Arizona Football: No NFL Draft selections for Wildcats

A look at the NFL Draft and the recruiting implications it holds

We went 256 selections in the 2015 NFL Draft without hearing the name of an Arizona Wildcat. There were quite a few who were eligible, including Austin Hill, Mickey Bacus, Fabbains Ebbele and Dan Pettinato, who all ended up signing as undrafted free agents.

Steven Gurrola has been invited to rookie minicamp for the Cleveland Browns and Tra'Mayne Bondurant has yet to receive a phone call.

Sometimes, it may be best to go undrafted, as you can select your destination and pick a team that has needs at the position.

But for the program itself, not having an NFL Draft pick could be costly. The goal of these 17-year-old recruits is to make it to the league, and this weekend had huge recruiting implications for many schools across the country. Having draft picks is a huge recruiting tool, but now Arizona will have to rely on the success of Rich Rodriguez and the direction he's taking this program.

We heard the name of four Sun Devils this weekend, all within the first four rounds, including one in the first round, Damarious Randall. Jaelen Strong's stock fell significantly because he refused to get his wrist evaluated after suffering an injury as well as other reports, but ultimately landed in the third round. Arizona State also had offensive lineman Jamil Douglas and defensive lineman Marcus Hardison selected in the fourth round. Not only has Todd Graham done a great job at recruiting, whether it's done by JuCo's or not, but he's sending his guys to the league.

But to be fair, this is the last of Mike Stoops' recruits. Going forward, it'll be nothing but the talents of Rich Rodriguez. We'll see guys like Scooby Wright III, Nick Wilson, Anu Solomon, Cayleb Jones, Samajie Grant and William Parks make it in due time. And that's not including some of the recruits in the future classes.

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