FCS Player Set to Declare for NFL Draft today

[Screamin_Eagle174]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/h ... es_uw.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's been confirmed today that backup running back Demitrius Bronson is leaving UW, apparently in search of more playing time elsewhere.

A graduate of Kentwood High, Bronson saw no action this season for the Huskies serving as a backup to Chris Polk and others at tailback.

He played sparingly in 2009 as a true freshman, gaining 89 yards on 19 carries, seeing action in seven games.

He was a standout at Kentwood and signed as part of the 2008 recruiting class but didn't enroll until Jan., 2009.

He has three years of eligibility remaining. Some rumors have had Bronson headed to Eastern Washington, but those have not been confirmed.

Interestingly, Eastern has a sudden hole at tailback as junior running back Taiwan Jones announced today he is entering the NFL Draft.

Eastern will open next season against UW at Husky Stadium on Sept. 3. Were Bronson to transfer to EWU he would be immediately eligible to play and would be able to play against the Huskies.

[SmallCollegeFBFan]

SCFBF... what do you think Taiwan will run in the 40?

4.32-4.38 hand held and a 4.38-4.44 electronic range. He is as fast as Deji Karim and likely a little faster and Karim ran a 4.42. I expect 4.3s.

[kalm]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/h ... es_uw.html

It's been confirmed today that backup running back Demitrius Bronson is leaving UW, apparently in search of more playing time elsewhere.

A graduate of Kentwood High, Bronson saw no action this season for the Huskies serving as a backup to Chris Polk and others at tailback.

He played sparingly in 2009 as a true freshman, gaining 89 yards on 19 carries, seeing action in seven games.

He was a standout at Kentwood and signed as part of the 2008 recruiting class but didn't enroll until Jan., 2009.

He has three years of eligibility remaining. Some rumors have had Bronson headed to Eastern Washington, but those have not been confirmed.

Interestingly, Eastern has a sudden hole at tailback as junior running back Taiwan Jones announced today he is entering the NFL Draft.

Eastern will open next season against UW at Husky Stadium on Sept. 3. Were Bronson to transfer to EWU he would be immediately eligible to play and would be able to play against the Huskies.

Same high school that Aaron Boyce and Rodney Stuckey came from. Interesting.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/h ... es_uw.html

Same high school that Aaron Boyce and Rodney Stuckey came from. Interesting.

Good call, I forgot about that.

[Wildcat Ryan]

If it makes any of you EWU fans feel any better...........you didnt even need TJ to kick Weber's arse this last year

[Screamin_Eagle174]

If it makes any of you EWU fans feel any better...........you didnt even need TJ to kick Weber's arse this last year

How can we feel any better?

[blueballs]

I don't know what the starting salary is for a 3rd or 4th round draft pick is but I bet it is a helluva lot higher than the average EWU grad.

Congratulations to Jones, earn the money and play at the highest level. That is the whole point. Kudos!

[kemajic]

Indeed. he looked fantastic in the Chipper.

Yes indeed. Kaufman is a beast. With his size, speed, and hands he could get drafted in two years for sure.

We're hoping for one....

[AZGrizFan]

A) he too dumb for school, might as well go pro.
B) why play in a dump of a town where 3000 show up in playoffs

Which is 2000 more than showed up for Villanova's playoff games.

Hmmm....maybe Montana has this all wrong?

[EWURanger]

you didnt even need TJ to kick Weber's arse this last year

Or Nova's.

[BDKJMU]

According to a source, Eastern Washington RB Taiwan Jones is expected to officially declare himself eligible for the 2011 NFL Draft today. Jones submitted paperwork to the NFL Advisory Committee recently and received a third round grade yesterday. He is currently working to choose an agent right now and should make it official very soon. With Jones entering the draft he should be among the first two or three FCS players taken in the draft and is my number one rated FCS player.

Higher rated than Ijalana and Devlin? FWIW Kiper now has Ijalana at 25th on his big board...

[BDKJMU]

How many players from I-AA have ever left early and been drafted? I guess its happened a few times since 1979?

[BDKJMU]

For EWU guys, is Jones a true junior? If so, how did EWU manage to land a guy that is good enough to be a mid round draft pick 3 years out of HS? Was he one of those late bloomers that somehow got overlooked & slipped through the cracks with no BCS offers or did he choose EWU over a BCS? Just wondering...

[BDKJMU]

"Taiwan Jones entering NFL draft

Eastern Washington junior running back Taiwan Jones, who was the Big Sky Conference co-Offensive Most Valuable Player, plans to enter the National Football League draft, but he is likely a late-round pick.

“It all depends on the foot,” Rob Rang of NFL Draft Scout said of Jones’ pro prospects. “If his ankle is healthy, he’s a fourth- or fifth-round pick. He’s not an elite prospect at this time because he just doesn’t have the size teams are looking for.

“He has that speed. This draft has a lot of small running backs but they don’t have his speed. He has a chance to sneak up, maybe to that third- or fourth-round range.”.....

