Sources: Njoku leaning towards NFL draft

Nov 26, 2016

Although this should not be a surprise to Miami Hurricanes fans, sources tell CanesInSight.com tonight that redshirt sophomore David Njoku is leaning towards declaring for the NFL draft.

Njoku, who had two receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns against Duke on Saturday night, cracked a smile when asked after the game if he had put any thought into leaving, but did not commit to leaving or staying.

"We’re just focused on the bowl game right now and then I’m sure I’ll figure it out afterwards -- we’ll see," Njoku said.

Njoku has had a superb season for the Hurricanes, tallying 38 receptions for 654 yards and 7 touchdowns. He has career numbers of 59 catches, 1,016 yards, and 8 touchdowns. Scouts are intrigued by his combination of size (6-5, 245) and speed. The product of Cedar Grove High School in New Jersey doubles as a high jumper for Miami's track team.

Sources told CanesInSight that he has had his eye on the next level all season, and that his strong finish of 6 touchdowns over the last 5 games has all but sealed the deal. Mark Richt said tonight that he will sit down with draft-eligible Hurricanes players in the coming days to discuss their future.

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The Svengali

Nov 27, 2016

Njoku will be competing Gronk as the best TE in the league really quickly.

He has a chance to redefine the position, given his ridiculous size, speed, athleticism

I desperately njoku to stay, but he has a once in a generation skillset--hope he goes to the cowboys!

The Franchise

Nov 27, 2016

ajkreider said:
Is he a better prospect than Warlord? I don't think so, and he went in he third.

Physically it's not even close. I don't think you guys understand just how explosive Njokeman is athletically.

LexCane55

Nov 27, 2016

The Svengali said:
Njoku will be competing Gronk as the best TE in the league really quickly.

He has a chance to redefine the position, given his ridiculous size, speed, athleticism

I desperately njoku to stay, but he has a once in a generation skillset--hope he goes to the cowboys!

Relax. Redefine the position? You think hes more talented than Gronk, Graham ,Reed, etc

passitback

Nov 27, 2016

Njoku was special the minute he stood on the field. It was very obvious to see how gifted he was/is.

Perhaps the ONLY thing that can keep him back is Richt whispering in his ear about his success at developing TEs at UGA.

Same is true for QB.

He's out more than a few QBs and TEs in the league, some were first rounders.

Let's hope we can get both back in the fold.

We can legitimately have:

One 4000 yard passer
Two 1000 yard receivers
One 1000 yard runner

= We'd be LETHAL on offense, assuming our OL can play decent.

Nov 27, 2016

1k on 56 catches is insane

AUcane

Nov 27, 2016

Tony Perps said:
Njoku is better than all of those guys and he has barely scratched the surface.

Howard is the best of the bunch.

Nov 27, 2016

I think Njoku's ceiling is prime Vernon Davis

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Canedude08

Nov 27, 2016

Jonnyblaze said:
jed2410 said:

He's a high 2nd low 3rd round pick. He shows a ton of potential but he's from a guy who has been dominant in college

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You guys act like 2nd and 3rd round money is chump change. There's also zero guarantee he improves his draft stock significantly. You only have a limited amount of years to make loot in the NFL. You start that clock as soon as you can if you're a 1-3 round pick. If you ball out, you'll get your big contract soon enough.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Compared to 1st round money, it is. Remember, there are no guarantees in the NFL, you are one injury away from not getting that second contract. So, if you have an opportunity to increase that first contract, you do it. Again, Njoku can easily go from praying someone falls in love with him at the combine, to being a no doubt first rounder with one more year here. Unless there's a compelling reason why he should leave(his family desperately needs the money), it doesn't make any sense to leave right now. He needs to show that he is more than a pretty package, he needs to show that he can be a complete player that dominates on a regular basis.

gogeta4

Nov 27, 2016

AUcane said:
Tony Perps said:

Njoku is better than all of those guys and he has barely scratched the surface.

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Howard is the best of the bunch.

how so..?? enlighten me?

Njoku had 2 tds last game....Howard has never had more than 2 in a season. Though a 4th year senior..and at bama he still isn't a big time blocker in the run game either.

Last edited: Nov 27, 2016

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Canedude08

Nov 27, 2016

The Franchise said:
LOL at goofballs comparing him to Bucky Hodges. Look at their body types for christ's sake. Hodges looks like a tall WR. Jake ******** caught more passes? So what. He's another slow scrawny looking dude.

Njokeman is a matchup nightmare down the seams with his speed and explosive athletic ability. You realize how explosive he is athletically to be a competitive high jumper? This dude has only scratched the surface of what's to come.

