Fixing the NFL Draft: The Y'all Way

During the football season, the Out of Bounds show is mostly interviews and the conversation is driven by actual game play. It’s all pretty innocuous. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still shitty but not as bad the middle of spring when Bo refuses to talk basketball and baseball and chooses instead to let Burt Carruth run amok.

All of this has left a real drain on content for this blog. It’s not called Bo Bounds is Below Average. So I’m really glad that Bo has decided to write more of his opinions on his Y’all Sports blog lately. This raw access to his thoughts really drives home my point that he is THE WORST.

Let’s take a look at his new think piece that was inspired by Marcus Lattimore’s injury two weeks ago. Apparently this lead Bo to believe that his injury never should’ve happened to Lattimore because he’s too good for college or something. And that, college players, the ones that are good, shouldn’t have to toil in the NCAA. Not a completely baseless argument but wait until you hear Bo’ rationale.

Now before you go any further, just remember: Bo Bounds is totally not a journalist. Like at all. He’s just a media member with a wide-reaching public platform. I’m not sure if there’s a word for that.

Who knows if Lattimore will ever rehab and work his way back to what he was. The injury to Lattimore will cost him millions either way.


Either way he loses millions?? Uh, no he doesn’t. There’s only one scenario where loses money: Lattimore’s knee is never 100% and he doesn’t pan out as an NFL running back.

The other scenario, wherein Lattimore works his way back, plays well for South Carolina next season and is drafted in the first round leads to him making it RAIN. There are no lost millions in this scenario

Only a handful of players are good enough to go pro after their freshman year. Marcus Lattimore, Trent Richardson and Adrian Peterson are three that come to mind. For those who claim the college game would lose too many starts below is a list of players who were not good enough to turn pro after their freshman year:


1. Peyton Manning
2. Matthew Stafford
3. Tim Tebow (didn’t even start as a freshman)
4. Cam Newton
5. Ryan Mallet
6. Sam Bradford
7. Aaron Rodgers (Rodgers was in Juco)

Oh, so these stars would never choose to leave college early to play in the NFL for mee-yons of dollars. Bo’s argument with these 7 players presupposes that these players would CHOOSE to stay in college after their freshman year if given the choice.

One more thing: All of the players on his list are quarterbacks. Of course they’re not good enough to turn pro. Does anyone think a 19 year old can step into an NFL offense after 1 year in college? Once again, we see Bo supporting his bullshit argument with awful examples that don’t really apply.

And then, muddying his argument even further, he chooses 7 good-to-great college quarterbacks with varying degrees of NFL success, and basically says “Even though these players wouldn’t do it, if they were allowed to choose, they totally would stay in college.” How long do you think Cam Newton would last with a one-and-done rule in college football?

The knee jerk reaction fan would tell you some guys would make the move without being ready to play in the NFL. I agree with that.


You do? Then why are we talking about this? What about your rock solid argument, just one sentence ago, that because Peyton Manning didn’t make the jump all other players below his level will follow his lead.

Maybe the NFL could grade players and if you don’t receive a certain grade you can’t opt for the draft. 

A grade for players that determines if they are allowed to enter the draft?  This is so breathtakingly stupid. Of course it comes from the same asshat that spends 15 hours a week railing against the 5-star recruiting system. Now he wants to grade college players to grant them the right to enter the NFL draft.

Who knows?

Certainly not you. But I’ve never seen it stop you before.

If we can fly from New York to Moscow in one day, I think somebody could figure out the right evaluation process for the college players.

And here Bo invokes the underused air travel/NFL Draft comparison. It makes so much sense now. Somebody get Goodell and Mark Emmert on the phone. And while you’re dialing, get me the CEO of Delta and ask him who he had on the Moscow Project.

Bottom line, Lattimore should not having been playing on last Saturday. Lattimore should have been playing on Sunday or Monday night.
 
A few things: 
1) Is anyone upset with the 3 year rule the NFL and NCAA use? Or is this Bo unnecessarily stirring the pot?

2) Are we really talking about letting 19 year-old football players choose between college and the NFL? That’s just going to lead to disproportionately young draft classes, overvalued skill players, and eventually a decline player skills at the next level. You know what you have then: the NBA. 

3) If a player chooses to leave college early, his chances of getting injured in the NFL are just as likely, probably greater, than in college. And without guaranteed contracts in the NFL, an injured player is shit out of luck. At least as a college sophomore Lattimore has the security of a scholarship with South Carolina. He can rehab with their doctors and facilities, and has (at least) one more season to prove to NFL executives that his knee is fine.