The deadline has come and gone for any college football underclassman to officially announce their desire to forego their eligibility to enter the NFL draft.
This year’s expansive list of early entrants includes many players with great professional potential like quarterbacks Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson, a number of terrific defensive standouts like Roquan Smith and DeShon Elliott, and even a punter (Michael Dickson of Texas). Running backs tend to be more likely to take their football careers to the next level due to the relatively short lifespan a running back has in the NFL, but there is one notable running back choosing to put the NFL on hold this year with the intent on playing one more season of college football.
Stanford running back Bryce Love is bucking the trend of declaring early and returning to the Cardinal for one more year of college football in the Pac-12. The 2017 Heisman Trophy runner-up has almost nothing left to prove on an individual level, but the early word appears to be Love actually values completing his education over going to the pros at this point in time, which is equally refreshing as it is complex.
Big news for #Stanford: RB Bryce Love, who would’ve been one of the draft’s top players, is coming back to school, via @tomgfitzgerald. Word was he really liked the school part of school. https://t.co/YdOCidTXtO
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 16, 2018
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Love’s decision Tuesday morning, a day after the deadline to declare for the NFL Draft for underclassmen had officially expired. It had just been expected Love would join the growing list of talented underclassmen deciding to head off to the National Football League along with a number of other noteworthy running backs. But perhaps it was waiting so long to make the decision that may have impacted Love’s decision-making process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaWOBy-kAF4
This year’s NFL Draft pool of running backs is loaded with good options. Saquon Barkley of Penn State is heading into the NFL Draft and is widely considered the top running back prospect in the draft. LSU’s Derrius Guice is also turning pro a year early and his pro potential is highly optimistic. Both could be considered top 10-worthy picks before most draft analysts may even get to Love.
Other talented running backs making the jump to the NFL include Ronald Jones of USC, Royce Freeman of Oregon, and Kerryon Johnson of Auburn. And that is just among the juniors in the crowd. Then there are some senior options like the dynamic duo from Georgia, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, and, of course, San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny.
The running back position has been loaded in college football the last couple of seasons, and the talent heading off to the NFL. Love would stand above most of the potential draft competition if he decided to turn pro this season, but he would have to overcome some slight concerns about his size. Love would be one of the smaller running backs on the board, and the NFL Draft is not always too kind to players of Love’s size and stature even if they are standout athletes in the college game.
With the decision of such a celebrated and decorated running back as Love is, one can only wonder just what kind of advice he was given from the NFL’s draft advisory board, which is tasked with providing the best possible assessment of where a player could potentially be drafted if they decided to come out a year early.
Mind you, these projections form the advisory board are in no way a guarantee to a player what day or round they would be selected if they declare early, because you never know how a draft will play out once teams start trading around picks to move up or down, but it is a good assessment of what to expect to help make the best possible decision a player can (and yes, sometimes a player will ignore the advice from the board anyway).
Was Love given a draft grade suggesting he would not be a lock for the first round? That is entirely possible as NFL teams may not be willing to draft a running back that high unless they feel for certain they can get a good career out of a running back. Love would almost surely be given no worse than a Day 2 grade for a second or third round, wouldn’t he?
My hope is Stanford uses Love more in the passing game. Let him show if he can handle third down duties https://t.co/sXv6F35QZ6
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January 16, 2018
Perhaps Love has his eyes set on going in the first round and feels another year to show what he can do when healthy would be in his best interest in 2018. Love did one thing and one thing incredibly well for Stanford, which was run the football behind a monster offensive line and make big plays on the ground happen. But at the next level, scouts will want to see a little more from their running backs.
This is one of the reasons you see Barkley being held in such high regard. Love clearly had the better rushing stats than Barkley this season, but Barkley did so many other things exceptionally well to have scouts thinking about the many ways they may be able to use him in their offense moving forward. Barkley was effective as a receiver, did some damage returning kicks, and proved to be a rock-solid blocker. Love is great running the football, but another year to prove he is capable of doing more could actually help him out in 2019, if he stays healthy.
The fact Love was banged up and had been playing on a bad ankle down the stretch of the 2017 season made it seem likely he would be moving on so he could play for pay and no longer risk an injury while in college. That has become the standard operating procedure for star players that get banged up, but Love is a rare breed that should be heralded for his decision to return to school for one more season and continuing to work toward his degree.
Love is setting himself up for a brighter and sustained career on and off the field. It’s a gamble for his on-field future, and it doesn’t always work out the way you hope (case in point, Jake Locker), but Love is smart enough to know staying at Stanford for his senior year will protect him off the field whenever his playing days happen to come to an end.