....Rang pointed out that Jones is the 12th underclassman running back to declare for the draft and there were only 12 running backs drafted in 2010.

“This is a weak senior class of running backs, I understand why they’re coming out, but they’re all coming out,” he said. “Some will get left in the dust. Coming from Eastern Washington is a little tough, especially coming off an injury. Fortunately he has some very spectacular tape.”....."

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/j ... nfl-draft/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know 2 of those 12 coming out early are the VT backs which I've seen a lot of. Anyway, good luck to Jones.

[EWURanger]

For EWU guys, is Jones a true junior? If so, how did EWU manage to land a guy that is good enough to be a mid round draft pick 3 years out of HS? Was he one of those late bloomers that somehow got overlooked & slipped through the cracks with no BCS offers or did he choose EWU over a BCS? Just wondering...

He's not a true Junior. He was an academic non-qualifier coming out of HS. For that reason, I don't think any Pac-10 schools wanted to touch him. He sat out his first year (Prop 48) to get his grades in order, so this was actually his 4th year of school, although he only played for 3 - 2 as a RB.

I also think he was over-looked by a lot of schools as well, but the primary reason he didn't end up at Cal or UCLA or something was grades.

[Gil Dobie]

I don't know what the starting salary is for a 3rd or 4th round draft pick is but I bet it is a helluva lot higher than the average EWU grad.

Congratulations to Jones, earn the money and play at the highest level. That is the whole point. Kudos!

At least it won't be a paycut like some Auburn QB's.

Best of luck to Mr Jones in the draft.

[blueballs]

How many players from I-AA have ever left early and been drafted? I guess its happened a few times since 1979?

GSU had a kid named Brandon Jackson during the van gonad era- who was a transfer BTW- declare and I think he currently spends his days on the back of a garbage truck in rural GA.

[BDKJMU]

For EWU guys, is Jones a true junior? If so, how did EWU manage to land a guy that is good enough to be a mid round draft pick 3 years out of HS? Was he one of those late bloomers that somehow got overlooked & slipped through the cracks with no BCS offers or did he choose EWU over a BCS? Just wondering...

He's not a true Junior. He was an academic non-qualifier coming out of HS. For that reason, I don't think any Pac-10 schools wanted to touch him. He sat out his first year (Prop 48) to get his grades in order, so this was actually his 4th year of school, although he only played for 3 - 2 as a RB.

I also think he was over-looked by a lot of schools as well, but the primary reason he didn't end up at Cal or UCLA or something was grades.

Oh, ok, thanks. I guess those PAc 10 didn't think he was going to be as good as he turned out. If those Pac 10 knew he was going to turn out as good as he I bet they would have taken a chance on him...

[BDKJMU]

How many players from I-AA have ever left early and been drafted? I guess its happened a few times since 1979?

GSU had a kid named Brandon Jackson during the van gonad era- who was a transfer BTW- declare and I think he currently spends his days on the back of a garbage truck in rural GA.

Was he drafted though?

Heck, JMU had a DT 2 yrs ago JD Skolnitsky who got ruled ineligible for his senior yr (5th yr) due to testing positive for a banned by the NCAA over the counter substance. He made the Skins 09' (practice squad), was cut last spring, got picked up by the Clots, then was cut last summer. Course, he didn't leave early by choice, and wasn't drafted.

[kalm]

He's not a true Junior. He was an academic non-qualifier coming out of HS. For that reason, I don't think any Pac-10 schools wanted to touch him. He sat out his first year (Prop 48) to get his grades in order, so this was actually his 4th year of school, although he only played for 3 - 2 as a RB.

I also think he was over-looked by a lot of schools as well, but the primary reason he didn't end up at Cal or UCLA or something was grades.

Oh, ok, thanks. I guess those PAc 10 didn't think he was going to be as good as he turned out. If those Pac 10 knew he was going to turn out as good as he I bet they would have taken a chance on him...

This article sums it up nicely:

“In high school, I struggled a lot with classes,” said EWU’s athletically gifted junior, who will start at running back at Roos Field on Saturday, when the No. 1-ranked and fifth-seeded Eagles (9-2) host ninth-ranked Southeast Missouri State (9-2) in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. “I used to get these massive headaches whenever I tried to read, and that made learning real hard for me.”

It wasn’t until midway though his senior year that Jones was tested and diagnosed with dyslexia.

By then, only three colleges were still showing any interest in acquiring his considerable talents. And Jones, by his own admission, didn’t have a clue where two of them – Eastern Washington and “some school back somewhere in one of the Dakotas, I think” – were located.

“I didn’t get looks from any another schools,” said Jones, who was recently named the Big Sky Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Year. “My only other choice was to go to a junior college in California.”

“I kept telling him he was going to either be an All-American corner or we’d move him to running back and he’d be the best offensive player in the nation,” said Hansen, who now coaches running backs for Eagles head coach Beau Baldwin. “That was my selling point, of course I wanted him as a cornerback at the time, because I was coaching cornerbacks.”

