While no Auburn players were selected in the first round of this year's NFL Draft, a number of former Tigers are expected to hear their name called this weekend, starting with tonight's second round.

Carlton Davis, Kerryon Johnson and Braden Smith headline the group of former Auburn players in this year's draft and all three are widely projected to come off the board during the second or third rounds, with several others projected to go during rounds four through seven on Saturday.

"I think we have a chance to have a whole lot of guys drafted," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said, "possibly more than any other year in school history since they went to (a) seven-round draft."

Since the NFL went to a seven-round draft in 1994, Auburn has had five players drafted four times, the last coming in 2015.

At least four players are essentially locks to be drafted, with kicker Daniel Carlson joining the aforementioned three other All-Americans. Projections vary for former Auburn stars Jeff Holland, Tray Matthews, Tre' Williams and Stephen Roberts.

If six Auburn players were to be drafted it would be the most for the program since 1991 and anything more than that would be the most since the program-record 10 in 1989.

Davis, Johnson and Smith are all projected to be drafted tonight by ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., NFL Network's Mike Mayock and leading analysts for Walter Football, NFL Draft Scout and DraftAnalyst.com.

Who ends up being the first Auburn player off the board is most likely going to be between Johnson and Davis though.

Johnson, who rushed for 1,391 yards and 18 touchdowns and had 194 receiving yards and two scores en route to being SEC Offensive Player of the Year last season, is contending with fellow running backs Nick Chubb, Derrius Guice and Ronald Jones.

Kerryon Johnson Road to the Pros: Part I | Part II | Part III

Davis' toughest competition among corners still on the board is from Josh Jackson and Donte Jackson.

Several top interior offensive lineman still remain along with Smith, including Will Hernandez, Austin Corbett and James Daniels.

"I like Braden Smith," Mayock said. "He's a big, powerful dude, played a couple of different positions. I've got him at the bottom of my -- in my second-round stack. I think worst case for Braden, you're looking at the top of the third round, and I do believe he can step in at day one and compete. A lot of these offensive linemen, you've got to wait for them to get enough strength to play in the NFL. This guy's ready to go right now from a strength perspective. Somewhere late second, early third, and compete day one as a starter."

Carlson, widely expected to be the first kicker drafted, could go in the third round or later. Holland is widely projected from rounds four through six and Matthews, Williams and Roberts could all go on Day 3 or be priority free agents.

Kamryn Pettway, Casey Dunn, Austin Golson and Ike Powell all could sign as undrafted free agents as well.

James Crepea is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JamesCrepea.