2022 NFL Draft: Week 0 prospects to watch around the country

As college football officially gets underway this Saturday, here’s a dozen 2022 NFL Draft prospects to watch across 4 of the day’s 5 games.

This Saturday, August 28, 2021, there will be real college football games played that actually count, signaling the beginning of the 2022 NFL Draft process. While these games are usually filed under the heading of “Week 1,” many college football enthusiasts refer to these games as “Week 0”. It is the weekend before Week 1, after all.

Five games will be played on Saturday, beginning with a Big Ten conference clash, Nebraska at Illinois. After that, the slate will also feature teams from the Big Sky (Southern Utah), Conference USA (UTEP), the Mountain West (Hawaii, Fresno State, San Jose State), and two low-level independents (UConn, New Mexico State).

While none of these games will likely rival Clemson vs. Georgia on September 4, there’s still a lot to dig into here as far as future prospects go. As the NFL Draft process has repeatedly shown, talent can and does come from anywhere, even from a couple of volcanic islands out in the middle of the ocean.

I’ll be covering four of the five games this weekend, as even the most diehard college football fan would have trouble getting excited about UTEP at New Mexico State. I won’t be covering an equal number of prospects from each team, because some teams are better than others and thus have more prospects.

While things can and will change between now and the end of the year as certain players who play in these games will emerge or get hurt, this is simply a jumping-off point for the NCAA football season and projecting and prognosticating future draft picks for the 2022 NFL Draft. So, without further ado, let’s get to the games.