A five-star ranking translates to a first-round NFL Draft grade based on the Rivals rankings system but sometimes there are big misses. Here is a look at the draft-eligible former five-stars from last week who were not picked at all – and what happened.
MORE NFL DRAFT: Breaking down the Big Ten selections | Gorney’s takeaways | Where the first-rounders ranked in high school
JT DANIELS
The No. 4 prospect in the 2018 class behind Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields and Amon-Ra St. Brown, Daniels threw for more than 12,000 yards with 152 touchdowns and 14 interceptions at powerhouse Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei and looked destined for stardom at USC. He reclassified to the 2018 class and was the second true freshman starter ever for the Trojans. But after getting hurt in the first game of his second season, Kedon Slovis got the job and never looked back.
Daniels transferred to Georgia where he became the starter but another injury sidelined him in favor of Stetson Bennett, who won back-to-back national titles. The five-star then transferred to West Virginia and closed out his career at Rice before medically retiring on Dec. 1.
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AKEEM DENT
The five-star cornerback from Wellington (Fla.) Palm Beach Central flipped from Miami to Florida State and started all five seasons in Tallahassee, finishing with 185 tackles and 18 pass deflections in his career but was never considered a realistic NFL Draft pick.
One of five five-star cornerbacks in the 2019 class that was led by Derek Stingley Jr. but marked by many rankings misses, Dent signed as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers.
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LORENZO LINGARD
Ranked as the No. 13 overall prospect and the second-best running back in the 2018 class behind only Zamir White, Lingard started his career at Miami, then transferred to Florida and then finished at Akron. The former Orange City (Fla.) University standout never really caught on anywhere but totaled 641 yards and four touchdowns on 143 carries for the Zips. He was picked up as an undrafted free agent by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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KENDALL MILTON
Milton was impressive at the Rivals Camp Series as an eighth-grader and then came back the following year and said USC was his dream school ever since watching Reggie Bush. The five-star running back, however, ended up picking Georgia.
The Clovis (Calif.) Buchanan standout did not have a terrible career at Georgia but he was never the lead back in a rotating backfield. Milton totaled 1,839 yards and 23 touchdowns in his career.
No running backs were taken in the first round of the NFL Draft and only one in the second round. All but four – Texas’ Jonathan Brooks, Florida State’s Trey Benson, Michigan’s Blake Corum and USC’s MarShawn Lloyd – were taken on Day 3.
Milton has reportedly signed as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles.
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TERADJA MITCHELL
The top-ranked inside linebacker in the 2018 class and No. 20 overall, the Virginia Beach (Va.) Bishop Sullivan five-star signed with Ohio State but didn’t really make a major impact until the 2021 season, when he was a co-captain and finished with 45 tackles.
But the following year, Mitchell sustained a nagging hamstring injury which sidelined him for most of 2022. He transferred to Florida for the 2023 season and tallied 23 tackles.
As of Monday night, Mitchell was not picked up as an undrafted free agent.
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EYABI OKIE-ANOMA
There might not have been a prospect in Rivals history at the five-star level who bounced around more than Okie-Anoma and really blew opportunity after opportunity to find success at the college level.
Ranked as the seventh-best prospect in the 2019 class out of Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances, Okie-Anoma signed with Alabama but was dismissed from the team and landed at Houston, where he was kicked off the team as well. He then went to Tennessee-Martin where he was for a couple of years (including the COVID year) before transferring to Michigan, where he played the 2022 season before finishing his college career at Charlotte this past season.
There were also some pre-draft comments by anonymous NFL scouts about former St. Frances coach and current Charlotte coach Biff Poggi being like a “surrogate dad” to Okie-Anoma but also an “enabler.”
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MARK POPE
In a 2018 recruiting class of seven five-star WRs that featured Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle, Terrace Marshall and then some misses, Pope was No. 5 at the position and No. 28 overall.
But his career never took off at Miami or during a short stop at Jackson State, and then not really at UMass where his college career ended. This past season with the Minutemen, the former five-star was third on the team with 33 catches for 420 yards and just one touchdown.
