CAA Football has signed a large class of top NFL draft prospects, including eight players who project as first- or second-round selections and LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the likely top pick.
NFL agents Brian Ayrault, Ben Renzin, Todd France and Tom Condon Sr. lead the team representing Burrow, who is widely expected to be selected first by the Cincinnati Bengals on April 23. He is ranked No. 1 overall by ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay, who also ranks four other CAA Football draft prospect clients as first-round selections.
CAA Football agents Tory Dandy and Jimmy Sexton are representing Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who McShay projects will be taken No. 12 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders. Agents Renzin and France are representing South Carolina edge player Javon Kinlaw, who McShay projects will be taken at No. 16 by the Atlanta Falcons.
Expected No. 1 pick Joe Burrow (right) shares a laugh with former NFL quarterback Chad Pennington at the NFL combine.getty images
CAA also represents the projected No. 22 pick, LSU wide receiver Justin Jefferson, and the projected No. 23 pick, Iowa edge rusher AJ Epenesa, on McShay’s mock draft. Jefferson is represented by agents Renzin, Ayrault and France. Epenesa is represented by agents Patrick Collins and Sexton.
McShay’s mock draft not only includes first-round picks, but second rounders too, and he sees two CAA Football clients as potential high second-round selections, including Michigan center Cesar Ruiz at No. 35 and Wisconsin linebacker Zack Baun at No. 37. Additionally, McShay has Georgia offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson ranked No. 61. Ruiz is represented by Dandy and Sexton. Baun is represented by Collins and Sexton. Wilson is represented by Renzin and France.
CAA Football also represents Penn State wide receiver KJ Hamler, LSU offensive lineman Lloyd Cushenberry, Washington offensive tackle Trey Adams, South Carolina wide receiver Bryan Edwards, Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm and Memphis offensive tackle Scottie Dill.
“CAA has a helluva class with the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in Burrow and two other first-round locks in Javon Kinlaw and CeeDee Lamb,” said Rob Rang, NFL draft analyst with Field Level Media.
Projecting the draft is an art, not a science, and Rang has his own opinion on players he sees as sleepers in CAA Football’s draft class. “I feel like Penn State speedy wideout and returner KJ Hamler and Georgia’s massive offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson are not getting as much national attention as their ability warrants, probably because of the rare talent at these two positions in the 2020 draft,” Rang said. “Each possess unique traits and if drafted into the right system, they could prove just as effective as likely Day 2 picks than some of the others at their respective positions drafted much, much higher.”
■ TAKING THE STAND: U.S. women’s national soccer team star players, including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, are among those expected to take the stand in the players’ equal pay trial set for Los Angeles federal court.
Other players on the witness list for the case, which alleges the U.S. Soccer Federation has violated equal pay laws for women, include Christen Press, Kelley O’Hara and Becky Sauerbrunn. Additionally, former USWNT Players Association Executive Director Rich Nichols and current Executive Director Rebecca Roux are expected to testify, as are former U.S. Soccer presidents Sunil Gulati and Carlos Cordeiro.
The jury trial was set for May 5, despite social distancing restrictions in Los Angeles County and a statewide stay-at-home order in California, which has placed limits on some courts, including the downtown Los Angeles courthouse where the trial is set.
On March 13, Virginia Phillips, chief U.S. District Court judge for the Central District of California, which includes that courthouse, issued a 30-day order not to call in jurors for either criminal or civil trials as a result of the public health emergency. That restriction expires on April 13, but Phillips noted, “The Court may issue other orders concerning future continuances as necessary and appropriate.”
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