Yet, despite Njoku being a genetic freak, he has similar production to Bucky. Shouldn't that be a glaring red flag? Never mind the fact that Bucky is used everywhere, he's versatile as ****. Njoku, despite his plus level athletic gifts runs maybe two routes, that is something that would cause a scouting department to ask why. He's a physical beast that gets by on his gifts, but still has a lot of rawness to his game. He fights the ball when he catches it, and that's an iffy proposition. Not the manhandler he should be in regards to blocking, in fact is significantly worse than Herndon, who isn't even close to Njoku physically. If you were to take Herndon's game and put it with Njoku's physical gifts, you'd have a first rounder.

Tony Perps

Nov 27, 2016

gogeta4 said:
AUcane said:

Tony Perps said:

Njoku is better than all of those guys and he has barely scratched the surface.

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Howard is the best of the bunch.

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how so..?? enlighten me?

OJ Howard is the best if you want a TE who dpecializes in catching five yard dump offs.

Tony Perps

Nov 27, 2016

Canedude08 said:
The Franchise said:

LOL at goofballs comparing him to Bucky Hodges. Look at their body types for christ's sake. Hodges looks like a tall WR. Jake ******** caught more passes? So what. He's another slow scrawny looking dude.

Njokeman is a matchup nightmare down the seams with his speed and explosive athletic ability. You realize how explosive he is athletically to be a competitive high jumper? This dude has only scratched the surface of what's to come.

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Yet, despite Njoku being a genetic freak, he has similar production to Bucky. Shouldn't that be a glaring red flag? Never mind the fact that Bucky is used everywhere, he's versatile as ****. Njoku, despite his plus level athletic gifts runs maybe two routes, that is something that would cause a scouting department to ask why. He's a physical beast that gets by on his gifts, but still has a lot of rawness to his game. He fights the ball when he catches it, and that's an iffy proposition. Not the manhandler he should be in regards to blocking, in fact is significantly worse than Herndon, who isn't even close to Njoku physically. If you were to take Herndon's game and put it with Njoku's physical gifts, you'd have a first rounder.

Stop. Njoku was more productive than any TE youre jizzing over this year, and he STILL has a ton of room. To grow which is why he is going tk shoot up draft boards.

TheU2652

Nov 27, 2016

I'm not 100% sure if he's ready I think another year would be great for him and then after next year he'll definitely be a first rounder

CaneFan79

Nov 27, 2016

Hate to bring it up, but Njoku was an Al Golden "Jersey pipeline" prospect he had recruited while at Temple. He held that Temple offer, along with one from DII Bryant University when Al got him to sign with the 'Canes (He eventually rose to three stars and P5 O$Uck offered him, but he stayed committed).

Don't you think he is using backchannels (say his former teammate, Greg Golden) to get the input of the HC he signed with? A former NFL TE and now a league TE coach? Golden will tell him to go, just to spite Miami.

Also, Njoku comes from an area of the country where you can be an All-American in college and people will slightly notice...Be a back-up with the Giants or Jets? Then you are already a god.

Not hard to project with certainty that he goes, draft grade or not.

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Canedude08

Nov 27, 2016

tcgrad1014 said:
Canedude08 said:

Tony Perps said:

Canedude08 said:

Tony Perps said:

Njoku is better than all of those guys and he has barely scratched the surface.

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He's not, those guys actually have film to back up their physical attributes. Bucky Hodges is similar to Njoku, only he has caught almost double the passes in his career. Jake Butt is a complete tight end, he can play both inline and split. Did I mention that both of those two players can block, something Njoku can't do? I think David is the kind of player that a GM falls in love with, based on how he looks, and his combine, but the kind of team you want to play for will look at his film and ask some pointed questions. How can a guy this athletic, this talented be a nonfactor for most of his career?

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Njoku was more productive than all of them this year but I guess he doesn't have "film" to back up his atrributes. Please shut up.

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You realize that GMs and people whose careers are on the line aren't going to just look at ONE season of work, right? They are going to look at the fact that Butt, despite being dinged for a lot of the season has caught more than 50 passes in a season beat tfore at the college level. Njoku hasn't, and most likely won't. Hodges has caught more passes in his career than Njoku, despite not being as physically gifted. People are also going to look at the film and wonder why Njoku drops balls like AT&T drops calls. Again, the young man has the physical talent, and he will look mighty impressive in shorts at the combine, but that doesn't change the fact that his film doesn't line up with what he is physically. Njoku should be putting up numbers, but he isn't. You combine that with things like not being a legit blocker, and being a little one dimensional in regards to routes, and you have a guy that is a question mark. Well run franchises don't spend first round money on tight ends with question marks. Maybe the Raiders would have, but Al Davis is dead. Look at Clive Walford, a guy that was way more complete than David, and was athletic in his own right, albeit not the genetic freak Njoku is. Where did he go in the draft?

