photo by: AP Photo/Jessica Tobias

Kansas' Devin Neal runs a drill during the Big 12 Conference's NFL football pro day Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Frisco, Texas.

The NFL Draft is imminent, with the first round set for Thursday night, and this year’s event has a chance to make history for the Kansas football program.

With offensive lineman Logan Brown, a former five-star high school recruit, and KU’s all-time leading rusher Devin Neal joining cornerbacks Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson in the draft, the 2025 class already looked like a good bet to match 2008 with four players selected. That 2008 class, of course, had helped produce the 2007 season that was the best in modern program history.

Now that fellow lineman Bryce Cabeldue has surged up draft boards with an extremely impressive showing at Big 12 Pro Day — “I don’t think he’s a secret anymore,” his KU position coach Daryl Agpalsa said recently — the Jayhawks could potentially be in line to have five players drafted, if both Cabeldue and Dotson are able to slip in.

That has not happened since seven went in the 1977 NFL Draft, back when the draft had 10 rounds. (Technically, five Jayhawks were also selected in 1984, but two of those picks occurred in a special supplemental draft for players who had already signed with the Canadian and United States football leagues.)

Last season saw offensive lineman Dominick Puni become the highest-drafted KU player since Aqib Talib in 2008 when he went in the third round to the San Francisco 49ers at No. 86 overall. He went on to contribute immediately as one of the top rookies in the league. Defensive end Austin Booker also went to the Chicago Bears in the fifth round.

A variety of additional Jayhawks went undrafted, headlined by Kenny Logan Jr., whom some had projected as a potential selection; he briefly caught on with the Los Angeles Rams and is now in the CFL.

With the sheer size of last year’s senior class at KU, the number of undrafted players could be even greater this time around, featuring names like wide receivers Luke Grimm and Quentin Skinner.

But as draft analysts put together their final mock drafts of the 2025 cycles, the possibility of four KU players coming off the board is looking like a near-certainty, with the full complement of five still a possibility.

At this point, the player least likely to be drafted among the five seems to be Dotson. In a sample of five recently released seven-round mock drafts — one from ESPN’s Jordan Reid, a 32-analyst Pro Football Focus mock and a Pro Football & Sports Network mock by Ian Cummings on Monday, plus a couple by NFL.com’s Chad Reuter from last Friday and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler from April 16 — only PFF has Dotson getting drafted, albeit all the way up in the fourth round at No. 121 to Tampa Bay.

A significant contributor for four of his five seasons in Lawrence, Dotson always had a nose for the ball and was particularly effective in zone coverage, even if he lacked the flash or outspoken personality of his teammate Bryant. He racked up 49 tackles, five interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 2024.

Like Bryant, Dotson took part in practices leading up to the East-West Shrine Bowl but did not participate in the actual game, according to PFF data. His 4.59 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine was the slowest among cornerbacks, though he tested better in the vertical and broad jumps.

Beyond Dotson’s fate, there are two other primary sources of intrigue regarding this year’s draft.

One is whether any Jayhawk has a chance to go on Day 2, Friday, which features the second and third rounds. Reid’s mock draft is the only one with any Jayhawk that high, as he has Neal slipping into the third round at No. 89 to the Houston Texans.

“Neal’s receiving prowess and reliability on multiple run concepts would make him an ideal RB2 behind Joe Mixon,” Reid wrote.

As far as pass-catching out of the backfield goes, Neal did indeed catch at least 21 passes each of his final three seasons in college with a touchdown each year, although the receptions generally didn’t go very far. He showed strong receiving ability at Senior Bowl practices after the season.

Neal carved his name in KU history with back-to-back stellar seasons on the ground in which he ran for 1,280 and 1,266 yards as a junior and senior, respectively, and scored 16 touchdowns each year.

PFF, Cummings and Brugler all have Neal in the fourth round, two to Jacksonville (at different spots) and one to New Orleans. Reuter is the outlier, with Neal all the way down at No. 182 in the sixth round, also going to the Jaguars, who may be in need of depth with Tank Bigsby on the rise and Travis Etienne Jr. reportedly a potential trade candidate.

The other question about the 2025 draft is who will come off the board first. With so many players clustered as early Day 3 selections, the sample of five seven-round drafts has four different options. Reid is the only analyst with Neal going first.

Cummings and Brugler have Brown as the top pick, headed to Arizona at No. 115 in the fourth round and Atlanta three picks later, respectively. A second-team All-Big 12 player in 2024, his lone season as KU’s starting right tackle, Brown is the only Jayhawk who forewent potential additional eligibility to enter the draft this season.

At 6-foot-6 and 311 pounds, Brown has always projected well to the next level from a physical standpoint. His performance at the combine ranked sixth among offensive tackles in terms of NFL.com’s Athleticism Score; his best individual showing was a 4.51-second time in the 20-yard shuttle, which was second among all linemen. Brown also played in the Senior Bowl and received more action there than Neal.

Bryant, whom PFF slates as the first Jayhawk picked at No. 105 to the New York Giants, had an an up-and-down senior season at KU but was still, like Dotson, one of the highest-graded cornerbacks in the Big 12. He was a unanimous first-team all-conference selection, finishing the year with 37 tackles, four interceptions and 11 passes defensed.

Bryant improved his draft stock dramatically in the lead-up to the Shrine Bowl, when he demonstrated his confidence and man-to-man skills by winning a variety of one-on-one matchups with top wideouts in practice. He also managed to put on weight to reach 180 pounds for the combine, supplementing his excellent length with improved size. All of the mock drafts now have Bryant as a fourth- or fifth-round pick.

Cabeldue, another Shrine Bowl selection, was not invited to the combine, but he took full advantage of his opportunity at the Big 12 Pro Day. He had the best 40-yard dash among offensive linemen at the event (4.95), tied for first in the bench press (30 repetitions) and was second in the broad and vertical jumps.

Cabeldue started at right tackle for KU before moving to left tackle for the 2024 season, helping to secure one of the Jayhawks’ best position groups of the year. He projects as a guard at the next level.

His offseason impression was positive enough for Reuter to place him as the highest-drafted Jayhawk, a fourth-round pick at No. 136 to Baltimore.

Cabeldue does have a wider range of outcomes than most; Reid places him as far down as the sixth round to Minnesota and PFF didn’t even have him getting drafted.

The 2025 NFL Draft begins with the first round at 7 p.m. Central Time on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Day 2 begins at 5 p.m. Friday and Day 3 at 11 a.m. Saturday.

photo by: AP Photo/George Walker IV

Kansas offensive lineman Logan Brown runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 2, 2025.

photo by: AP Photo/Jessica Tobias

Kansas’ Cobee Bryant runs a drill during the Big 12 Conference’s NFL football pro day Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Frisco, Texas.

photo by: AP Photo/George Walker IV

Kansas defensive back Mello Dotson runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025.

photo by: AP Photo/Jessica Tobias

Kansas’ Bryce Cabeldue runs a drill during the Big 12 Conference’s NFL football pro day Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Frisco, Texas.