SI article on opt-outs featuring Rousseau

Are you mentally disturbed?

The "mother" question is a very well-known question that was asked by an NFL team exec at an interview with a first-round draft prospect.

Grow up.

YES at times....especially when driving

Listen, so, so sorry about your Mom 😪
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
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.
I am hoping my Cowboys are smart enough to draft him. Kid is going to be special. You don’t just luck into a 15 sack season. He is a bit of a project but I think the reward will be great! After all, look at the alternatives out there, combine warriors with zero production!
 
Disagree on all of this. I won't comment on your view of the interview process except to say that I seriously doubt these GMs and coaches would waste their time this way in order to purposefully humiliate their prospective employees. That wouldn't just be counter-productive, but it would also be a giant waste of time.

As far as character, it matters. To your success and to the NFL. Teams take players off their draft board all the time because of character concerns, especially when those character concerns directly impact a player's potential availability/willingness to play the games.

Widely reported that Tunsil would have been drafted 6th overall back in 2016. The night before the draft a video surfaces on Twitter of him purportedly smoking weed via a gas mask and he slides to 13. Ravens took him off their board and other teams cooled on him. La’El Collins wasn't even drafted in 2015 because the police wanted to talk to him about the shooting of an ex-girlfriend (charges were never filed against him). Jenkins sliding to the second round. ****, even Kevin Dyson was drafted ahead of Randy Moss (slide to 21st) in 1998.

Do they care about talent more? Of course. But to say the NFL doesn't care about character is demonstrably false.

Money post.

I can tell you what they're all thinking and that's he's a "me" person who doesn't go all out for his teammates. If he did, he would've been there last year. There's a lot of those types in the NFL and combined with a lack of footage, it's s big concern. Maybe be convinces someone, but if not, he cost himself money.

The ultimate team player and one of the craziest things I've ever seen in football was Byron Marshall being carried around the field by his OL with a broken shin (tibia) to try and spark a comeback for Marshall. He left the game early, got x-rays, and then came back in the fourth quarter. Coach was crazy for putting him in there, but that moment is largely credited with bumping him into the top 10 (7th) in the draft.
 
I get why Greg decided to leave. And the want to help ur folks is always big. But remember Trent Richardson wanted to help his people out too. That worked out well
 
Here are live Top 10 pick odds. Phillips is +200 to go top 10. Rousseau? +1300. a/k/a he won't sniff the top 10.

Canes odds.png
 
Advertisement
It’s stupid and shortsighted because he could have made way more by not quitting after playing 8 games as a collegian.

Teams may not say it publicly, but they like football players who like to play football.

It may not be politically correct, but I noticed certain teams releasing guys who decided to opt out last season.
 
Advertisement
This argument of “at the time” is comical and revisionist history at best, lying at worst. We knew the mortality rates of the virus in young people by august. We new it was a minimal risk of death or hospitalization at 22 peak condition. Sorry, the facts were there. He chose to ignore them and used it as a cop out cuz he didn’t want to play for free. His excuse was his mother was a frontline covid nurse... who he was going to be in close contact with regularly and be infinitely more exposed than on the field. It never made sense outside of he didn’t want to play for free. His risk of losing stock by playing and missing multiple games because of a positive tests was way smaller than skipping the season with only 14 games of tape.

I don't think he was worried about dying. It is more about the after effects of covid. Asia Durr, 23 years old, (#2 draft pick in WNBA) career was shut down because covid. If this happened to any potential NFL top pick, they wouldn't be drafted at all.

 
I don't begrudge Greg or any other player for that matter for opting out. Yes, initially I was slightly upset, but that was for purely selfish reasons. I don't think anyone here honestly believes Greg is a quitter or a bad teammate and that he opted out to take some kind of shortcut to the NFL. We had major outbreaks and the majority of the team contracted covid and as far as I know the players who opted out remained virus-free, so in that regard I guess you can say it was not a bad decision. And yes, the overwhelming majority of players will be fine, but what about those few who develop myocarditis? I have no medical knowledge whatsoever and it seems that myocarditis does resolve on it's own over time, but it's easy for us sitting at our computers to dismiss it and say "yeah they'll be fine", but put yourself in Al Blades shoes. He has a chance at the NFL in his sights, develops a heart condition and has to miss the rest of the season. He was probably worrying about his future every day. For the average person maybe not as big of a deal, but we're talking about elite athletes who cannot afford even a 1% disadvantage.

