We've hit Week 6 of the 2022 college football season, and several of the best 2023 NFL draft prospects will have key matchups this weekend. Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker gets a test on the road against LSU's defense, while Auburn visits Georgia, Florida State heads to NC State and BYU plays at Notre Dame. We also have Utah matching up with UCLA in a meeting of ranked teams and Ohio State set to face Michigan State. And don't forget about a bunch of excellent Big 12 showdowns: TCU-Kansas, Texas-Oklahoma, Texas Tech-Oklahoma State and Kansas State-Iowa State.
Ahead of the loaded schedule, NFL draft analysts Todd McShay, Jordan Reid and Matt Miller pick prospects to watch this weekend, along with the one thing they each are keeping an eye on. They also look ahead to April's draft by discussing teams headed toward top-10 picks, and why those teams have big decisions to make. Then Steve Muench points to a small-school prospect who could get more draft attention with a big performance.
Our experts wrap it all up by making predictions for Week 6 and emptying their notebooks with everything they saw and heard this week.
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NFL draft lookahead
Prospects to know | What to watch
Small-schooler | Big predictions
Emptying the notebook
Which NFL team projected to have a 2023 top-10 pick is most interesting?
McShay: The Houston Texans, projected to pick No. 1. General manager Nick Caserio took over a major rebuild and has pressing needs at several positions, but it's obviously the quarterback situation that has us intrigued. Davis Mills has slightly regressed from his rookie season; he's completing 62% of his throws with just five touchdown passes compared to four interceptions through four games. Ultimately, Caserio will have to compare what he sees at the top of the quarterback class -- C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young and Will Levis -- with what he has in Mills, who admittedly is operating an overmatched Texans offense on a weekly basis.
There are two other considerations that could come into play if the Texans are at No. 1, though: First, can they pass on an elite edge rusher -- Alabama's Will Anderson Jr. -- over a quarterback who might not carry nearly as high of a grade come April? And second, what kind of draft capital would Houston be offered by other QB-needy teams? For a team in a serious rebuild mode, trading back and acquiring multiple high-round draft picks for the next couple years might be tough to refuse. And remember that it already has an extra first-rounder in this draft from the Deshaun Watson trade.