Keaton Bills to enter the 2024 NFL draft

[BD]

247 Link

[Tednab]

Good for him … is the whole team declaring ?

[Rick]

Best of luck to him. Hope he gets drafted.

[RedRocks]

In the NIL era, I would’ve expected some of these types of guys to stick around longer, not declare early…

[The Miami Ute]

Some people you just can’t reach and won’t listen to professional advice. If you’re not drafted between the 1st-4th round, you’re not getting much more than you could possibly get from NIL and you’re at a greater risk of being cut because the team hasn’t invested a ton in you. It’s a free country and good luck to Bills as he lives out his dream.

[Trailgoat]

Coaching from the couch, Bills and Laumea were projected pre-season P12 1st team this year. Probably good for Bills to go now. Like Laumea, he’s done enough to show his NFL value. Should be interesting to see what the Oline looks like next year without Laumea and Bills. Both should get drafted. Can’t recall Utah in the P12 era having two Oline drafted in the same year. Fano should be solid with experience against some top level defenses.

[2008 National Champ]

2016 the entire O-Line went to the league.

Rd 1 – Garrett Bolles
Rd 5 – Isaac Asiata
Rd 5 – JJ Dielman
Rd 6 – Sam Tevi

[22Ute22]

Ok, we are seriously in panic mode, right? We can’t retain Bills with NIL despite him being projected as a 5th round-UDFA player. We are losing our two best O-lineman and our replacements probably aren’t going to be good enough. I’m very worried about our team next year…

[NarfUte]

He’d be gone anyway if it weren’t for Covid (he’s only forgoing the covid year) so it makes sense for him to get to the league and past the rookie contract as soon as possible.

[Charlie]

For what it is worth… I recall Whitt saying they had 10 OL ready to play at the beginning of the year. I don’t know how far along ready to play is but I would think we should next have more than 5 ready plus development that can be done before fall. Coaches must have seen it coming with Fano and Lomu being top recruits last year. This year’s top recruit is OL as well. Next year’s OL will benefit from better QB and RB options as well. I am not worried yet.

[//r00t4Utes]

Yeah, most people projected both Bills and Lumea to go to the NFL after this season, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Other than that, they didn’t have a good of a season as they probably thought they would.

Also, I’m sure how much OL makes in NIL

They should have their starting center back, so this center got good experience, and one will probably move to guard.

[2008 National Champ]

The O-Line is the one place where I’m not worried about having experienced bodies. They will need to play better as a group in ’24 but there are plenty that have starter experience.

Off the top of my head: Mokofisi, Maea, Fano, Kump, Togiai & Faaiu have all started while I’ve also seen Falcon, Harrison and Lomu in games. Alderman, Olson and Moea’i have gotten favorable reports. Just need them to perform at peak more often.

[22Ute22]

OnlyU said the same thing and our O-line was mediocre.

[2008 National Champ]

mediocre is a little harsh. I wish they had been better as a group but you can’t really grade an O-Line’s performance in a vacuum. PFF tries but I’ve never really bought into their analysis because an individual effort may not translate into a successful play.

[Charlie]

When the OL has difficulty run blocking and pass protection there are several possible causes and only one is poor OL play. However, OL play is the first cited by fans. Many serviceable OLs can have zero drafted players, a mediocre OL likely fewer. Looking into other causes may provide some insight.

[Utah]

Welcome to the Big 12. If you are Bills, do you want to come back and play UCF, Houston, BYU and a whole host of other G5 level teams?

[Charlie]

I am hoping that being one of the best teams in the Big 12 will be better than B1G and SEC bottom dwellers. A new playoff scheme will help.