SI article on opt-outs featuring Rousseau

[nycane]

I posted this when it happened. Multiple scouts said no matter what people say it hurts the kids and the narrative is they’re quitters. Which is a red flag. They’ll still get drafted but I’m sure it’ll hurt the positioning . Especially if the kids had returned.

Btw GR wanted to play but agents talked him and the family Into sitting out. Which imo was the wrong decision for him, oh well. He’ll be ok.

Right and he only had one year of tape.
It’s common sense. Even in basketball. The kid who left duke mid season. You want him on your team? GR told many via a text. It was bad.

 

[ajone228]

The point that DMoney has more insight than Greg's own words?!?! Don't get me wrong, D is the man, but this was a quote from Greg.I am fairly certain Greg has more insight on Greg than DMoney does.

His point was moot hence why I didn’t respond.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

That was much later on.

So guys should have opted out halfway through the season?

 

[Artist Formerly Known As]

The perceived drop of GR15 can be attributed to multiple things. I doubt it would be just because he sat out.

Red flags on minimal game film that stats may have covered up, less than stellar pro day, etc may add up.

We won’t know until the draft.

 

[caneworld]

Silver lining to this cloud is that if Greg had played, we probably would have still had Baker as DC....

 

[cway313]

So let's say he did play in 2020. Would Phillips have been the 3rd guy in that DE rotation? If so, pretty sure Phillips would be back in 2021. I'm just talking out of my *** here. Good luck to Greg, I wish him a bright future playing in the league.

I'll take it a step further. If Phillips had been returning would McCloud have moved to DE still? If McCloud doesn't move to DE do we still get nvm this is dumb.

 

[MainLineCane]

Bottom Line:

It was his decision to make and his alone....he made it....and now he has to live with the decision, good or bad.

Either way, Rousseau's going to be fine and get plenty of $$$$ regardless

I wish him the best

 

[canesdogo]

The question still doesn’t matter. Do you expect him to say I would’ve played had I known it was unlikely to kill me? Lol
His answer would be yes. I opted out because I didn’t want covid and my mother is a nurse who saw it killing people. I will have the vaccine before the draft and can move forward playing football. I can’t wait to get on the field. End of story.

The problem True is that the NFL Coaches did not follow this logic.... for them the story begins, that is why it is asked in most instances...
Why did the other guys play who had horrible conditions , and with extenuating circumstances we may never had heard.
It would be moot if he had played, and produced recent work which could be evaluated.
Combine numbers did not help either......
Many moving parts here, but we wish GR the best, and proud of him as an ex-Cane.

 

[DMoney]

Money, Greg is quoted alluding that he opted out to pay for his parents to stop working on the front lines. He did it to take care of his parents not because his moms pressured him.

“Really it was just that my mom and dad are both on the front lines,” Rousseau said. “My mom is a COVID nurse and for me to have the opportunity to help them…if I wasn’t able to help them, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. That was definitely what pushed me to make that decision."

Gregory Rousseau shares why he opted out of the 2020 season

Gregory Rousseau shared why he made the decision to opt out.

247sports.com

He said it right there- his mom is a COVID nurse and he was worried about becoming physically unable to play (because of COVID). He didn't say "my mom just needs money." From what I understand, both of his parents work steady jobs.

COVID, and his mom's exposure to it, was central to his decision.

 

[AllAboutTheU]

The point that DMoney has more insight than Greg's own words?!?! Don't get me wrong, D is the man, but this was a quote from Greg.I am fairly certain Greg has more insight on Greg than DMoney does.

The point that more went into a decision than he’s disclosing in a public interview, yea. Not a novel concept at all.

 

[Zombie-Cane]

The point that more went into a decision than he’s disclosing in a public interview, yea. Not a novel concept at all.

, ok

 

[cookies]

Love GR and understand his decision to sit out, but when was the last time a guy sat out a year and went in the first or 2nd round? Unless you’re a HOF type coach or GM, you run the high risk of sinking your career by drafting a bust in the 1st round...especially a guy who sat out a year, only had a year of tape, and has some durability concerns. Not saying that GR will be a bust, I actually think the opposite, but I understand why teams are being cautious with him.

There is a less than a 1% chance GR falls past pick 50. Chase, Sewell, Rousseau, Farley, and Slater will all go top 50 still. Agree with you on his stock dropping. He will still get lifetime security with his draft position, albeit he lost some, and the rest will have to be made up on the field.

 

[BostonCanes47]

When was the last time we had a worldwide pandemic?

NFL teams may decide that they rather someone who did play and I understand that and your point about the risk there, but certainly there is more to consider in regards to sitting out a season compared to previous years.

My point was more of justifying the pick 3 years down the road. Say Trevor Lawrence ends up being a bust, Meyer and the jags wouldn’t really catch any heat because he was considered a can’t miss prospect and any team who had the first overall pick would have taken him.

With Greg, three years down the road if he does up being a bust it would be harder to justify based on what I said in my previous post.

it’s the optics of it.

 

[Geddy Lee]

I'll take it a step further. If Phillips had been returning would McCloud have moved to DE still? If McCloud doesn't move to DE do we still get nvm this is dumb.

Touché

 

[TrueFloridian]

The problem True is that the NFL Coaches did not follow this logic.... for them the story begins, that is why it is asked in most instances...
Why did the other guys play who had horrible conditions , and with extenuating circumstances we may never had heard.
It would be moot if he had played, and produced recent work which could be evaluated.
Combine numbers did not help either......
Many moving parts here, but we wish GR the best, and proud of him as an ex-Cane.

What the heck are you talking about combine numbers didn’t help him? He ran a 1.57 10 yard split and a 4.7 at his size. He’s elite.

