Of the 100 players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft’s first three rounds, more than a third (35) weren’t four- or five-star recruits. There were also plenty of other non-blue-chip recruits who went later in the draft, and a good amount of others who may have gone undrafted but still ended up being highly productive at the college level.
That’s all obviously far from new. Some players fly under the radar during the recruiting process. Others are just late bloomers. It’s why, every year, I view it as a fun exercise to try and identify some hidden gems among players in the current recruiting class in a list that’s based on feedback from staffers around the college football personnel and recruiting space.
The question is always the same: Who are some non-four- or five-star recruits, not currently committed to your team, whom you’re really high on and think could be a really good player at the college level?
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Based on answers from a number of personnel and recruiting sources, here are 30 unheralded defensive recruits whom personnel staffers are high on (listed alphabetically). We had a rundown of 30 unheralded offensive recruits that went up Tuesday.
