Death. Taxes. Clemson football sending players to the NFL.
Folks, it's officially NFL Draft week and that means it's time to speculate where former Tigers are going to spend the first few years of their professional careers.
The 2024 NFL Draft was an exciting one for Dabo Swinney and the Tigers as six players were selected for a second straight year. Nate Wiggins led the way as a first-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens and Ruke Orhorhoro was selected five picks later in the second round by the Falcons. Will Shipley, Xavier Thomas, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., and Tyler Davis were also selected.
The year before was just as exciting as the Tigers had two first-round picks in Myles Murphy (Bengals) and Bryan Bresee (Saints).
Fans are already looking forward to the 2025 NFL Draft this upcoming weekend and it all kicks off on Thursday night from Green Bay.
The burning question everyone has is: which Clemson player is going to be selected first?
The overwhelming answer to that is Barrett Carter, the Tigers' star linebacker who is widely considered the team's top prospect heading into the 2025 draft. He will be the team's first selection, but will it come on Day 1? For the first time in three years, the Tigers will likely not have a first-round pick as Carter isn't projected to go in that range.
In fact, he's not even projected to go in the second round.
Carter isn't projected to be selected until the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft by most experts and that would end an impressive six-year streak that the Clemson Tigers have set of having at least one player selected in the first two rounds. That streak started in 2019 and the last year Clemson didn't have a player selected in the first two rounds, Dorian O'Daniel was picked in the third round by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018. Before that, you'd gave to go all the way back to 2009.
That 2018 NFL Draft ended an eight-year streak by Clemson.
Sure, there's still a chance that Carter could sneak into the second round and extend Clemson's streak to seven years, but there's a better chance that he's a third-rounder.
It looks like Dabo and Co. will have to start a new streak in 2026.