The 2023 NFL Draft had a clear winner — his name is Will Levis

It is a sign of Mark Stoops-era program ascension that Kentucky Wildcats football had three players taken in the 2023 NFL Draft — and some UK backers proclaimed that a meager showing.

Of the 24 NFL drafts held so far in the 21st century, Kentucky has had fewer than three players taken in 17 of them.

It is only over the past five years when UK’s draft numbers have elevated — five players chosen in 2019; two in 2020; six in 2021; four in 2022 and this year’s three — to such a degree that having a trio of selections feels routine.

For the state of Kentucky, the 2023 NFL Draft yielded a respectable showing with one clear winner — ex-UK quarterback Will Levis.

Yes, Levis “slipped” out of the first round after spending a long, uncomfortable night sitting in the NFL Draft greenroom. Rather than sharing a triumphant hug with Roger Goodell on Thursday in Kansas City, Levis had returned to his family’s Connecticut home by the time the Tennessee Titans traded up to take him Friday with the second pick of the second round.

Other than the immediate hit to his finances Levis will take for having not been a first-round pick, everything else that happened Thursday night will benefit the QB in the long run.

In a marketing sense, Levis “got his name out there” while stuck in the greenroom in a way that being selected No. 4 overall by the Indianapolis Colts — an outcome that had been projected before Indy instead went with Florida QB Anthony Richardson — would not have achieved.

According to NFL Rookie Watch, Levis was shown on TV in the greenroom 37 times on Thursday night. That was 29 times more than anyone else.

All that national TV exposure created interest in both Levis and his draft party. The New York Post wrote stories about Levis’ girlfriend, Gia Duddy, and one of his sisters, Kelley. Meanwhile US Weekly published a “relationship timeline” for Levis and Duddy.

The draft “drop” made Levis — whose public persona carries a strong “big man on campus” vibe — into a more empathetic figure. At least some people who might have rooted against Levis had he gone No. 4 overall feeling the ex-UK QB’s college performance did not merit that level of draft affirmation will likely pull for him now as an underdog.

Strictly as a football matter, going to Tennessee , which has an established, veteran QB in Ryan Tannehill, 34, as a second-round choice means Levis will not face the immediate pressure he would have as the No. 4 overall pick.

Ultimately, remembering how he felt as the first round of the draft rolled by with him stuck in the greenroom should motivate Levis for as long as he plays.

The selection of the ex-UK QB along with former teammates Christopher Rodriguez (sixth round to Washington) and Carrington Valentine (seventh round to Green Bay) gives Kentucky 20 NFL Draft picks in the past five years.

That places Mark Stoops’ program in the top half of the SEC in seventh place, just behind Auburn (22 picks since 2019) and Texas A&M (21) and just ahead of South Carolina (19) and Mississippi (18).

Of the 21 players Stoops has recruited at Kentucky that have gone on to be NFL Draft picks (a number that does not include Avery Williamson, Bud Dupree or Josh Forrest, all of whom were already at UK when Stoops was hired), 14 have arrived in Lexington as three-star recruits, while six were four stars and one (tackle Landon Young) was a five star.

For Kentucky, “recruit and develop” is more than a Twitter hashtag.

New Louisville coach Jeff Brohm had a strong draft. Brohm’s former program, Purdue, had five players selected. Among Big Ten teams, only Michigan (nine), Ohio State (six) and Penn State (six) had more.

U of L matched UK with three players chosen — defensive end YaYa Diaby went to Tampa Bay in round three; linebacker Yasir Abdullah to Jacksonville in round five; and cornerback Kei’Trel Clark to Arizona in round six.

It is the first time since 2018 that Louisville has had as many players drafted as Kentucky.

With Western Kentucky defensive lineman Brodric Martin going to Detroit in the third round, this year marked the first time since 2016 that all three of the commonwealth’s FBS programs had at least one player taken in the NFL Draft.

There were two products of Kentucky high school football drafted. Ex-Covington Catholic tight end Michael Mayer, the former Notre Dame star, went in the second round to the Las Vegas Raiders. Former Christian County star Cory Trice, a cornerback at Purdue, was chosen in the seventh round by Pittsburgh.

Put together, it was a solid NFL Draft showing for the commonwealth of Kentucky. And though it might not have seemed so in real time, no one had a better 2023 NFL Draft than Will Levis.

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