And I find it laughable that all these teams are grilling the players who opted out about their decisions when everyone knows they don't give a **** about it or skipping bowl games. Micah Parsons, Rashawn Slater, Penei Sewell and Caleb Farley will all be 1st round picks. Ja'marr Chase opted out and is still projected top 10, AHEAD of DeVonta Smith who had one of the greatest seasons ever. So when an NFL team says they are concerned about character in the opt-out players that is a lie, but you know what they will worried about? A myocarditis diagnosis on their medical record. You can be **** sure they'll red flag that player and knock him down a few spots or take him off their board entirely. Comparing true character issue prospects like Jamarcus Russell or Ryan Leaf with Greg is just asinine. In fact, you could look at some of the opt-out guys and actually place character in the positive column. They are away from their teammates, facilities and strength staff and day-in and day-out they are grinding on their own. Most of them had terrific pro days which would not be the case if they just sat around. Does anyone look at Greg and think he half-assed it during his time off? Rousseau seems like a great kid, I hope he has a long successful career and makes a ton of money. I don't care if he played one season or four, he balled out. Besides, his lasting impact will not be the 15.5 sacks, it's his getting drafted in the 1st round. We can sell that to future recruits that we took a 209 pound 3 star kid and turned him into a multi-millionaire DE. This is college football, players are here so short a time, it's the coaching staffs job to get the next star ready.
100% correct with this. Another thing no one has mentioned is the that we even saw NFL players opt out. NFL GMs all think they are the smartest guy in the room and come up with these baseless questions. Just think about the question, they are asking someone why they opted out during a globally pandemic where millions of people have died and many others lucky to still be alive. The government was literally paying it's citizens who "opted" out of work and they are asking dudes why they decided to not play football during a pandemic? Lol Nonsense
 
I think Parsons will be a better indicator. You, of all people, know that GR isn’t a finished product. I can see why he might slip.

Parsons looks like the total package and has more film. He will be telling.
Crazy thing is he's the one with legit character concerns.
 
Advertisement
He opted out because his mom was a COVID nurse and she begged him to do it.

Obviously, it was not the best football decision. He would’ve gotten double-digit sacks in his sleep and been a lock Top 10 pick. Now he’s looking at a potential Calais Campbell situation.

That excuse makes sense on a human level, but from the NFL's point of view, I don't think it helps him.

If you're a team thinking of drafting Rousseau in the 1st round, you're talking about paying millions of dollars to a guy who chose not to play football because he was trying to please his mom. You only have one season of college film to look at. They have to be questioning whether football is really a priority for him - if he has the love for the game - and if he has the durability and grit to make it through several long NFL seasons.

And even if you're all heart and willing gamble your millions on the guy because you love moms, why wouldn't he come back THIS year, why is he declaring after sitting the year out?

If you're an NFL exec, you're really taking a gamble on a guy with great measurables, but who might not show up every day because either his head isn't really in it, or his body isn't really up to the grind. He's unproven.

He didn't do himself any favors at all by opting out. I've said since he made the decision that I think he drops out of the 1st round, and I'm sticking to that prediction.
 
Yeah, because "the team and its safety protocols" were soooooooo effective. We had multiple players and coaches contract COVID, and even more who were forced to sit out for contact-tracing.

Did Greg get COVID "being on his own in different cities training around people who's not constantly being tested"? And how do you know what his protocols were? Regardless of your seemingly extensive knowledge of everything about Greg Rousseau over the past year, from a PURELY COVID STANDPOINT, Greg seems to have come out of the last year with less impact to his health than, say, Al Blades Jr.

And stop it with apples-oranges comparisons (which will probably not work out well anyhow). Greg's comparison is not to "a normal citizen", it is to a person who took significant precautions. Or his UM teammates. And Greg seems to have done quite well on both counts.

As for the (not very relevant) comparison of transmission between "a football athlete" and "a normal citizen"...