But Jones was under pressure from his father to enroll at a nearby junior college. So it wasn’t until the night before the letter of intent signing day that he called Hansen and told him he was going to become an Eagle.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/d ... dged-odds/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SmallCollegeFBFan]

According to a source, Eastern Washington RB Taiwan Jones is expected to officially declare himself eligible for the 2011 NFL Draft today. Jones submitted paperwork to the NFL Advisory Committee recently and received a third round grade yesterday. He is currently working to choose an agent right now and should make it official very soon. With Jones entering the draft he should be among the first two or three FCS players taken in the draft and is my number one rated FCS player.

Higher rated than Ijalana and Devlin? FWIW Kiper now has Ijalana at 25th on his big board...

First I want to say Kiper is late to the party. Ijalana has been a top 3 round player for the last two years and just now put him there this fall.

I dug a little deeper on the health of Jones and dropped him to number two among FCS but his skill set and athletic ability translates better than anyone in this draft.

I think Ijalana is going to be one heck of a player. He will start in the NFL for a while and have a similar career to Jahri Evans, Michael Roos, etc. IMO. Ijalana's injury holding him out of the Senior Bowl puts a ceiling on him I think. Unless he can put up a sub 5.1 or better 40 and dominate at the Combine in most drills I think second round is his ceiling.

Devlin will be a very good backup who would be a starter if his arm was stronger and he could take over games better than he has shown lately. I was very disappointed in his performance in the NC game. He was solid but did nothing to show me he can be a winning QB in the NFL. The one thing that helps him is that he is very talented though and perhaps NFL coaching will take him to that next level.

[SmallCollegeFBFan]

How many players from I-AA have ever left early and been drafted? I guess its happened a few times since 1979?

Most players don't come out early unless it is grades or another issue. I remember Jamie Coleman leaving App State in the 90s because of grades. I think the same thing with the GSU CB a few years ago and I know it was the case with the NW State RB a few years ago as well. The JMU DT who left early could have been drafted had he been able to return for one more year. He had the athletic ability and size to play in the NFL but was forced out early and fizzled out in the NFL. Although I wouldn't be shocked if someone brought him in to camp this year, if we don't have a lockout.

[SmallCollegeFBFan]

"Taiwan Jones entering NFL draft

Eastern Washington junior running back Taiwan Jones, who was the Big Sky Conference co-Offensive Most Valuable Player, plans to enter the National Football League draft, but he is likely a late-round pick.

“It all depends on the foot,” Rob Rang of NFL Draft Scout said of Jones’ pro prospects. “If his ankle is healthy, he’s a fourth- or fifth-round pick. He’s not an elite prospect at this time because he just doesn’t have the size teams are looking for.

“He has that speed. This draft has a lot of small running backs but they don’t have his speed. He has a chance to sneak up, maybe to that third- or fourth-round range.”.....

....Rang pointed out that Jones is the 12th underclassman running back to declare for the draft and there were only 12 running backs drafted in 2010.

“This is a weak senior class of running backs, I understand why they’re coming out, but they’re all coming out,” he said. “Some will get left in the dust. Coming from Eastern Washington is a little tough, especially coming off an injury. Fortunately he has some very spectacular tape.”....."

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/j ... nfl-draft/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know 2 of those 12 coming out early are the VT backs which I've seen a lot of. Anyway, good luck to Jones.

Okay let me set the record straight on some stuff. First of all Rang is a school teacher by day. Never been employed by an NFL team, all-star game, scouting service, etc. NFL Draft Scout is a media website who tracks player news and just happens to rank them based on their college production until they are seniors and then they put round projections on them and have an outside person write scouting reports on them. So they ride that media/scouting line heavily.

Second I question whether Rob actually watches small school players and NFL games even.

What about Jones is small? He is a legit 5'11 to 5'11 1/2, 195 pounds. While Jones needs to gain about 10 pounds he is not small. That tells me Rang has no clue what he is talking about.

Look at the Pro Bowl rosters. RBs range from 5-7 to 6-2 and some of the best backs in the NFL (Ray Rice, Chris Johnson, Maurice Jones-Drew, Michael Turner, etc.) are all 5'10 or shorter. The only elite backs above 6'0 are Adrian Peterson and Steven Jackson. SIU RB Deji Karim has played well in the NFL and he is 5'8 3/4.

Also, the only way Taiwan Jones is not a top 4 round selection is if he fails the medical exams and those won't be given to the teams until about a week before the draft. He is a special player. The only concerns on him are his upright running style which probably has cause him to get hurt more than he should and he will need to gain some weight.

I know Taiwan's trainer personally so I will get some updates on him as far as where he is at in training and health.

[appvette]

Does that mean we can go ahead and give the Payton award to Presley for next year?

[SmallCollegeFBFan]

Does that mean we can go ahead and give the Payton award to Presley for next year?

According to Udchuck we can.

I think the race is wide open but Presley is certainly among the front runners. With that said if he can improve his passing and become consistent he has the talent to be a hard one to beat.