Prospects are always evaluated against their best competition.

A year ago, Missouri’s Luther Burden III looked like the best wide receiver on the field when the Tigers played LSU, which featured future first-round picks Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr.

This past weekend, Burden managed three catches for three yards against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Some will quickly point out that starting quarterback Brady Cook did suffer an injury during the contest.

At the same time, Burden hasn’t been dominant this season. He’s eclipsed 85 yards only once this year and doesn’t look like the same playmaker in a class where others like Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan and Ole Miss’ Tre Harris have posted huge games.

“Burden was originally rumored to split more time between playing in the slot and outside,” Parson said. “This setup hasn’t come to fruition. Burden has not replicated his production and success from 2023. Missouri’s offense limits his exposure to facing press alignment and route options—creating a less than clean draft profile to evaluate.”

Burden could easily go from being a top-five projection to someone more aligned with a late first-round ranking.

2. QB Kyle McCord, Syracuse

Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord suffered a Chernobyl-level meltdown against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Everything went wrong. All of the doubts that circled around him after basically being forced out of Ohio State came to a head despite how successful the quarterback had been during the previous six outings.

“After playing relatively clean and consistent football, McCord finished last week with zero passing touchdowns and five interceptions—three of them went for pick sixes,” Parson said. “McCord looked completely rattled and off his game for the first time all season. Performances like this one can sink a draft stock if not followed up by a bounce back.”

The Wisconsin Badgers looked at Penn State’s talented defensive front and thought to itself, “Let’s attack Abdul Carter.” The Badgers sent multiple traps and runs towards Carter’s direction. The athletic edge didn’t apply much pressure, either.

“Carter is currently labeled as a ‘project’ as an edge-defender since he switched positions during the offseason, previously lining up as an off-ball linebacker. He hasn’t done much to shake that label this season and was unproductive as a pass-rusher last Saturday. Granted, Wisconsin’s quick passing game played a factor in that, but, right now, Carter looks more like an athlete who is learning how to play the position than an NFL-ready edge.”

4. QB Garrett Nussmeier, LSU

A “tale of two halves” is one of the oldest cliches in sports reporting. In the case of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, it rings absolutely true.

Nussmeier looked great in the first half of Saturday’s contest with the Texas A&M Aggies. His opponent adjusted and applied significant pressure during the second half, which forced the quarterback into mistakes. In fact, all three of Nussmeier’s interceptions occurred with less than 10 minutes to play in the third quarter.

“Nussmeier is a talented gunslinger with NFL throws that can be found on tape,” Parson said. “Even so, his decision-making is a concern. He has started less than ten games and it shows. If he desires to be a 1st round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, Nussmeier must protect the football better down the stretch of the regular season.”

LSU’s Will Campbell is a future starting NFL blocker. Over the last two weeks, he’s showed why he may not do so at left tackle.

“After facing the best competition over the last two weeks in Arkansas’ Landon Jackson and Texas A&M’s Nic Scourton (as well as Shemar Stewart) some of the questions about Campbell’s ability to stay at tackle in the NFL were brought to light. It wasn’t that Campbell massively struggled against these players either. In fact he had his own share of decisive wins that highlighted his strengths. However, it was in the way he lost those reps.

“Against Arkansas, Campbell was beaten three times by Jackson executing the same move (cross-chop) each time due to being a tick late with his strike timing that led to his outside hand being trapped before he lost the corner. This speaks to questions about his ability to keep rushers at his fingertips once they have initially won, which would help to widen the corner rather than have it compressed too quickly.

“Against the 6’4″, 280-pound Scourton and 6’6”, 292-pound Stewart, Campbell uncharacteristically lost several reps in the run game primarily due to being compressed and benched backwards. But he also lost again in pass protection after getting his outside hand swiped by Scourton and then later to an inside spin move.

“Overall, Campbell is still winning in the same ways he has all season but as competition has ramped up and the body types have become bigger/longer there have been notable losses mixed in that provide examples of why a move inside at the next level may be best.”