Through today...approximately 31.5 million reported COVID cases in the US on a population of 328.2 million, which is a 9.6% transmission rate for a period exceeding one year. For a football team of 85 players, that equates to 8 players. Therefore, if fewer than 8 players on a team contracted COVID, then those oh-so-impressive "football team safety protocols" could be deemed to be effective, and if more than 8 players on a team contracted COVID, then the transmission stats would be WORSE than those for "a normal citizen".

Without knowing EXACTLY how many players contracted COVID vs. the number who were ruled out for contact-tracing...but given the length of time many players were out and how many teams across the country had to cancel/reschedule games due to COVID outbreaks...it certainly seems like the number of COVID infections per team may well have exceeded 8. In some cases, by large margins.

But, again, unless you have evidence that Greg Rousseau contracted COVID in the past year, then it would appear that HIS HEALTH was protected by his decision. Maybe not his draft position, but that's a different issue.

I'm not sure where the "Covid was used as an excuse to save his draft stock" comes from. HOW? Everyone who opted out has cited COVID. It's not like Greg concocted some brilliant plan that only he has been able to take advantage of. And in a year where Greg could have played in a DE rotation with Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche, it is not so crazy to think that he could have had 11.5 sacks, which is how many Kwity Paye had IN FOUR YEARS. Are you honestly making some sort of argument that Greg would have done SO POORLY in 2020 that he would have LOWERED his draft position? Because, if not, the only other options are "same draft position" and "higher draft position".

For right or wrong, Greg made his decision based on COVID and the input of his mother. You don't have to like it or agree with it, but I hardly think it was "an excuse to save his draft stock".
Yawn.
 
Advertisement
He opted out because his mom was a COVID nurse and she begged him to do it.

Obviously, it was not the best football decision. He would’ve gotten double-digit sacks in his sleep and been a lock Top 10 pick. Now he’s looking at a potential Calais Campbell situation.
I don’t get that due to the timing. Did his mom quit her job when he opted out And they were going to wait 8 months for Greg to get a check? Or was the plan for her to keep working til the draft and then quit, at which point it was known long ago that a vaccine would be available to health care workers By April? Doesn’t make sense logically, but he can do whatever he wants and he did
 
Teams may not say it publicly, but they like football players who like to play football.

It may not be politically correct, but I noticed certain teams releasing guys who decided to opt out last season.
That's exactly right. If I'm promoting a fighter, I don't want to promote a guy who hates fights. Same with football. I ain't staking my fortune on a guy who doesn't want to play.

Too many excuses on this Rousseau situation. He decided he'd rather train for the draft than play football. First chance he had to avoid playing, he took it. What happens if you give him a big pile of money?
 
I don't think he was worried about dying. It is more about the after effects of covid. Asia Durr, 23 years old, (#2 draft pick in WNBA) career was shut down because covid. If this happened to any potential NFL top pick, they wouldn't be drafted at all.

About the same odds of being hit by lightning. So opt out for fear of lightning hitting you. This opt out **** is a sign that smart GMs will pay attention to.
 
That's exactly right. If I'm promoting a fighter, I don't want to promote a guy who hates fights. Same with football. I ain't staking my fortune on a guy who doesn't want to play.

Too many excuses on this Rousseau situation. He decided he'd rather train for the draft than play football. First chance he had to avoid playing, he took it. What happens if you give him a big pile of money?

Chise one of the key questions they ask you at the Combine is basically --- do you like football, or what football can bring you?

Because as you said, once you get millions in the bank, what will your approach to this hard game be?

to me, there's a fine line between being a solider and mercenary. I want soldiers.

I have no ill-will towards GR, it's his life, his health, etc. But I want guys who loved to be Miami Hurrricanes and laid it all on the line for us as much as they could. And yeah, to me this is different than guys who sit out relatively meaningless bowl games. That's one game after you've put in work, not a whole season

Again, his choice to make, but thats my perspective as just a random fan. But also I truly believe that the NFL guys who make decisions also look a bit negatively on this. May not be a deal breaker, but it doesn't necessarily help him, either

BTW, UM basically got 12 games out of GR, about 10 with Phillips, and if Stevenson is the guy we hope/think he can be, well, he's also a one year guy. At a certain point Miami needs to get more mileage out of his best players. I mentioned this on the show to @Canes Legacy on the show. But that's another top for another post, I get.
 
Advertisement
Back
Top