I see James Wright and Spencer Ware, both who were drafted even though they was predicted to be an UDFA. I see the best LBer on the team since Minter listed there as well and I have never heard anyone accuse Kwon Alexander of not being a top performer or hard worker. I hate seeing this picture. It was meant as a motivation tool for the players and not a coach's endorsement of their lack of work ethic. That's why the sign to the left is different than the list to the right. That list of player's names continually rotates and most players find their names posted there at one time of another for the purposes of motivation. However, Jonah Austin, La'el Collins, James Wright, Spencer Ware, Anthony Johnson, Micah Eugene, Dwayne Thomas, Tharold Simon, Kwon Alexander and Sam Montgomery will forever be demonized as kids who don't work hard because of this list.
Is it naive to hope that the number of early entrants who went undrafted might serve as a deterant? Johnson should certainly have stayed...
Hell 10 years ago Jeremy Hill would have easily gone in the first round. Joe Addai was a first rounder wasn't he? I think it just depends on who is drafting where and what the circumstances are. Al Woods didn't fail a drug test either.
Listening to a few interviews last week about the draft process (including Eric Winston and Ted Johnson), actual NFL GMs will even give you false information in the weeks leading up to the draft. For example, Winston had a GM tell him "If you are still on the board when we pick at #26 of the 1st round, we are taking you." Ted Johnson had at least two other GMs pretty much lie to him, when you consider how adamant they were about picking him. I'm guessing guys like AJ are getting a lot of 2nd hand and very preliminary information (i.e. before combine or scouts watch hours of game film). He probably thought he would get drafted in the 3rd-4th round and thought the benefits of coming out now and being a year closer to that coveted 2nd contract was worth it.
Unless you are in serious need of money I see no reason to leave if youre projected to be a 3-5th round selection. Stay in school, improve your craft and become a second or even a first rounder. Hopefully this lights a fire under Freak. Too many kids are leaving too early. This was a super deep draft so underperforming and character flaws will certainly hurt your draft prospects.
I also just recalled an interview with Anthony Johnson from before this past season. He said that he intentionally bulked up when he first arrived at LSU to be able to handle the more physical SEC game (compared to high school). He felt that it hurt his quickness so he lost the weight prior to this past year. I just read that it was actually 40 lbs that he lost, which was more than I realized after hearing the interview. His junior year resulted in 2nd team All-SEC, which I would have expected to mean being drafted in the mid-rounds. It probably speaks to our depth at DT that he only had one full year of being a starter. Maybe he should put the 40 lbs back on and try to be a run stuffing NFL DT rather than a quick DT?
