Louisiana State quarterback Joe Burrow has the potential to join some elusive company. He’s the odds on favorite to win both the Heisman Trophy and become the #1 overall NFL Draft pick. Only six players, all QBs, have done it since the turn of the millennium.
The list consists of Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford and Carson Palmer. For half of the players on this list, they claimed the big prize at the Downtown Athletic Club in December, and then got the big money the following April. The other half did one more year of college before entering the draft.
Burrow has the chance to do the double with the immediate payoff, and those who make NFL picks have him as the current front-runner, by a runaway margin, in both categories.
Here’s where we currently stand, according to Bovada: Joe Burrow is priced at -300, Ohio State DE Chase Young is backed at +200, odds for Georgia OT Andrew Thomas are laid at +600, Oregon QB Justin Herbert is set at +1500, Georgia QB Jake Fromm is priced at +1500 and injured Alabama signal caller Tua Tagovailoa faces odds of +1800.
Tua had been the strong front-runner, for both #1 overall NFL Draft pick and Heisman Trophy winner, until he suffered a serious hip injury that ended his 2019 season. Now he’s very much a wild card for the 2019 NFL Draft. Herbert might have made the wrong decision by returning to school this year.
His NFL Draft stock was probably at its peak last season and now more of his flaws on are on display each and every week. Young is just the most dominant player, all around, period. Forget about that NCAA suspension non-sense.
It was all meaningless b.s. that will not affect his draft stock one bit. Young deserves both the Heisman and #1 pick status, but he’ll get neither simply because quarterback is the most important individual position in all of sports. Given the importance of quarterback, there is of course also a major premium on protecting the QB.
That’s where Thomas comes in, as big boys beefing up the signal caller’s blind side will always be in high demand, and thus command the big bucks. It’s an interesting crop of blue chip prospects, and it will be fascinating to see how it all shapes out. For the skinny on the Heisman trophy odds, go to this link.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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