QB1 to the NFL, How Netflix could shape the NFL Draft
By Kyle Edmond
Netflix has featured some of the top high school talent on ‘QB1: Beyond The Lights’ and those players are now looking towards the NFL Draft.
Beginning in February of 2017, Netflix unveiled a new series that followed various high school senior quarterbacks through their final season and the process of finding their next step at the collegiate level. With three seasons released and a fourth in the works, the show is being put to the test of identifying talent along with producing the show.
Each of the three seasons released featured three players that all made an initial commitment to a Division-I program. Of the nine stars of the series, one has entered the NFL, being Jake Fromm who was selected by the Buffalo Bills in April. Of the remaining eight, four have already transferred to a new school, giving a glimpse into the era of the transfer portal.
The show has proven to be a fan favorite of both high school and college football fans alike as a way of highlighting high school athletics while also paving the way for the next wave of college football stars. However, the question is now becoming if the show’s participants are truly the next wave of college football greats and if NFL fans should begin binge-watching.
Of the first season’s three stars, just Fromm has made a meaningful contribution as a starter for multiple games while the other two on the season, Tate Martell and Tayvon Bowers, are both now at their second schools, trying to catch on in some capacity.
The second season’s three stars are showing to be similar, but with a little more success. After sitting a year behind Fromm at Georgia, Justin Fields transferred to Ohio State and took college football by storm, now working his way into the conversation of being the best player in the 2021 NFL Draft.
As for the other two, Sam Hartman has the opportunity to reclaim the starting job at Wake Forest after Jamie Newman transferred to Georgia while Re-al Mitchell just announced he will transfer to Temple from Iowa State.
The stars of the third season have yet to have much of an opportunity to showcase what they can do with all three receiving redshirts in 2019 and two of them seeing the field for three games apiece.
Some of the fourth season’s stars have been released with details of commitments as well, but I won’t spoil that for anyone. For those that want to know, all it takes is a quick Google search.