Thoughts on the spring game, transfer portal and Nebraska’s NFL draft prospects

I know it’s been awhile, but since spring football has wrapped up, I figured it was time to have a spring mailbag.

The premise is straightforward: You ask me some questions about Nebraska athletics; I attempt to answer them.

If you want your question included in the next edition of the mailbag, find me on Twitter at @Amie_Just or email me at ajust@journalstar.com.

Nebraska needed to offload double-digit scholarship players. Before this exodus, Nebraska was well over the fall scholarship limit of 85, unofficially sitting at 98.

As of this writing, eight players have announced their intentions of hitting the transfer portal in recent days. Those are: quarterbacks Logan Smothers, Richard Torres and Jarrett Synek; receivers Alante Brown, Victor Jones and Shawn Hardy; cornerback Braxton Clark; and defensive lineman Stephon Wynn.

The biggest surprise to me out of all of these is Wynn. After transferring in from Alabama, he played in every game for the Huskers last year and has one year of eligibility remaining. This spring, he had plenty of reps and seemed to be carving out a nice niche for himself, considering there were only a few interior defensive linemen healthy and available for this spring slate.

But, as always, everyone has underlying reasons for their transfer. I wish him, and all NU’s transfers, the best on their journeys.

There will be more departures. Some could surprise, and some will not. The transfer portal closes Sunday.

There are countless NFL draft experts out there, but from my time as an NFL writer, the one I trust the most is Dane Brugler with The Athletic. Of course, this draft is expected to go off the rails pretty quickly, considering there’s no consensus for the top four or five picks.

Per Brugler’s behemoth of a draft guide …

Wide receiver Trey Palmer has a third/fourth-round draft grade as the No. 13 receiver in this class and is considered to be within the top 100 players in this draft class. Of note: top players do not always translate to top picks. Even still, it’s unlikely Palmer goes off the board before Cam Jurgens and Cam Taylor-Britt did last year — keeping those two as the highest-drafted Huskers since 2015.

Tight end Travis Vokolek is considered among the best priority free agents in this class, ranking as the No. 19 tight end in his class.

Edge rushers Ochaun Mathis and Garrett Nelson are both expected to be priority free agents, as Mathis is ranked No. 38 and Nelson is No. 40 in their position group.

It’s not entirely out of the question that more than Palmer gets drafted, but there are a lot of moving pieces toward the end of the draft. Just because someone doesn’t get drafted, that isn’t an indictment of them. Sometimes it’s better not to get drafted so you can work out a better compensation package or leverage competing offers against one another.

Others who could sign somewhere: Caleb Tannor, Oliver Martin, Chancellor Brewington, Omar Manning and Chris Kolarevic.

I’ll share one for offense and one for defense.

Offense: We’re going to be in for a wild quarterback battle this fall. I really liked what I saw from Jeff Sims last Saturday. If I’m being picky, I was hoping there would be more running, whether that be more designed runs or more scrambles from him, so we could see the running ability that the coaching staff praised all spring. But, to be fair, it’s hard to get a clear picture when you have to split reps with several other people.

I wish we could have seen any action from Casey Thompson, but his rehab schedule didn’t allow for that. I genuinely don’t know how this fall is going to shake out in that respect.

Defense: Princewill Umanmielen and Cameron Lenhardt look good. They both got work on the No. 1 defense, alongside Nash Hutmacher and MJ Sherman. Both of them tallied four tackles and a pass breakup, while Umanmielen added three tackles for loss — a game-high.

Even though Umanmielen and Lenhardt are both early-enrollee true freshmen, they looked like they belonged. They didn’t look like newcomers out there. They looked like they’d been a part of this defense for years.

At this stage, I imagine so. It sounds like Keisei Tominaga is NBA or bust at this stage, and I’m not quite sure he’s ready for the NBA just yet — even with how hot he played at the tail end of last season.

I do, however, think he’s making the right decision at this current moment — testing the waters and getting necessary feedback so he can better his game and his chances of making the league … next year.

I’m no NBA scout, but I expect Keisei to be told several things, including how he needs to work on getting stronger and shoring up his defense.