Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston have been poked, prodded, praised and ridiculed for every single piece of their demeanor, athletic ability, football IQ and off-the-field decisions. As if they weren’t being questioned enough, the two players caused some unnecessarily perplexed reactions when they both announced they would not be attending the 2015 NFL Draft and instead wished to watch the event at home with their respective families.

Naturally, the decisions became a far bigger deal than they should have, with many even wondering if they were actually committed to long-term NFL careers or if the billion-dollar empire was losing some of its commercial luster. Both suggestions are pure idiocy and waste the valuable time that should be spend dissecting and predicting all seven rounds of the draft. Even though their absence will likely be addressed by Chris Berman, ESPN’s bumbling non-expert that has no business of serving as host for an event that actually requires knowledge of the game and those being selected, over and over and over and over again, we’re hoping that the attention is placed upon the draft itself and those who do wish to attend.

There will be 26 players in attendance at the draft in Chicago on April 30th. The list of attendees might be missing Winston and Mariota but it does contain a ton of big-time prospects:

Arik Armstead, DE, Oregon

Vic Beasley, OLB, Clemson

La’el Collins, G, LSU

Landon Collins, S, Alabama

Bud Dupree, OLB, Kentucky

Cameron Erving, C, Florida State

Dante Fowler Jr., DE/OLB, Florida

Melvin Gordon, RB, Wisconsin

Randy Gregory, OLB, Nebraska

Todd Gurley, RB, Georgia

D.J. Humphries, OT, Florida

Kevin Johnson, CB, Wake Forest

Byron Jones, CB, Connecticut

Benardrick McKinney, ILB, Mississippi State

DeVante Parker, WR, Louisville

Andrus Peat, OT, Stanford

Breshad Perriman, WR, Central Florida

Shane Ray, DE/OLB, Missouri

Brandon Scherff, OT, Iowa

Danny Shelton, DT, Washington

Devin Smith, WR, Ohio State

Jaelen Strong, WR, Arizona State

Laken Tomlinson, G, Duke

Trae Waynes, CB, Michigan State

Kevin White, WR, West Virginia

Leonard Williams, DT/DE, USC

 

[Sporting News]