This year’s NFL Draft has plenty going for it, but maturity isn’t considered one of them.
The number of underclassmen declaring early has nearly doubled in just three years, and that’s setting off alarm bells around the league for scouts, coaches and executives.
Led by Johnny Manziel and Jadeveon Clowney, there are a whopping 98 early entrants this year. That’s up from just 56 in 2011, which was just before the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s sweeping new rookie salary restrictions kicked in.
Industry insiders expect the number of underclassman leaving school early to keep trending upward as the top college players want to get the clock started as soon as possible on their second contract — which is now when the real money can kick in.
The draft hasn’t even begun, but the prospect of a flood of players needing extra hand-holding from their teams already is causing some indigestion for executives.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert went public with his concerns at the scouting combine, where he called it the deepest draft of his 30 years in the NFL but also the most immature.
Much of the maturity questions center on Manziel, who played just two seasons at Texas A&M,as well as Washington tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Florida State wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, but Colbert said the list of underclassmen with character concerns runs much longer.
The NFL has seen the problems the NBA continues to have with one-and-dones and is worried that could become an issue in pro football, even though the courts have allowed the league to bar players from entering the draft before their third year out of high school.
“One thing that we talk about with these juniors, or any of the underclassmen, the redshirt sophomores, we are very cautiously optimistic about their emotional and physical readiness for this,” Colbert said.
“This is a huge jump. Even though it’s the most talented group that I’ve seen, I’m also worried that it’s probably the most immature group. We have to be prepared for more player-development programs — or maybe enhancing your player development — to get the most out of these younger players.”
Another day, another set of wildly differing projections for Johnny Football.
On the positive side, ESPN and the NFL Network reported the Browns are poised to take Manziel with the No. 4 overall pick because owner Jimmy Haslam “loves” him.
On the downside, former Redskins and Texans GM Charley Casserly — now an analyst for the NFL Network — wrote on the league’s website that he expects Manziel to fall out of the first round altogether.
“I don’t see him as a top-10 player — not at all,” Casserly said later in an NFL Network appearance.
Why?
“Because he has a couple of suitcases he carries with him,” Casserly said, referring to the character concerns about Manziel.
Florida State apparently did a lot of celebrating after its BCS national title this year.
According to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer, three of the six players who flunked their drug tests at the combine in February were Seminoles: defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan and linebackers Christian Jones and Telvin Smith.
The other three players who reportedly failed their tests were LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger, LSU defensive tackle Anthony Johnson and Miami (Fla.) offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson.