{"id":18749,"date":"2025-05-02T20:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/18749\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T20:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:04:09","slug":"what-we-learned-about-byu-from-nfl-draft-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/18749\/","title":{"rendered":"What we learned about BYU from NFL draft? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in the Cougar Insiders newsletter<\/a>. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week.<\/p>\n

While the NFL draft ignored BYU players in 2025, this should change in 2026 with some key players set to draw attention.<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler\u2019s<\/a> projection of draftees in 2026, Keanu Tanuvasa<\/a> will be taken in the first round. Isaiah Glasker and Jack Kelly<\/a> should follow in subsequent rounds. Chase Roberts<\/a> could be another draft candidate as could tight end Carsen Ryan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

Offensive lineman Weylin Lapuaho<\/a> could also hear his name called.<\/p>\n

Question of the week<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, BYU did not have a player taken in the 2025 NFL draft. What do you make of that? What does it mean or say about the 2024 season?<\/p>\n

Jay Drew: I chatted with an NFL agent Monday and asked him about BYU not having a player drafted this year, and his word of advice to BYU fans was to not let it bother them. He said absolutely nothing can be read into it, other than the fact that Kalani Sitake and his staff did a masterful job coaching the team in 2024. BYU won 11 games without having any stars. That\u2019s pretty incredible. As I wrote midway through the season, the MVP of BYU\u2019s 2024 football team was the team itself.<\/p>\n

It is pretty telling that as of Monday afternoon that no fewer than eight BYU players had received opportunities<\/a> to continue playing, either with undrafted free agent contracts or minicamp invitations. That\u2019s evidence of a deep team, which is what Sitake has been trying to build in Provo.<\/p>\n

Another thing to keep in mind is that the NFL draft is largely about potential. The feeling I get is that teams believe a lot of Cougars have already reached their potential and that their ceiling is limited. Again, that\u2019s another tribute to the coaching staff, which got a lot out of their guys in 2024.<\/p>\n

Dick Harmon: Tyler Batty should have been drafted<\/a>. Period. Stop. He had the combine numbers and the game video to show his abilities and potential in the NFL. But as we\u2019ve learned over the years, the draft isn\u2019t an exact science but an educated guess with a lot of money on the line. <\/p>\n

I think a positive way to look at things is the Big 12 had player draft numbers (31) behind the SEC (79), Big Ten (71), and ACC (42) and that\u2019s a league challenge. Yet, ASU was just two plays from beating Texas (12 draft picks), who played for the CFP title. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, by being a free agent, you have a choice of what team to sign with and can more fully choose the situation that fits. That is huge, albeit a tougher way to advance at the next level. Chris Hoke comes to mind<\/a>. He was undrafted, but had an 11-year NFL career as a defensive lineman for the Steelers.<\/p>\n

To see BYU go 11-2, finish ranked No. 13 and as high as No. 6 with no draft picks in 2025 says Sitake, Aaron Roderick and Jay Hill did a phenomenal job of coaching players to achieve and play as a team. It speaks to the culture they built last year and why they are successful right now in recruiting four-star players.<\/p>\n

\"BYUBYU head coach Kalani Sitake pauses on the sideline during game against Arizona State Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Tempe, Ariz. | AP Cougar talesFrom the archivesFrom the X-verseExtra pointsFanalysts<\/p>\n

Comments from Deseret News readers:<\/p>\n

Love Richie\u2019s style of play, and think his decision is the right one for both himself, his family and BYU. September thru early April next year is going to be the best seven-plus months in the history of BYU sports. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Periloustimes<\/p>\n

Remember when all of the Utah \u201cfans\u201d on here were making fun of BYU\u2019s new men\u2019s basketball coach Kevin Young? It wasn\u2019t that long ago, about 12 months.<\/p>\n

They said he had no experience, had never won anything, had a losing record in the G league, and on, and on, and on. What say ye now? <\/p>\n

\u2014 Steven Foster<\/p>\n

Up nextMay 1 | 6:30 p.m. | Baseball | Kansas State | @ ProvoMay 2 | 5 p.m. | Softball | Texas Tech | @ Provo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published in the Cougar Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,3309,5187,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-18749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-news-feed-local","10":"tag-newsletters","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114440035621654882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}