(Detroit, MI) – The 2024 NFL Draft featured quite a few now-former Hawkeyes who we will see in the upcoming 2024-25 NFL season. While no Hawkeyes went in the first round of the draft, Iowa did have four players drafted in this season’s draft.
Going in the second round of the Draft was Cooper DeJean who was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday. He was selected as the 40th player in the draft overall. The Odebolt, Iowa native was one of the top defensive players in the country last season and played until November 15th. The All-American finished his junior season with 41 tackles, two tackles for loss, two interceptions, and five pass breakups. He also finished ranking second in the Big Ten in punt returns with 11.5 yards per return on average.
Being drafted in the fourth round of the NFL Draft was tight end Erick All by the Cincinnati Bengals. The tight end is the fourth tight end in the last five years. All played in seven games before going out with a season-ending injury in 2023 with 21 catches and led the team in receiving yards even after going out with 299 and had three receiving touchdowns. He averaged 14.2 yards per catch and 42.7 yards per game.
The leader of the Iowa special teams was punter Tory Taylor who was drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago Bears on Saturday as the 122nd pick overall. Taylor was the first punter in this year’s draft and was just the second punter of all time for Iowa to be drafted. The Australia native had 40 punts over 50 yards in his career while finishing with 295 punts for 13.657 yards. Just last season, he had 93 punts for 4,479 yards, more than the total Iowa offense. He had the single-season punting average at 48.2 yards which was some of the most in NCAA history.
The last pick in the NFL Draft for Iowa was lineman Logan Lee who went in the sixth round to the Pittsburgh Steelers as the 178th pick. Lee started in 41 of 43 games for Iowa with a total of 158 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, seven pass breakups, and nine sacks. He started in all games this past season for Iowa with 55 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and a blocked field goal.
