Star Notre Dame wide receiver is still undecided on whether or not he will be entering the NFL Draft or coming back for a senior season in South Bend. According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, Floyd will meet with Brian Kelly one more time before deciding.
It’s been more than a week now since Kyle Rudolph declared for the NFL Draft and the longer Michael Floyd drew out his decision, it seemed the more likely he may return to Notre Dame. It seems very possible then, that Floyd is still undecided about his future despite some earlier reports on Monday that the Minnesota native would declare for the draft tomorrow.
Floyd’s decision will great impact Notre Dame’s expectations and pre-season rankings in 2011. Should Floyd return, Notre Dame would almost certainly be a top 20 team to start the year and would be a chic pick for a BCS bowl contender. Without Floyd in 2011, Notre Dame will still most likely be a top 25 team to start the season, but expecations will be tempered.
Reports surfaced last week that the grade Floyd got back from the NFL Advisory committee was lower than he expected and caused him to seriously consider coming back to Notre Dame for one more year. Since the, however, Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles has announced he will be returning for his senior season and Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon is rumored to be doing the same. Both junior receivers were ranked near or above Floyd by most draft experts.
As is, three junior receivers have already declared for the draft that are likely to be ranked ahead of Floyd on a lot of draft boards – AJ Green, Julio Jones, and Jonathan Baldwin.
The difference between being a first and second round pick could potentially be worth millions of dollars depending on what happens with the new collective bargaining agreement in the NFL. If a rookie wage scale is put in to affect for next year, contract values at the top of the draft could be brought back down to earth thus reducing the difference between being a top 10-15 and a second round pick.
It’s easy to see why Floyd has taken longer to decide what he is going to do than Rudolph who is already training for the draft. Rudolph is widely considered the best tight end in the draft while Floyd’s stock is much more unclear.
Brian Kelly has been making big waves on the recruiting trail lately with the apparent coup it looks like he may be about to pull off with Aaron Lynch, but his biggest recruiting challenge could come tomorrow when he meets with his star receiver.
