There's a lot left to be settled as to whether NFL players who've been granted an extra year of eligibility can or should return to the college ranks. The NFL has made it clear with a recent memorandum that if a player leaves NFL camp to return to college, they can't come back to the NFL this season, and they can't be drafted in a future season. On "Get Up" Thursday morning, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter explained that the rules refresher was necessary amid an unprecedented mixing between football at the collegiate and professional levels.
"These rules have been in place but I think the NFL needed to remind teams and reinforce the idea that a player who leaves the NFL to go back to college, which we've never seen before, isn't allowed to come back to the NFL in the same season, nor is that player going to be allowed to reenter the draft," he said. "You are eligible for one draft in your life." He used another "Get Up" panelist, former safety Donte Whitner, to further make his point. "Donte Whitner can't go be the eighth overall pick one year, go back to the Ohio State and come back and be another high pick again.
It doesn't work like that, and the NFL reminded its teams of that yesterday in that memo after the Dae'Quan Wright situation." Dae'Quan Wright, who was in training camp with the Cleveland Browns but has decided to return to play for his college coach, Lane Kiffin, at LSU, has become the face of this issue, though he's not alone. Zxavian Harris left the New Orleans Saints, also to play for Kiffin at LSU. "Once you're in a draft, you're not in any more drafts," Schefter continued.
"Once you leave the NFL in-season to go back to college to play for the LSU Tigers instead of the Cleveland Browns, you cannot come back to the NFL that season." While Schefter's presentation of the rules is definitive, the ultimate effects these players will experience is yet to be seen. "A lot of people are saying, 'OK, we'll see how that impacts [Wright's] stock going forward.' He's planning to see how that will be determined," Schefter said. "We'll see how that works out."
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