 

[Poptimus]

Rousseau's stock is dropping like a rock. I've seen mocks where he's not even projected to go Round 1 anymore. Phillips outshining him at the Pro Day has something to do with that, along with very strong Pro Days by other edge players such as Oweh from PSU and Ojulari at UGA.

A couple weeks ago I thought Miami at #18 was Rousseau's floor. Now he's a legit borderline R2 prospect.

 

[BostonCanes47]

There is a less than a 1% chance GR falls past pick 50. Chase, Sewell, Rousseau, Farley, and Slater will all go top 50 still. Agree with you on his stock dropping. He will still get lifetime security with his draft position, albeit he lost some, and the rest will have to be made up on the field.

I agree, but unlike the other players Greg only has one year of tape...and to be honest it’s not really a full year. Has only been playing DE for a short amount of time. Has an injury history. In the eyes of the NFL that’s three red flags right there and you could say he has 4 for sitting out. 3 years down the road, say the unlikely happens that Greg is a bust...it’s going to be hard for that GM to justify himself to an impatient owner at that time why we spent a top 15 pick on a guy with 4 red flags. Whoever takes him early in the first round is basically banking their current job on Greg.

 

[puertorricane]

Saying character does not matter is just absurd.

Ryan Leaf had all the talent in the world and a cannon attached to his right shoulder. Huge bust because of poor work ethic, party attitude, drugs, etc.... Dion Jordan was drafted 3rd overall and then became a huge joke of a bust because he couldn't stay clean. Brian Bosworth and Tony Mandarich on the juice, drinking, and otherwise being knuckleheads. Trent Richardson being fat and lazy.
The 1st round of the NFL draft is literally littered with dudes whose poor character, notwithstanding obvious talent, caused them to fail.

I'm not saying GR is any of those guys, but of course an NFL team is going to There are plenty of players in the NFL that aren't choir boys

These interviews are stupid, NFL doesn't c

Saying character does not matter is just absurd.

Ryan Leaf had all the talent in the world and a cannon attached to his right shoulder. Huge bust because of poor work ethic, party attitude, drugs, etc.... Dion Jordan was drafted 3rd overall and then became a huge joke of a bust because he couldn't stay clean. Brian Bosworth and Tony Mandarich on the juice, drinking, and otherwise being knuckleheads. Trent Richardson being fat and lazy.
The 1st round of the NFL draft is literally littered with dudes whose poor character, notwithstanding obvious talent, caused them to fail.

I'm not saying GR is any of those guys, but of course an NFL team is going to do their due diligence in an interview when they are considering a multi-million dollar investment in these kids.

These interviews don't mean ****t, is just another way executives justify their jobs and continue with their plantation mentality by trying to humiliate their potential employees who are mostly african american.
NFL doesnt care about character.
There re plenty of players that aren't choir boys in nfl and will continue to get a contract as long as they can play.
If Deshawn Watson was a backup he would be out of a job.

 

[Cribby]

Money talks...

I’d say more like politicians they were scaring him with what if’s. And with “ what if’s “ it’s always worst case scenarios. The season being canceled , catching covid during the season , getting sick and missing games . Which all hurts stock.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

Yes, but the "character" issues you are citing are MUCH different from what is being said of Greg.

Furthermore, at a similar chronological age, Jaelan Phillips quit football entirely. Not to go work out and prepare for the draft, but he quit football altogether. Again, over his health.

Yet now Jaelan is "supposed to be" drafted higher than Greg. And with "only one year of productivity".

It's just funny, the inconsistency of analysis by these scouts and "experts". And hiding behind "character". Greg has tremendous "character". I'm not sure why people are acting like it is some sort of lazy act for him to opt out, WHEN ONE OF OUR PLAYERS ACTUALLY CONTRACTED MYOCARDITIS. You know, the COVID complication that many porsters were mocking the Big 10 over just 9 months ago.

Nobody knows what the 100% "right answer" is. There may be no "right answer". Greg did what he did to protect his health and future, and that is not a "character" issue.

My response was to a porster who made the overbroad statement that 'character does not matter, only talent does.' Those players were merely meant as examples of hyper-talented knuckleheads who nonetheless failed in the NFL to underscore the absurdity of his statement (and the implication in an earlier post that thorough interviews are only necessary for people seeking public office). It was pretty clear that I was not attempting to find/list comparable persons in a similar circumstance to GR who busted in the NFL because there simply is no historical precedent for this. Players who opted out because of COVID-19 concerns represent a unique situation in the history of the NFL draft and college football.

As far as the bolded portion, and as I alluded to in my post, I suspect that is precisely what the interview process and due diligence undertaken by these NFL teams, their coaches, GMs, and scouts will attempt to uncover. At the end of the day, GR made a choice that he believed was in his best interest. And he absolutely has every right to make that choice for himself, no matter how much we would have all loved to watch him suit up last season. But the fact is the overwhelming majority of draft-eligible college football players made a different choice. Exploring that choice and the reasons behind it for GR (along with Parsons and the other opt outs) is not only reasonable, but I'd argue failing to do so would be negligent.

It may well be that every single kid who opted out had legitimate concerns over their health and well-being because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is also possible that they thought it would be wise to protect their draft stock by avoiding potential injury, sickness, or poor performance and, on the balance, decided against playing the season on that basis. Assuming either at face value would be silly, and I expect it will largely fall on these kids, their teammates, and their coaches to convince the NFL that they opted out because of the former (health concerns) and not the latter (fear of slipping in the draft). Anyone who is surprised or (worse yet) upset that GR or any of the opt outs would be questioned at length by interested teams regarding their decision to opt out is simply being unrealistic.