38 of the 112 (or something like that it's 5:30am and I'm too lazy to find the stat) underclass men that declared went undrafted, including such high round projections as Anthony Johnson and Tiny Richardson. The NFL needs to take a page out of the NBA's book and leave these kids a window to head back to school later in the draft process after consulting with teams.
Players need to not be greedy and stupid too.
Doubt Wilder was an economics issue. More likely an eligibility, wore out his welcome issue.
They ARE* stupid though, and even the smart ones can fall prey easily to agents, the NFL draft board giving inflated grades, and the 24 hour news cycle that starts projecting these kids as 1st rounders when they are freshmen.
It's really easy to say "they should just listen to the right people and ignore the noise" but that is overly simplistic and reductive. A lot of these kids have weak support systems,or none at all, and it becomes really easy to fall in to the belief that you are worth more than you really are in the marketplace if it's ALL you are hearing from all sides.
After the combine, there should be a window where they can do individual team workouts and keep their remaining eligibility up until, say 3 weeks before the draft, as long as they don't retain an agent. I know it's not "the way it's always been done", but it would curb
some of the power that agents have AND it would be another move on behalf of the players for the NCAA, which has a lot of ground to make up on that front.
*When I say they are all stupid, I mean that they are college kids. College kids are ******* dumb. They have little to no understanding of how the world works. I think of how utterly ignorant I was when I graduated...and I have a GREAT support system....and it makes me literally shake my head.