory Primates]

I saw on Twitter that Letcher Jr. From Washburn Is going to chiefs mini camp.