Fact or Fiction? Skylar Thompson is drafted.

Well, for starters, Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson is no certainty to be drafted if asking the experts. Some have him going as high as the fourth round and others not at all. If he is drafted, the consensus is the tail end of it in either the sixth or seventh round.

That is not a comfortable spot to be in, and in some cases, some in that territory would rather go undrafted because then they can kind of pick and choose their spot so that they can hang around the league longer.

After all, we saw that already with Byron Pringle and, even more recently, Briley Moore. He is still under contract with the Tennessee Titans despite an injury a year ago and was once a receiving weapon for Thompson.

In any event, he stuck around college football for six years, is older than most (like the undrafted Pringle) and has an injury history that probably is not the most appealing to NFL teams, either.

Thompson also participated in the East-West Shrine Game as well after the Texas Bowl in Houston (where K-State defeated LSU), and some raved about him and others were a little deterred by his performance throughout the week.

Just as he was in college, his draft prospects seem a bit polarizing.

Toughness and resilience are still looked at fondly when it comes to the game of football, even at the highest levels, and he has that in spades. Thompson played with injury and through injury and is thought of super well by his teammates.

Asking others about coaching him or playing with him is likely to yield very promising praise that NFL clubs will like.

And when it comes to the process itself, and not just his ability or potential, there are encouraging signs that he could hear his name called on Saturday. And yes, Saturday is the realistic scenario if he is chosen by some organization.

The encouraging sign is that he was invited to the NFL combine, he was invited to the East-West Shrine Game, many teams came to watch him throw at the Kansas State Pro Day in Manhattan and even more made the trip to the Kansas college town to work him out privately, too.

KSO confirmed that the New England Patriots, specifically, flew to Manhattan to watch Thompson throw, and they were certainly not the only team to do so. Teams definitely view him as a draftable quarterback.

Not many thought Easton Stick would be picked and he was taken by the Los Angeles Chargers out of North Dakota State. Actually, it might have still been the San Diego Chargers at the time.

Either way, there's a lineage of quarterbacks that have been picked for the NFL under Chris Klieman's direction, so the league in general is a believer in him as a coach and the signal-callers he produces.

He should also have a good idea of what an NFL quarterback looks like and their chances of making it to the league, and he has only been complimentary of Thompson as a player and optimistic about him being picked in 2022.

It's really a 50/50 proposition. I don't think I lean any one certain way, which makes it a good topic and a timely one at that. My call is really just a guess and also me just pulling for a guy that gave the Wildcats everything he had throughout his career.