NEW ORLEANS—While a season-ending Sugar Bowl matchup with Oklahoma looms for the Alabama football team, so too do draft decisions for eligible juniors.
Several members of the Crimson Tide will still have college eligibility remaining but have performed high enough to merit leaving early for the NFL Draft. Decisions must be made by January 15.
Here are four Alabama players who could declare early, and where they stand on their decisions.
Trey Depriest: The junior linebacker has announced that he will return to Alabama for his senior year.
Depriest had a solid career playing for Alabama, contributing on special teams as a freshman, while being a regular member of the linebacker rotation the last two seasons.
He is projected in the middle rounds of a few mock drafts but hasn’t reached the “can’t-miss” status that some of his other teammates have. He has also played in the shadows of linebackers like C.J. Mosley and Nico Johnson.
“Regardless if I was going to come back, this game was going to be our main focus,” Depriest said on Monday. “Send the seniors and the older guys out the way they need to be sent out. Regardless of if I was thinking about the draft or not, my full focus was going to be on this game.”
Cyrus Kouandjio: The junior left tackle is projected by many to go in the first round of the draft, as he and Michigan’s Taylor Lewan are considered the top two tackles in the draft.
Kouandjio enjoyed stellar sophomore and junior campaigns protecting quarterback AJ McCarron’s blind side. Kouandjio hasn’t made a decision yet, but said Sunday he was “50-50.”
“I’ll look at my pros and my cons, write it all down and make a decision,” Kouandjio said, according to al.com’s Andrew Gribble.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix: The junior safety similarly has a first-round grade by many projections and could be the top safety taken in the draft.
Clinton-Dix, like Kouandjio is still mulling his decision.
“I haven’t really paid any attention at all,” he said Monday. “Like i said, I’m focused on this one game and my teammates. I’m not looking to the future at all.”
Jeoffrey Pagan: The redshirt junior defensive end could have the hardest decision of the four.
Pagan isn’t necessarily a can’t-miss prospect, but he likely won’t be able to improve his draft stock much more during his senior year. And with a young defensive line core led by freshmen A’Shawn Robinson and Jonathan Allen, Pagan could see his role decrease in his last year.
“At the end of this game, I’ll sit down with my folks and coach Saban and we’ll talk about it,” Pagan said Monday. “Then, make the best business decision.”
