Thursday, Auburn lost their best player on the offensive side of the ball to early entry into the NFL draft. A day later, and as expected, they lost their best player on the other side of the ball to the big boy football league as well.
In a press conference conducted this afternoon at Williamson High School in Mobile, Ala., defensive lineman Nick Fairley announced that he was leaving the Tigers and making himself available for the April NFL draft.
“I was thinking, ‘What more could I accomplish my senior year?” Fairley said during the announcement.
Like Cam Newton, who announced his decision to leave a year early for the NFL yesterday, Fairley was a consensus All-American while also taking home the Lombardi Award as the nation’s top lineman. Fairley set school records with 11.5 sacks and 24 tackles for loss.
While he has been labeled -- justifiably so -- as a dirty player, there’s little doubt that he’s one of the most physically gifted lineman to enter the draft in the last decade. With Andrew Luck‘s decision to remain at Stanford for another season, the race to become the No. 1 overall draft pick is wide open. If I’m Carolina, and dirty player at the collegiate level or not, I’m taking a very long, very hard look at Fairley at the top of the draft.