7 former B1G players make Sports Illustrated’s list of top-50 NFL Draft prospects

The Big Ten doesn’t have the amount of elite prospects it normally has, but that doesn’t mean the quality of players heading from the conference to the 2018 NFL Draft is in decline.

In fact, Penn State star RB Saquon Barkley is the No. 1 player in Sports Illustrated’s list of the top 50 NFL Draft prospects.

Joining Barkley are six other B1G players, as you can see in the list below, but only two are in the top 10:

• No. 1 — Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State
• No. 10 — Denzel Ward, CB, Ohio State
• No. 22 — Josh Jackson, CB, Iowa
• No. 24 — James Daniels, C, Iowa
• No. 31 — Maurice Hurst, DT, Michigan
• No. 34 — Billy Price, OL, Ohio State
• No. 38 — D.J. Moore, WR, Maryland

Of course, it’s still early, so some B1G athletes could work their way into the top 50 after the Scouting Combine and other pre-draft interviews and workouts.

For now, though, Barkley and Denzel Ward lead a thin group of top athletes coming from the conference.

Adam Spencer

A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam is the news editor across all Saturday Football brands.