With 2009 winding its way toward the end of the regular season, the talk of which players will or won’t make the jump to the NFL a year early is beginning to heat up.
Two of the players involved in the early-entry conversation play in the state of Georgia, and both admit they are having NFL thoughts even as there are still games left to be played.
Georgia’s Rennie Curran and Georgia Tech’s Derrick Morgan are being looked at by draftniks far and wide as juniors who could/should make the early leap, especially the latter.
“People say they don’t think about it, but I think about it every once in a while,” Morgan, who is fifth in the nation with 11.5 sacks, said. “It’s not heavy on my mind. It gets brought up every now and then and I have to think about it. My main focus is on winning the ACC championship.
“I don’t know. It’s a possibility at the end of the season. It will all be determined by how I finish up.”
Curran, who is second in the SEC in tackles, says that the fact he watched Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno go through this last year gives him an ideal template for how to handle the constant questioning about his future.
“Knowshon and Stafford, I watched them go through the same thing, and they did a good job handling it,” the linebacker said. “Right now, I’m just focused on the season, honestly. It crosses my mind just like it would anybody else who was in the situation I’m in, but it’s a good situation to be in and have to think about. But for the most part, I’m just focused on what got me here, which is working hard and finishing strong, because that’s all I really feel like matters.”
Morgan would be stupid not to go; he is GT’s pass rush, gets doubled constantly yet still gets pressure and makes big plays. Also a smart dude. Could be a 2nd or low first rounder.
Curran on the other hand is very undersized. He’s listed as 5’11, 225 but there is no way he’s that big. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was under 5’10″ and about 10-15 lbs lighter than that. Undersized LB’s normally don’t get drafted high into the NFL. I can’t seeing Curran going much higher than the 4th and I don’t think he could play OLB in the NFL either because TE’s will eat him up in pass coverage.