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Bama News
What NFL execs think of players skipping bowl games
A pair of Alabama defensive starters, Terrell Lewis and Trevon Diggs, will not play in the Citrus Bowl.
Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy explained his decision to play in the Citrus Bowl in simple terms last week: he is a football player, and he did not have second thoughts about playing in what will almost certainly be his final college football game.
Two of his teammates on defense, Terrell Lewis and Trevon Diggs, came to different conclusions.
The pair of defensive starters, both of whom will enter the NFL draft, were not on the practice field for Alabama’s seven consecutive workouts in Tuscaloosa last week and will not suit up when Alabama meets Michigan at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Jan. 1.
“We certainly respect and understand their decision,” coach Nick Saban said last Monday.
But how does the NFL view players sitting out bowl games that do not have championship implications?
AL.com polled four high-ranking NFL personnel executives, all from separate teams, to gather their opinions on the subject. In general, the decisions do not seem to negatively affect players’ draft stock in the eyes of the NFL.
“I don’t hold it against them," one executive said.
Another executive added that “old school” evaluators in the league might take issue with it but he understands they are business decisions.
One circumstance that annoyed a third executive was a player skipping a bowl game but deciding to play in an all-star game, citing West Virginia quarterback Will Grier passing on the Camping World Bowl last season but participating in the Senior Bowl.
The same executive said he gave additional credit to Kentucky pass rusher Josh Allen for playing in the Citrus Bowl last season. The 2018 SEC Defensive Player of the Year had already solidified his spot near the top of the draft but still suited up against Penn State, recording three sacks in his final college game. He later went No. 7 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Alabama has players in both categories this season.
Jeudy is the No. 4 overall prospect on ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper’s latest big board and like Allen, he is a safe bet to be chosen in the first half of the first round.
But Jeudy could conceivably push his stock higher by performing well in the Citrus Bowl. After winning the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best receiver last season, he was not a finalist this year and was left off four out of five All-American teams. His 959 receiving yards rank second on the team behind DeVonta Smith (1,200).
Meanwhile, Lewis is one of four Alabama players to have accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl next month in Mobile. He will not, however, join his teammates for the Citrus Bowl, in part because of an injury history that includes knee and elbow injuries keeping him off the field most of the past two seasons.
Lewis, as the No. 4-ranked outside linebacker by Kiper, is not a lock to be chosen in the first round after the redshirt junior declares for the draft next month. Neither is Diggs, a senior who is Kiper’s eighth-ranked cornerback.
Saban, decrying media-based draft projections, said last week he received draft grades from 20 NFL teams and met with his players -- although it is unclear if any advice he gave to Jeudy, Lewis and Diggs about participating or not in the Citrus Bowl aligned with those grades.
“Look, I try to get guys to make business decisions about what they’re going to do,” Saban said Dec. 16. “I kind of get it if you’re a high first-round draft pick. The money versus how you can protect yourself and insure yourself may make a business decision that says the risk is not worth the reward of playing in the game.
“But if you’re not in that position, then you have an opportunity to showcase your talents and try to impress people with how you play in the game. That’s pretty much what I told those guys, and it’s their choice. Everybody has to live with sort of the consequences of their decisions, whether they’re good decisions or bad decisions.”
Lewis and Diggs sitting out might be the latest sign that the trend of players forgoing bowl games has accelerated beyond only surefire first-round picks.
Three years ago, LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey made headlines when they sat out the Citrus Bowl and Sun Bowl, respectively.
Both were still drafted within the top eight picks of the 2017 NFL Draft, validating their decision to stay healthy and lock-in their draft stock instead of helping their teams win a non-College Football Playoff bowl game. In fact, LSU coach Ed Orgeron encouraged Fournette to sit.
Now, prospects throughout the draft are deciding to skip bowl games. Of the 16 players tracked by 247 Sports last season as having skipped their respective bowl games, only five were chosen in the first round. Several were mid-round picks and some even went undrafted.
This season, at least 15 players have chosen to forgo their respective bowl games.
