More than 100 players have declared for the NFL Draft with college eligibility still remaining. Here are the five most puzzling early declaration decisions.
There was a time when juniors leaving early for the NFL Draft was a somewhat rare occurrence. Times have changed. Now there are not only juniors making their way to the professional ranks, but redshirt sophomores headed to the NFL as well.
More than 100 players have forgone their remaining college eligibility for the 2018 NFL Draft. Many of those players are going to get drafted, some in the first few rounds for a considerable sum of money. That’s not going to be the case for everyone. 95 players chose to leave school early for the 2017 NFL Draft. 28 of them were not selected, leaving them to fight for roster spots as undrafted free agents.
The massive number of early entrants will give way to a similar story in 2018, making it fair to ask if all of these players are making the right decisions. For some the opportunity to raise their stock with one more good season outweighs their current draft prospects. For others they simply didn’t have enough status to begin with.
Here are five players that would have benefited the most from returning to school rather than declaring early for the 2018 NFL Draft.
There wasn’t a hotter name entering the 2017 season than USC quarterback Sam Darnold. After coming off the bench the year before he had the Trojans in the title conversation early on. Those title hopes never materialized and a large portion of the blame falls on Darnold’s shoulders.
Turnovers and poor decision-making haunted Darnold all season. He threw 26 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. He tallied five rushing touchdowns but 11 fumbles. 31 total touchdowns against 24 turnovers is not the kind of stat that NFL teams are looking for in a franchise quarterback, quite the opposite actually.
Darnold’s final game for the Trojans perfectly encapsulated what became his final season. He completed 26 of 45 passes for 356 yards against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl. In that game Darnold threw no touchdown passes, instead a lone interception which was returned for a touchdown by the Buckeyes. He also fumbled twice.
The offense under Darnold was sporadic, but always capable of a quick strike. When he’s playing his best Darnold can fit a ball into the tightest windows. Despite his struggles he’s still going to be a first round pick, and potentially a top-5 selection. His early departure might not impair his draft stock significantly, but its clear that Darnold has a long learning curve ahead of him that could have been addressed in college. He’s still going to get a big payday, but his chances at future success are not better by leaving college so soon.
Equanimeous St. Brown has one thing going for him – size. The 6-foot-5 receiver out of Notre Dame was a 4-star receiver out of high school with high expectations. Partially due to quarterback play those never came to fruition in South Bend.
Brown was limited to 515 yards and four touchdown in his junior season. Both those marks represent a sharp decline from his sophomore campaign that saw his tally 961 yards and nine receiving touchdowns.
In 2016 he had DeShone Kizer. This year it was Brandon Wimbush who tossing it his way. Wimbush’s performance was so disconcerting that he was taken out of games multiple times during the season, including Notre Dame’s Citrus Bowl win over LSU. As poor as the quarterback play was, St. Brown did not hold up his end of the bargain. His imposing frame should make him a go-to target in the redzone. Instead he didn’t do much damage anywhere on the field.
His biggest play of the year came on a 75-yard touchdown reception from Wimbush against Stanford. That showcased his quickness, but marked the first time all season that he had reached 100 yards receiving or more than four catches. The track record just isn’t there with St. Brown, not yet.
The Gators’ star receiver, Antonio Callaway missed the beginning of the 2017 season with a team imposed suspension. It didn’t take long for details behind the suspension to trickle out, and eventually it became public knowledge that Callaway, along with several teammates, had been charged with credit card fraud. That comes on the heals of a drug charge which he pleaded no contest too earlier in the summer.
So instead of honing his craft on the football field, Callaway spent this past season worrying about off field issues rather than football. He was never going to be able to cover up the skeletons in his closet, but would have had some time to rebuild his credibility had he stayed in school. Whether it was at Florida or some place else, Callaway had two years of college eligibility remaining following his missed sophomore season.
Callaway was the most dynamic player on the Florida offense. His omission from the lineup was a devastating blow from which the Gators never recovered. The talented speedster will get looks from NFL teams, but multiple off the field issues before turning 22-years old will raise serious concerns and drastically alter his trajectory in this year’s draft.
Staying in school was not likely not going to turn Callaway into a potential first round pick. Still, it would have given him the chance to show teams he’s serious about honing his craft. In the 2018 draft he’s going to be a flier rather than a must-have commodity. That’s a low floor for a player with that much talent.
The 2018 running back class is one of the deepest groups the position has seen in recent memory. Penn State’s Saquon Barkley, LSU’s Derrius Guice and Auburn’s Kerryon Johnson are just a few of the dozen or so rushers that could make an immediate impact on the next level. Despite not being a position traditional selected highly in the draft, the upper end talent should be off the board midway through the first round and there will still be plenty more rushers to be called.
There’s are just too many more options in the backfield this season and Justin Crawford is nowhere near the top of that list. Crawford had a quietly productive career at West Virginia. The two-year starter rushed for 2,244 yards and 11 touchdowns. A modest line that was completely overshadowed by the Mountaineers’ dynamic passing attack.
Despite lining up in the backfield with one of the better passers in the Big 12, Will Grier, Crawford never demonstrated much prowess as a pass catcher. He caught eight passes for 38 yards in his final season.
Grier is returning to West Virginia this season, as is his favorite target Devon Stills V. Crawford could have rejoined an offense that had the potential to be the best in the conference, if not the country, with the departures of Mason Rudolph and Baker Mayfield. He chose to go pro and his chances of being drafted at all are slim.
Kyle Allen was the No. 1 ranked pro-style passer in the 2014 recruiting class. He signed with Texas A&M and was thrown into the fire immediately. He had some bright spots in his two seasons with the Aggies, highlighted by a road upset of No. 3 Auburn in 2014 in which he threw for 277 yards and four touchdowns.
His Texas A&M career went downhill when Kyler Murray came to campus the following season. The two went back and forth with the starting job, which eventually wound up with Allen. The strife between Murray and Kevin Sumlin proved to be too much and both quarterbacks transferred immediately following the season.
Allen went to Houston to play for Tom Herman. That never materialized. Instead Herman moved on to the Texas leaving Allen to fend for himself at UH. Allen started three games for the Cougars in 2017 before being benched in favor of backup quarterback Kyle Postma.
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The more feasible solution for Allen would have been a graduate transfer. That would have allowed him one more season to prove himself at the collegiate level before jumping straight to the NFL. His decision to declare early is puzzling and his draft prospects will be significantly lesser than the star-studded lineup of elite passers that won’t all fit into the first round.