Burks is 17th on Kiper’s Top 25 rankings, not in McShay’s first round

We’re not to what former Florida (and South Carolina) coach Steve Spurrier called “talking season,” but it’s not too early for listings.

In college football, there’s a list that usually involves some sort of subjective analysis for just about everything and ESPN’s Mel Kiper has his early list of the top 25 players for this season.

Arkansas junior Treylon Burks is ranked No. 17. It goes without saying no player from Warren has ever been ranked that high at any point in time of any sort of pro football ranking system.

Here’s what Kiper had to say about Burks:

A big receiver with good speed who has played almost exclusively out of the slot in two seasons for the Razorbacks. Of his 51 catches last season, 38 came when he was lined up in the slot, and all seven of his touchdowns were from the slot. I want to see Arkansas diversify Burks’ routes and give him more shots on deep balls. He’s a fun player to watch.

In other rankings, ESPN’s Todd McShay has his first round mock draft for 2022 and Burks is not one of the two wide receivers from the SEC he projects in the first round.

All rookie contracts are fixed by collective bargaining with the players association and this past draft saw first round contracts drop dramatically after Trevor Lawrence’s $36.8 million deal ($24.2 million signing bonus).

The last pick in the first round was $11.2 million in contract value with a $5.5 million signing bonus.

Draft choices in 2022 will see a slight increase and while the salary cap is expected to increase most of that money will not go into the rookie pool that is fixed by the league and the players’ association.

In case you’re wondering, the disparity between Kiper’s ratings and McShay’s draft is nothing new. None of the major mock drafts have Burks being picked in the first round right now.

Nobody gets it right every year, players drop out and new ones come in so don’t get too worked up over this.