Hindsight is 20/20.
There's no way Golden would've offered a 5'7" Linebacker anyways. And I'm sure if he had this board likely would've lost their minds.
Just cause he excelled at Tulane doesn't mean he was an ACC caliber Linebacker. He's only getting a look from Washington. If he does end up making the roster it would be somewhat of an anomaly.
I rag on Golden for his poor evaluations all the time but I wouldn't blame him for this one.
It's not just a look. It's not a tryout. And even if it was, he is performing well in camp, and performance is the only measure that matters. If he keeps performing, Washington will not cut him.
And there have been PLENTY of people who criticized Golden for being too particular with height-and-weight metrics about recruits who got offers. There are always debates about whether Ray Lewis III or Jeff James deserved offers, but nobody "lost their minds".
Finally, people can slag Tulane all they want, sure the "competition level" isn't the same, but people tend to forget that talent levels are inconsistent too, and when a guy on a lesser team still plays at a high level, it means something. The fact that Nico had great production at Tulane when he was clearly the best player on defense, and thus was often game-planned for and/or double-teamed, is something that often translates even at the NFL level. Plenty of great NFL players came from non-Power-Five programs.
Quality is quality.