Fact: It is never too early to start thinking about the NFL Draft. While the Clemson Tigers may have bigger fish to fry, the future looks bright for a handful of players on Dabo Swinney's team. Although the projected starting quarterback in Christopher Vizzina is not among them, ESPN's Jordan Reid did mention four Clemson players by name in a post about if the 2027 NFL Draft will live up to the hype.
In order, Reid dropped the following Clemson players' names as potential top-100 picks next spring.
- Cornerback Ashton Hampton
- Wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr.
- Edge rusher Will Heldt
- Linebacker Sammy Brown
NFL Mock Draft Database also has all four of these players ranked inside the top 100 on its consensus big board: Sammy Brown (No. 37), Ashton Hampton (No. 44), Bryant Wesco Jr. (No. 53), and Will Heldt (No. 90). It also has Clemson wide receiver TJ Moore slotted in at its No. 67 overall prospect for 2027. He is part of a tremendous receiving corps with Wesco, but he has missed time.
Reid has Hampton as the most likely first-round pick to be had out of Clemson, but Brown is not that far off his trail. This has more to do with the linebacker class not being super elite at the high end. We could be looking at a world where Brown is LB1 come draft time. As for Wesco and Heldt, these guys are firmly day-two picks at this time. Playing out on the edge and at wide receiver will do that to you.
If Moore achieves all he can this year, five of the first 90 players taken in 2027 may hail from Clemson.
Clemson's high-end prospects may indicate how the 2026 Tigers will play
It goes without saying, but Clemson may be more of a title contender than pundits want to admit. The Tigers play in the wild, wild west that is the ACC, a league it used to dominate. Furthermore, there are only a few teams they will play within the constructs of an eight-game conference slate that will hold a candle to them from an athletic standpoint. Clemson has the horses to run past its ACC competition.
So how is Clemson going to take flight this year? Well, on offense, it needs to be a unit that leans on the passing game. Vizzina will be a first-year starter, but he has been in the system for a minute. More importantly, he has a bevy of talented pass-catchers to throw the football to. With the likes of Wesco, Moore, and others, this may be one of the best Clemson receiving corps we have seen in some time.
On defense, that may be a little trickier. There does seem to be a beast at all levels of its defense with Heldt coming off the edge, Hampton holding his own outside the numbers, and Brown directing traffic in the middle of everything. One or more of these guys needs to be a bona-fide stud for Clemson to achieve all it can this fall. Brown or Hampton seem most likely, but Heldt could blow some things up.
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At this time, Clemson may not have a sure-fire, first-round pick on its roster, but it has the necessary talent to hold serve in pretty much every game it plays. To put it bluntly, Clemson needs for players like Brown and Hampton to push for All-American status. Simultaneously, Heldt, Moore, and Wesco must claw their way through their respective loaded position groups. Stranger things have happened.
With this being the most exciting NFL Draft in arguably three years, we cannot wait to see it all unfold.
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