We don't know who is going to be picking where yet, but with one week's worth of games left in the 2015 NFL season, we're starting to get a clearer picture of what players will be available when the 2016 NFL Draft rolls around next spring. On Thursday, a pair of quarterbacks expected to go somewhere in the first-round in late April, Cal's Jared Goff and Memphis' Paxton Lynch, announced their intentions to enter the draft.
"This decision was not an easy one by any means," Goff said, per USA Today. "I feel ready to take the next step in my football career and am excited about what my future holds."
Goff, who will be skipping his senior season to enter the draft, capped his stellar collegiate career with a six-touchdown performance against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.
He is the first Cal quarterback to leave school early for the draft since Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers did it in 2004. He will walk away from Cal as the university's leader in just about every major statistical category.
As for Lynch, Goff's top competition to be the first quarterback off the board, he made a formal announcement early Thursday, per ESPN, which was quickly followed by a tweet from agent Leigh Steinberg indicating that the big signal-caller had signed on with his agency.
Welcome to the @SteinbergSports Family @PaxtonLynch. Happy to continue the tradition of representing great role models #TheAgent
— Leigh Steinberg (@leighsteinberg) December 31, 2015
At 6-foot-7, 245-pounds, Lynch is an imposing figure and intriguing prospect at the NFL level. Quarterbacks of that size don't have a long history of panning out in the big leagues, and Lynch faced modest competition at best in college. But he also completed 66.8 percent of his passes for 3,778 yards this season and has ample athleticism to go along with his ample frame.
It's early in the process, but it sure looks like Lynch and Goff will be the first two quarterbacks selected in a draft full of NFL franchises looking for cornerstone signal-callers.
