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04/23 16:51 CDT It's no longer a red flag for prospects to play for multiple
schools on their way to the NFL draft
It's no longer a red flag for prospects to play for multiple schools on their
way to the NFL draft
By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Pro Football Writer
DENVER (AP) --- Playing for multiple schools no longer raises a red flag for
NFL talent evaluators in this day and age of the ever busier transfer portal
and financial windfalls available to college football players before they're
even old enough to buy a round of drinks.
That's a good thing for the nearly one-third of the 398 prospects invited to
the NFL scouting combine in February who switched schools on their way to
catching the attention of pro scouts ahead of this week's NFL draft.
The list of players who capitalized on relaxed transfer rules includes USC
quarterback Caleb Williams, the odds-on favorite to go first overall to the
Chicago Bears on Thursday night. Williams spent his freshman year at Oklahoma
before following coach Lincoln Riley to Los Angeles, where he threw for 72
touchdowns in two seasons with the Trojans.
Another is Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, who spent two seasons at LSU
after playing three years at Arizona State.
"Transfers, in terms of impacting guys and grades, no, that's not really an
issue anymore," said NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former pro
scout. "I know once upon a time it would come up in draft meetings. But I'm old
enough to remember when I first started in '03 we had discussions in the draft
about a player having tattoos!
"Think how silly that is when we fast-forward 20 years. Some things become less
important. And nobody really cares about the transfer thing anymore."
Players also can make money long before declaring for the draft nowadays and
there's still an influx of athletes who took advantage of the NCAA's decision
to give them an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic.
One player who capitalized on that extra season was Denver Broncos wide
receiver Brandon Johnson, who caught just one touchdown pass in five seasons at
Tennessee, including one year that he ended up redshirting after four games.
Johnson, the son of former major league catcher Charles Johnson, transferred to
Central Florida, where he caught 11 touchdown passes in 13 games in 2021,
catching the attention of the Broncos, who signed him as an undrafted free
agent.
"I think a lot of guys transfer for circumstances that everybody may not know
about. There's a lot that goes into it," Johnson said. "So I'm glad the
negative stigma is gone.
"Before, they were looked at as though, ?Oh, this guy's afraid of competition
or he can't stick it out if it gets tough. So, yeah, I can definitely
appreciate this new era."
Johnson said he never would have reached the NFL were it not for the chance to
play an extra season close to home.
Of the 398 players invited to this year's combine, 121 of them attended more
than one college or university.
Four of them transferred multiple times, including quarterbacks Kedon Slovis
(USC, Pitt, BYU) and Jack Plummer (Purdue, Cal, Louisville). Outside linebacker
Ovie Oghoufo played at Notre Dame, Texas and LSU and defensive end Eyabi
Okie-Anoma played for Alabama, UT Martin and Michigan before finishing up at
Charlotte.
In future drafts, there's likely to be even more players who bounce around to
several schools on their way to the pros. College athletes are now eligible to
play immediately no matter how many times they transfer --- as long as they
meet academic requirements --- after the NCAA fast-tracked legislation to fall
in line with a recent court order.
The Division I Board of Directors formally ratified the change to the transfer
rule Monday and approved a tweak that allows schools to identify name, image
and likeness opportunities and facilitate deals between athletes and third
parties.
Transfer windows, which are sport-specific, remain in place and require
undergraduate athletes to enter their names into the portal at certain times to
be immediately eligible at a new school. Graduate students already can transfer
multiple times and enter the portal outside the windows while maintaining
immediate eligibility.
A coalition of state attorneys general late last year sued the NCAA,
challenging rules that forced athletes who wanted to transfer multiple times as
undergraduates to sit out a season with their new school.
By eliminating the so-called year-in-residence for transfers, an athlete must
be academically eligible at the previous school and not subject to any
disciplinary suspension or dismissal to compete immediately at a new school.
While transferring is no longer the taboo it once was, the nascent NIL frontier
provides the pro talent evaluators with another inflection point, giving them a
chance to see how prospective picks might handle fame and fortune.
Jeremiah said that when talent evaluators go back to "self-scout" and see why a
certain player didn't work out, two things usually come up: "They don't know
how to handle adversity and then the other thing is sometimes they don't know
how to handle money, fame, all that kind of stuff that goes along with it, all
the distractions that money can bring.
"So, now you're getting a chance to see them in that situation, basically being
a professional before they even get to you and see how they handle themselves,"
Jeremiah said. "I think it can be a plus."
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and AP college football:
https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
