BYU football: All eyes will be on precocious Cougars QB Zach Wilson on Thursday night as the NFL draft begins in Cleveland. Here’s what the scene will look like
CLEVELAND — Unusually warm temperatures this week on the shores of Lake Erie are expected to give way to stormy weather and precipitation Thursday just before the 86th NFL draft begins in the area surrounding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and EnergyFirst Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns. In a development that could be viewed as just as sudden and shocking, in many ways, the spotlight will be squarely on a baby-faced quarterback from BYU who, until seven or eight months ago, was on nobody’s radar for the annual event officially called the Player Selection Meeting. Zach Wilson took the world of college football by storm last fall, and now the confident, headband-wearing phenom born and raised in Utah is poised to do the same to the 2021 NFL draft, which could quite possibly end up being referred to as the “Zach Wilson Draft,” for better or worse. Although Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence is expected to be the first overall pick, by the Jacksonville Jaguars and former University of Utah football coach Urban Meyer, this is clearly Wilson’s moment, as millions of viewers from around the world will quite likely get their first look at the precocious kid from Draper, Utah. The reason for that is because, of the three quarterbacks expected to go 1-2-3 in the draft, only Wilson has made his way here to Cleveland, along with his parents — Mike and Lisa Wilson — and girlfriend, Brighton High graduate and Utah Valley University student Abbey Gile, an accomplished performer — a dancer — in her own right. Decked out in a Hugo Boss-designed suit, according to some family members who otherwise have been tight-lipped about Wilson’s apparel and traveling entourage the past few weeks, Wilson will stroll across the makeshift stage at approximately 8:10 p.m. local time — 6 p.m. in the Mountain time zone — as the No.2 overall pick, to the New York Jets, barring a totally unforeseen turn of events. Wilson will embrace NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has already been vaccinated to fight off the COVID-19 virus — his handlers have widely made known — and cover his bushy, somewhat untamed blond hair with a “Gotham Green” ball cap signifying he’s about to become the property of the Jets. Took me 68 seconds to walk past every helmet. Ignore the heavy breathing – ha pic.twitter.com/5SOFu5Gr0y New York Jets fans, famous for their reactions when the draft was held annually at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall until 2015, won’t be here to roundly boo Goodell, or Wilson, for that matter, but several media members from the Big Apple who arrived a day early told the Deseret News that picking Wilson second is being met with satisfaction by a majority of Jets fans.
