Every year, NFL teams hope to supplement their existing rosters in the NFL Draft, which allows them to pick up some of the best amateur football talent in the country — but the market is not totally free.
Over the course of the seven rounds spanning three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), teams can draft players who have been out of “high school for at least three years and must have used up their college eligibility before the start of the next college football season,” according to the league’s official website. Additionally, players who do not meet those requirements may request special approval from the NFL to be draft-eligible.
These restrictions on player eligibility are ridiculous. Teams should be able to draft whoever they want out of the players who declare for the draft with no professional football experience.
The two starting quarterbacks from January’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, Clemson freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Alabama sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, are both not draft-eligible this season.
Lawrence, 19, led Clemson to a national championship as a true freshman, completing 65.2% of his pass attempts for 3,280 yards, 30 touchdowns, and just four interceptions. He’s the player who ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit called a “once-in-a-generation type of guy.” Meanwhile, Tagovailoa, who is 21, was the Heisman Trophy runner-up this past season. He slung 43 touchdowns and just six interceptions, while completing 69% of his pass attempts for 3,966 yards.
CBS Sports notes Tagovailoa and Lawrence are expected to be top picks in the 2020 and 2021 NFL Drafts respectively. But if they are already among the top quarterbacks (collegiate or otherwise) in the country, why shouldn’t they be allowed to play in the NFL this fall? They may be able to improve the quality of play of quarterbacks in the league, which has been lacking in recent years, as The Ringer noted in 2017.
More importantly than that: Why should these players be required to give away their labor and sacrifice, their physical health for another year or two without receiving a seven-figure salary? The NCAA does not compensate their athletes outside of providing scholarships, food, housing, and small stipends for expenses. NCAA athletes aren’t in the top 1% of income-earners like NFL players. NCAA athletes can’t sign endorsement deals or profit from their likeness in any manner. NFL players can.
Some might argue the current structure is fine because it gives top young talents more time to develop. However, that argument does not add up. Young players who happened to graduate high school early or be granted early draft eligibility have thrived in the NFL.
Buffalo Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds was only 19 years old when drafted 16th overall in 2018 following a three-year career at Virginia Tech. Edmunds was 20 when the NFL season started and excelled, recording 121 tackles, two sacks, and two interceptions in 15 starts.
In 2007, the Houston Texans took a similar approach, drafting a 19-year-old Amobi Okoye in the first round of the draft. The Nigerian immigrant started playing college football when he was 16. By the time the 2007 NFL season started, he was 20 and a standout: He recorded four sacks in September 2007 and received the Defensive Rookie of the Month award.
Not to mention late New England Patriots tight end, and convicted murderer, Aaron Hernandez made his NFL debut at 20 years old, having graduated high school early. His rookie year, he recorded 45 catches for 563 yards and six touchdowns. Although committing a heinous murder in 2013 ended his NFL career prematurely, his youth did not stop him from matching up well physically against the pros.
If the NFL wants to improve their league, lifting restrictions on who can play in it would be a nice start. If they don’t, then they are doing a great job and should keep doing what they are now.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
