Ed Oliver making the right move by sitting out Houston bowl game

Ed Oliver announced that he will not play another game for the Houston Cougars this postseason. The defensive tackle is smart to sit out the bowl game.

Over the past few years, we have seen high-profile players opt out of their final college football opportunities by sitting out bowl games. Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey did it two years ago, electing to protect their bodies as they prepared for the NFL Draft. Their precedent has started a small trend, as more players have decided to follow their example. The latest is Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who announced on the last day of November that he will not play in whatever bowl game invites the Cougars this year.

Oliver has struggled with injuries this season, as knee injuries have limited his opportunities to see the field. Given the fact that opponents have frequently targeted Oliver with questionably-legal tactics throughout the season, it would frankly be foolish for him to risk his body one more time for Houston in a game that will do nothing to raise or lower his NFL Draft profile.

Since before he even committed to Houston, Oliver was perceived as a consensus five-star recruit and a future first-round NFL selection. Over his three years with the Cougars, Oliver has done nothing to dispel that notion about his talent. Frequently getting into the backfield, he will end his college career with 192 total tackles, 53 tackles for loss, and 13.5 sacks in 32 games played. Oliver added 11 pass deflections, five forced fumbles and one fumble recovery over that span.

With injuries an omnipresent threat in football, and with Oliver locked in as a top-tier prospect for the 2019 NFL Draft, there is nothing for the defensive tackle to gain by playing for Houston one more time.

While it will peeve Cougars fans who hoped to see him one more time in uniform, Oliver owes nothing to the fan base, to the university, to his coaches, or even to his teammates. Not only has the tackle put up big numbers of his own, but Oliver has also consistently elevated the play of his teammates, drawing away linemen to allow others to get into the backfield.

That propensity for drawing attention is what forced him to battle lower-body injuries over the course of his junior season. Oliver is making the decision to bet on himself, and it is a bet that doesn’t require the young star to draw one more card from the deck. Houston’s best defender in years is already sitting on a winning hand, and he is smart to stand at 20 rather than hoping to draw one more ace from the dealer.