Why star Ohio State, Alabama freshman would have a case for the 2025 NFL Draft

Williams looks like a perfect mix of former ‘Bama receivers Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith, blending Waddle’s speed and elusiveness with Smith’s route-running and feel for the moment. He plays football like Kyrie Irving plays basketball. Oh, and he’s only 17.

Both of these stud true freshman should be competing at the highest level and have no business playing college football for another season, let alone two. But the NFL’s rule is that players must be out of high school for at least three years to be draft eligible.

It’s time to re-examine that rule. The NFL isn’t typically known for forward-thinking. 20 years ago, former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett — who was not yet three years removed from high school — sued the NFL, arguing that its draft eligibility rule was an antitrust violation. 

The initial court found in favor of Clarett — seemingly opening the door to radical change — but the appellate court overruled that decision and dismissed the case. The Supreme Court didn’t consider Clarett’s petition for appeal and the case became a microcosm of his football career, as he never played in another game — college or NFL — after leading the Buckeyes to a national title during his legendary freshman season.

While no player has challenged the NFL since, two things have happened in the past 20 years that suggest a player such as Smith or Williams could fare better than Clarett did in 2004. 

First, the Houston Texans drafted 19-year-old defensive tackle Amobi Okoye in the first round in 2007, demonstrating the ridiculousness of the NFL’s rule that players must be at least three years removed from high school to be eligible to enter the league.

A Nigerian immigrant and genius who enrolled at Louisville at age 15, Okoye was the same age as most college freshmen or sophomores when he turned pro.

Any argument the NFL could make about freshmen or sophomores not being physically ready to play in the NFL would be hypocritical because it has already allowed freshmen/sophomore-aged individuals into the league. (Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds was also 19 when the Buffalo Bills drafted him in 2018.)

Smith will turn 19 in November, meaning he would be the same age at the 2025 NFL Draft as Okoye was when he was selected. And, had Okoye turned pro after his junior year (which he was eligible to do but opted not to), he would have been 18 at the time he was drafted — the same age Williams will be for the 2025 NFL Draft on April 25.

Second — and probably more importantly — the farce of “amateurism” is over. The line between college athletes and professional athletes has been blurred through Name, Image and Likeness compensation and potential employee recognition for student athletes. Public sentiment (and logic) clearly is on the players’ side. 

National championship contender Ohio State is luring the best high school recruits and transfer portal players and retaining its own NFL-eligible studs thanks to an NIL war chest this year of $20 million.

Colorado’s star QB Shedeur Sanders has signed sponsorship deals with the likes of Nike, Gatorade, Mercedes-Benz, Beats by Dre, Gatorade and Google. He has an NIL valuation of close to $6 million, per On3.com. Meanwhile, celebrity alumni such as Barstool’s David Portnoy (Michigan) are pledging millions of dollars to land the top quarterback in the transfer portal. 

The means by which the college players are compensated is different from NFL players, but you don’t have to squint hard to see that college football has effectively turned into an unregulated version of the NFL. 

If Smith and Williams are already making millions and physically ready to play in the NFL, why shouldn’t they be allowed to compete at the highest level? And why would the NFL not want that?

In fact, the NFL would be smart to get ahead of this before it really gets out of hand. 

There’s no salary cap with NIL compensation, so what’s stopping a competitive and wealthy alumni group from pledging $10 million or even $20 million to the next top prospect?

At a certain point, if the NFL doesn’t get ahead of this while it still can, college football is going to stop being simply a feeder system for the league. It could become its direct competitor.