Wisconsin Football: 2 Badgers selected in McShay’s 2020 first-round

ESPN’s Todd McShay has released his “way too early first-round projections” for the 2020 offseason and two Wisconsin Badgers were selected.

Yes, the 2019 NFL draft wrapped up just one week ago, but it is never too early to look ahead and see who some of the top college football players are heading into the 2020 season.

Shortly after the draft concludes, ESPN’s Todd McShay will put his first-round projections together for the following season and he has done this for a number of years now. In this year’s draft class, McShay had 13 projected correctly from when he completed this same exercise in 2018. So while it is just a projection at this point and a lot will change, there is some validity to it.

Unfortunately for the Wisconsin Badgers, no one was selected in round one this year but as always, there were plenty of players who found homes for upcoming rookie camps. But as we look ahead to 2020, McShay has two Badgers projected to land in round one and neither player is a surprising choice.

Tyler Biadasz – Center

McShay isn’t the only draft analyst to put these type of projections together for the upcoming offseason and based on the others out there, Biadasz is a consensus first-round selection by many.

In this projection, McShay had Biadasz going 16th overall to the New York Jets and had this to say about him:

"” Biadasz was first-team All-Big Ten in 2018 after starting all 13 games at center for the Badgers. He’d help give Le’Veon Bell some run blocking while also keeping Sam Darnold upright in the passing game.”"

Biadasz would join a number of Wisconsin Badgers offensive linemen that have been selected in round one in recent years including Ryan Ramczyk, Travis Frederick, Kevin Zeitler, Gabe Carimi and of course, Joe Thomas.

Much like the other players listed above, Biadasz is what you’d expect from a Wisconsin Badgers offensive lineman. He has great size and strength and plays with very good technique. We’ve also seen Tyler show off a bit of that athletic ability with the way he works in space.

During his time at Wisconsin, Biadasz has started in all 27 games over his first two seasons and potentially could have been an early round selection in this year’s draft had he decided to leave school. But us Badgers’ fans are happy to have him back for one more season.

Jonathan Taylor – Running back

Given the production that we have seen from Jonathan Taylor through his first two years at Madison, it is hard to imagine that his stock will rise any higher after the 2019 season and it is highly likely that he will leave for the draft.

In his 2020 projection, McShay had Taylor going number 26th overall to the Kansas City Chiefs and had this to say about the Badger running back:

"“Taylor and his 4,000-plus rushing yards over the past two seasons could be a final touch in making the Chiefs’ offense unstoppable.”"

Taylor was the 2018 Doak Walker award winner, which is given out to the Nation’s top running back but coming into this season, he will be a Heisman favorite and for good reason.

Like most Wisconsin Badgers running backs, Taylor is a workhorse and when it comes to his production, he can’t do much more than what he has already done. Over his two seasons, Taylor is averaging over 300 attempts per year, with 6.9 yards per carry, 29 touchdowns, and a whopping 4,171 total yards on the ground.

In recent drafts, the value of the running back position has decreased, which may already make him a borderline first-round pick. However, don’t be mistaken, Taylor will be one of the top running backs in this upcoming draft class and will hope to find similar NFL success as James White and Melvin Gordon.