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Most of this post is completely wrong. The NFL drafts on potential far more than anything else. Walford is a nice player. No Joke U is a physical freak who runs over LBs and swats DBs off him like mosquitos at the No Joke U family picnic. His size/speed/athleticism combination is off the charts. He's not getting past the second round. Enjoy the bowl game as it will be his last collegiate game.

You draft on potential in the later rounds, you don't blow first round money on someone that hasn't produced on an elite level, unless you are a poorly run franchise that falls in love with someone at the combine. There's a reason why the Raiders were pure garbage for most of the last 15 years, it's because Al Davis would do that. He'd take guys who ran fast, that looked great doing combine drills, but weren't productive college football players. Remember Darius Butterfingers-Bey? How about JaMarcus Russell? They were physical freaks, but people looked at them as highly flawed players. Vernon Gholston is another example of a guy with physical gifts that was inconsistent at the college level, he flamed out.

I hope Njoku works out, but I don't want to see any player leave money on the table, just because they wrongfully assume that the second contract will always be there. It won't, the NFL is a tough place to earn a living, and all it takes is one hit for you to be working at a bank somewhere instead of signing that second contract.

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Canedude08

Nov 27, 2016

Tony Perps said:
Canedude08 said:

The Franchise said:

LOL at goofballs comparing him to Bucky Hodges. Look at their body types for christ's sake. Hodges looks like a tall WR. Jake ******** caught more passes? So what. He's another slow scrawny looking dude.

Njokeman is a matchup nightmare down the seams with his speed and explosive athletic ability. You realize how explosive he is athletically to be a competitive high jumper? This dude has only scratched the surface of what's to come.

Click to expand...

Yet, despite Njoku being a genetic freak, he has similar production to Bucky. Shouldn't that be a glaring red flag? Never mind the fact that Bucky is used everywhere, he's versatile as ****. Njoku, despite his plus level athletic gifts runs maybe two routes, that is something that would cause a scouting department to ask why. He's a physical beast that gets by on his gifts, but still has a lot of rawness to his game. He fights the ball when he catches it, and that's an iffy proposition. Not the manhandler he should be in regards to blocking, in fact is significantly worse than Herndon, who isn't even close to Njoku physically. If you were to take Herndon's game and put it with Njoku's physical gifts, you'd have a first rounder.

Click to expand...

Stop. Njoku was more productive than any TE youre jizzing over this year, and he STILL has a ton of room. To grow which is why he is going tk shoot up draft boards.

BARELY more productive, almost to the point we're arguing over a few yards. That is despite being more physically talented than the guys you are comparing him to. Shouldn't that be a cause for concern?

David Njoku: 38 Catches, 654 Yards, 7 TDs
Bucky Hodges: 42 Catches, 598 Yards, 7 TDs
Jake Butt: 43 Catches, 518 Yards, 4TDs
OJ Howard: 35 Catches, 404 Yards, 2 TDs

Lots of similar numbers there, especially with Njoku and Hodges. The one difference is that because Njoku is a plus level athlete he can take some of those short passes Butt and Hodges catch and turn them into big plays(Butt isn't outrunning a lot of people, he's a Jason Witten type). No one is disputing that Njoku is the best physical specimen of the group, you'd think that he would have been able to easily lap these guys, considering his talent. The fact that he dropped as many balls as he has explains a lot of that, he's left at least another 100-150 yards and 5-10 catches on the field just from dropping easy ones.

Last edited: Nov 27, 2016

L A M P

Nov 27, 2016

Best of luck to him. He'd be a fool to come back next year.

Classic

Nov 27, 2016

I think he impresses at the combine and his stock soars, but this doesn't feel like a no-brainer to me. Questionable hands, didn't dominate a game. He comes back and has a full season as strong as his last few of games, and he improves his stock and his $$.

I think he leaves, but again, doesn't look like an "OH DUH, DUDE'S GOTTA GO" situation. We have the tendency to do this with our high potential guys these days.

Last edited: Nov 27, 2016

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Canedude08

Nov 27, 2016

CaneClassic said:
I think he impresses at the combine and his stock soars, but this doesn't feel like a no-brainer to me. Questionable hands, didn't dominate a game. He comes back and has a full season as strong as his last few of games, and he improves his stock and his $$.

I think he leaves, but again, doesn't look like an "OH DUH, DUDE'S GOTTA GO" situation. We have the tendency to do this with our high potential guys these days.

Exactly. I'd love to see Njoku come back and put together the kind of season Ebron did his final year at UNC. That guy made a ton of money off of that one season, I think Njoku is far more physically talented than Ebron, so he could possibly exceed those numbers. Maximize that first contract, and end up walking with your degree. I doubt Njoku is one of those guys that is barely remaining eligible, his family isn't playing that nonsense(Nigerians are serious about education, for the most part)