ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

There was an intriguing post on the blog of Jeffrey Martin of the Wichita Eagle/Kansas City Star about the draft prospects across the Big 12.

Martin queried Rob Rang of NFLDraftScout.com for some information about the conference's top players.

Rang told Martin that the two best offensive prospects in the conference are Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree and Missouri wide receiver/kick returner Jeremy Maclin.

The most interesting quote was what Rang had to say about Crabtree, calling him "a freak, like Detroit's Calvin Johnson. His hands are absolutely amazing."

The conference's two best defensive players, Rang told Martin, are Missouri's William Moore and Texas' Brian Orakpo.

Most interesting are his pronouncements on the quarterbacks in the Big 12. He lists Colt McCoy and Josh Freeman as potential first-round draft picks if they should declare for the NFL Draft. He didn't consider Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, because he's a redshirt sophomore.

"I think a lot of agents will get to talking," Rang told Martin. "There is a lot of talk of one more year of the salary cap, and how they might implement a stronger cap. It would be chaos because the senior class is so bad, and it could be all of the elite guys in the Big 12.

"I'm always for a kid returning to school. I'm hesitant to tout all of them -- [OU's Sam] Bradford, [UT's Colt] McCoy and Freeman -- but they all have obvious tools. They're just not Matt Ryan."

So even with all of the offense being piled up across the conference, Rang is a tad dubious about the conference's quarterbacks.