Kentucky star disappearing from mock drafts makes frustrating season even worse

It's that time of year again when NFL mock drafts start to be published in force. There are brand new ones that are only hours old, published just this morning. However, Kentucky fans will notice something as they flip through them. Deone Walker is featured in fewer and fewer of them. He's not gone entirely, but he's slipping out of the first round in many of them.

While he was always considered a late first-round pick, dropping from the first round to the second or maybe even further would be a frustrating development for Walker and Kentucky football. It's exciting to have Kentucky players succeed and get drafted high, but it also helps with recruiting. Every high school football player dreams of their name being called in the first round of the NFL draft, and if they know a University can help them get there, they are more likely to choose it.

Here's a couple of examples of recent mock drafts:

In the latest CBS Sports Mock Draft, Deone Walker is still in the bottom of the first round, going at pick 28 to the Minnesota Vikings. One could still find him in other mock drafts, but at the beginning of the season, he was considered a lock to be in the first round; now, he is disappearing from the mock drafts. Why? Because when the team doesn't do good, the player doesn't get highlighted. Walker is having a good year, and he's forcing teams to give him a lot of double teams, but Kentucky is a bad product right now, so even the stars become slightly forgettable.

Hopefully, this isn't true of the NFL Scouts. They don't pay attention to the mock drafts and will still make their own evaluations and draft according to what they know and have learned about a player. Walker should still be in good hands and find his way into the first round. However, the mocks are an indication of a frustrating season of Kentucky football.