Clowney would go #1 this year, and will be #1 next year, so should he sit out?

[JDouble]

With this kid, Manziel, and Bridgewater... Next year's draft is already looking great!

[GameTime]

Why would he sit out the year? Yea thats great advice for a #1 overall pick. Lose all that momentum being out of the game for a year. He wouldnt go #1 if he sat out all year.

how far do you think he would possibly drop if he spent the year at IMG training with NFL guys all year?

[bucsquad]

With this kid, Manziel, and Bridgewater... Next year's draft is already looking great!

Possibly Sammy Watkins, Marquis Lee, Taylor Lewan,Jake Matthews, Austin seferian-jenkins and that's just for offense.

[El Diablo]

Why would he sit out the year? Yea thats great advice for a #1 overall pick. Lose all that momentum being out of the game for a year. He wouldnt go #1 if he sat out all year.

how far do you think he would possibly drop if he spent the year at IMG training with NFL guys all year?

I don't think he would drop at all. He would still be in the top two or three picks for sure.

[MUSCLE_HAMSTER]

Doesn't matter. These guys need to spend at least three years in college to grow up a little and hopefully learn a little responsibility. And to at least have the option to get an education. We already get enough knuckle heads, we don't need to start giving millions to 18 year old high school kids. Besides, it would kill college football if all the top prospects could go straight to the NFL.

Two years is fine.

The ones who are knuckleheads aren't gonna stop just from one year in college when the life of a college football star isn't going to be amendable to maturing.

College Basketball is as popular as ever with 1 and done. The kids still have "the option" to get an education. Letting them leave earlier doesn't take it away.

Theres no way guys like Clowney or Marqis Lee wouldn't go in the top 20 of the draft. They're ready. If they weren't, GMs likely wouldn't take them and the players who aren't ready will hear that when they send out feelers before entering the draft.

Heres a pretty convincing argument for changing the rule. http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft2013/story/_/id/8943142/draft-restriction-makes-sense-colleges-nfl-not-players

[MUSCLE_HAMSTER]

Why would he sit out the year? Yea thats great advice for a #1 overall pick. Lose all that momentum being out of the game for a year. He wouldnt go #1 if he sat out all year.

He probably would.

Robert Quinn wasn't half the prospect Clowney was, got suspended an entire year and still went top 15

[dbucfan]

If it were possible I would be willing to pick him now, keep him out of college ball, and put him on the field next year - I think he is that good.  And Lattimore has been absolutely screwed by having to wait, I just hope he can get a full rehab and be the player he was at South Carolina. 

[GameTime]

And Lattimore has been absolutely screwed by having to wait,

i think its tough to say this.  why would any kid go to college when he can sign up for the pro's out of high school?  and why even make the kid finish high school in that case?  dont need a GED to carry the rock.

[dbucfan]

agree with all of that GT.  It is tough to say, but it is reality.  I would offer between 5 folks on the board we could come up with a better method of handling this issue than the NFL and NCAA currently use.  Might take a full afternoon - then again it might go faster than that with the bar currently set so very low.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Typing Game**CENSORED**s on here is kinda funny.

[robinsonkr12]

Im sorry, but the people that think Clowney should be allowed to skip is junior season and go to the NFL are WRONG. The rule has been around for awhile and just because Clowney is a freakish athlete does not mean he should be the exception to the rule. Clowney should play at least 3 years just like Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, and all the other NFL-ready players have done. Saying that, I think the rule should stay the same too. The rule gives kids the chance to get an education, but at the same time lets kids bulk up who aren't quite ready for the NFL. If they change this rule, kids will be coming from all over the country out of high school to the NFL. In that instance they would be setting themselves up to get hurt and the NFL would have even more lawsuits on its hands.
Clowney is a great player and tremendous talent, but shouldn't be allowed to skip what everyone before him had to go through. It's only fair

[GameTime]

agree with all of that GT.  It is tough to say, but it is reality.  I would offer between 5 folks on the board we could come up with a better method of handling this issue than the NFL and NCAA currently use.  Might take a full afternoon - then again it might go faster than that with the bar currently set so very low.

i dont doubt that.  but we could also fix CFB playoffs, prisons, war on drugs, lack of wrestling in the Olympics, and on and on.

[GameTime]

i hate that this topic is even being mentioned, and i hate that every sports show and ESPN in general is giving it so much pub.  but if i were this guys agent, unfortunately, sitting out and training isnt a bad idea.  its awful that its come to it, but its just the society we are in and moving towards.

[Detrimental]

Julio Jones, A.J Green, Clowney, and Trent Richardson off the top of my head were NFL ready as freshmen.

[Biggs3535]

Im sorry, but the people that think Clowney should be allowed to skip is junior season and go to the NFL are WRONG. The rule has been around for awhile and just because Clowney is a freakish athlete does not mean he should be the exception to the rule. Clowney should play at least 3 years just like Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, and all the other NFL-ready players have done.

I don't necessarily agree or disagree with your post, but you picked a couple awful examples to use as both Manning and Luck chose to stay in college all four years.  Adrian Peterson would have been a better example, with him being the only player I've ever seen that could have played in the NFL as an 18-year-old kid.