2024 NFL Draft Evidence Mizzou has 'Put the World on Notice'
As Darius Robinson was walking across the stage at the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit Thursday night, he had accomplished something no Missouri player has in seven years.
The former Missouri defensive end was the first Tiger to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since Charles Harris in 2017.
A new precedent would continue to be set for Missouri over the next two days. Five of Robinson's teammates were selected by NFL teams. With six players total, the NFL draft included the most Missouri players since 2009. Three were selected in the top 100 picks for only the fifth time since 1970.
The remarkable draft class continues the momentum that Missouri football has built with its 11-2 season in 2023. Young athletes all over the world seeing players from Missouri accomplish their NFL dreams should pay dividends in recruiting for years to come.
Robinson, who arrived to Columba in 2019, was selected by the Arizona Cardinals at pick No. 27. With the draft being held in Robinson's hometown of Detroit, he was able to share the special moment with his family and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz by his side.
"When you coach young men," Drinkwitz said Friday, "you're trying to help them chase a dream and you see the hard stuff, you see the tears, you see the hard work, the heartbreak. For all that to come together at this point, for him to realize his dream, it's such a special thing and its really why I coach football."
Had your back since Day 1#MIZ 🐯🏈 pic.twitter.com/YThuZQSMYG
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) April 26, 2024
The following night, two of Robinson's teammates received the life-changing call. The Detroit Lions selected corner back Ennis Rakestraw Jr. in the second round with the No. 61 pick. Rakestraw feels pride for leaving the Missouri program better than it was when he entered it in 2020.
"It was the whole goal for me, the reason I went there is because I wanted to go to a program that wasn't already built up," Rakestraw said on a conference call with Detroit media. "I was just one small piece, I wasn't the main piece, we was all the main piece, we all split out even. We bled together."
The next round, the Green Bay Packers selected inside linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper with the No. 91 pick. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was at Missouri's Pro Day in March and shared high praise for Missouri's ability to develop talent after selecting Hopper.
"The Missouri defense this year was excellent," Gutekunst said. "They had a number of good players, but I think they’re very well-coached there, another one of those programs where we felt really good about taking somebody out of that program, because of how they do things there."
According to offensive tackle Javon Foster, who was selected in the fourth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the No. 114 pick, teams around the league are beginning to respect Missouri.
"I feel like we put the world on notice this year," Foster said after being drafted. "The scouts, they went in and got a chance to talk to our coaches and realize that their mindsets are different from a lot of other coaches and how they wanted to carry to program and how they built their players so I feel like the league respects the Mizzou Tigers and I feel like they always should have but I feel like we really kinda put it on the map."
One of the Missouri coaching staff's greatest projects so far is cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine. The Mobile, Alabama, native came in as a three-star wide receiver in Drinkwitz's first recruiting class in 2020. He turned into a fifth round draft pick to the Denver Broncos at pick No. 145.
Six picks later, the Indianapolis Colts selected Abrams-Draine's former teammate in the secondary, safety J.C. Carlies. The former three-star recruit is expected to play linebacker with Indianapolis.
A few Missouri players who declared for the draft were not selected but have signed with teams as undrafted free agents. Running back Cody Schrader, continuing his history of being overlooked, went undrafted but did sign with the San Francisco 49ers. Kicker Harrison Mevis signed a contract with the Carolina Panthers. The full list of Missouri's undrafted free agent signings can be viewed here.
After the three days of selections and the undrafted signings, 23 Missouri players are now in the NFL. Six drafted players drafted from the same school was tied for the sixth-most this year and the fourth-most in the SEC.
This momentum is only expected to continue for Missouri. This draft class was only a teaser for what is likely to come from the Tigers. The NFL is clearly paying attention to what Drinkwitz and Co. are building.
JOSEPH VAN