It's officially NFL Draft week and GiveMeSport's coverage wouldn't be complete without a British view from inside the league. We spoke to the Ravens London-native offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor, to get his perspective on the draft experience, his rookie season, and his goals for 2018. The Brit was a fifth-round pick out of Texas A&M a year ago and revealed that the whole draft experience was extremely 'stressful'."The whole process was stressful" he says. "I'd never want to do that again, it was very very stressful.".

"You’re just sitting there in front of a tv watching the draft not knowing when your name is going to be called. Then, when you finally do get the call it's something special. I remember when I got that call from the Ravens all my closest friends and family were around me and I thought that falling into day three was going to ruin the experience for me, I kept thinking I should’ve went on day two but when you get that call it doesn’t matter where you get drafted.

"Only 200 something players get drafted out of thousands, so just getting that call was special because all the work you put in has finally paid off. Sure you have a bunch of work ahead of you, but in that moment everything that you’ve been through, everything that you sacrificed and put your family and your body through, it was worth it." the 23-year-old said. 

The rookie experience...

Going into his rookie season, Eluemunor didn't expect to see a lot of playing time, but ended up featuring in eight regular season games and showed a lot of potential. 

When asked what the biggest difference was for him between college and the NFL, he told us it was 'definitely' the speed of the game. 

"They're a lot different that's for sure." the former Aggie said. "The NFL is more physical, but the speed of the game is definitely the biggest difference. I went back to (Texas) A&M this year and watched a practice and it’s just like when I was at college, and went back and watched a high school game, the speed of the game is just completely different.". 

Despite that drastic change, and facing up against a flurry of talented defenses, Eluemunor impressed in 2017 and was named to the Pro Football Writers Association's All-Rookie team.

And, he's working harder than ever to get better every day and make sure he sees more playing time in 2018.

"...I want to grow and get more time on the field." he says with real conviction in his voice. "As a rookie last year I played a bunch and I didn’t expect that coming in, but now I've been on the field and experienced it I want to do it more and more so I'm just working my butt off doing everything I can do to get myself that playing time and play a bigger role."

The London-born guard faced up against some elite defensive linemen in his rookie season, but who did he rate as the hardest to block?

"I've been asked that question so many times this offseason, and I say the same thing every single time. Every single D-Lineman I played was so tough; from Linval Joseph to Calais Campbell and Malik Jackson, Akiem Hicks with the Bears, Cameron Heyward against the Steelers and Khalil Mack." he said.

"There's a ton of very, very talented players. Week in week out I was game planning for one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.".

Eluemunor, along with the likes of Jay Ajayi and Menelik Watson, are paving the way for future Brits and international players to make it to the NFL. His journey from barely having played the game when he moved to America aged 14, to having to send out his own high school tape just to get a junior college offer, to eventually getting drafted, is certainly an unconventional one.

But, he's proven that with a lot of hard work and sacrifice it is possible to get that 'special' call on draft day, no matter where you start from. 

Over 200 future NFL stars will get that call in the coming days, and we can't wait to take in all the action from Dallas!

All three days of the NFL Draft are exclusively live on Sky Sports with opening night getting underway from 12.30am on Friday, April 27 on Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Mix.