NFL Draft: Risk, reward with Robert Nkemdiche
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Robert Nkemdiche was the No. 1 player in the 2013 class.
And now with days until the NFL Draft, it’s uncertain whether he’s even worth drafting in the first round.
That is a precipitous fall for the former five-star from Loganville (Ga.) Grayson who has shown flashes of brilliance on the field but has also disappeared at times.
Therein lies one, but not the only, problem: Nkemdiche is inconsistent.
In 11 games this past season, Nkemdiche finished with only 29 tackles (seven for loss) including just three sacks. His tackle tally was good for a tie for 15th on his team alone.
That’s nothing to write home about, especially when his counterparts in this draft all did better.
Alabama’s Jarran Reed had 57 tackles, eight for loss and his teammate A’Shawn Robinson finished with 46 stops (7.5 for loss) and 3.5 sacks.
Mississippi State’s Chris Jones, a fringe first-round pick, totaled 44 tackles (7.5 for loss) and 2.5 sacks. Baylor’s Andrew Billings had 40 stops (15 for loss) with 5.5 sacks. Louisville’s Sheldon Rankins, possibly the first DT off the board, had 58 tackles (13 for loss) and six sacks this season and has blown away scouts in workouts.
Nkemdiche’s disappearing act is one thing concerning to ESPN Draft expert Todd McShay.
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“I watched the Alabama tape and I see a guy with all the ability in the world,” McShay said. “He can be dominant and do it from the inside and he’s playing a premium position. You watch the rivalry game against Mississippi State, same thing.
“But I can’t find him against Arkansas, I can’t find him against Florida, I can’t find him against Memphis. So now I’ve got an inconsistent player on the field, I don’t know what I’m getting week-to-week, I’ve got the issues off the field.”
Those concerns away from the game seem to be percolating right around draft time as executives have to finalize their decisions on Nkemdiche, who committed to Clemson early in his recruitment but signed with Ole Miss.
This week, Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn said Nkemdiche is one player on their draft board with red flags. It could be an issue – and a major one - come draft weekend.
In December, Nkemdiche was charged with marijuana possession after he fell out of an Atlanta hotel room window, plummeting some 15 feet. At the NFL Draft Combine, the former five-star reportedly told NFL teams he was drunk but not using drugs during that stay. However, as he explained, he took the blame because the hotel room was under his name.
Another oddball twist, in an ESPN The Magazine story this week, Nkemdiche said he wants to buy a pet panther when drafted. With questions about your character circulating through seemingly every NFL front office, is this the image Nkemdiche wants to portray?
“Different general managers have different philosophies,” McShay said. “At the end of the day, do you trust him? That’s really the whole thing with Robert Nkemdiche and my answer is no, I don’t.”
Nkemdiche is only 21 and 21-year-olds aren’t always the most mature people on the planet, but Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell remembers the five-star recruit differently as he went through the recruiting process.
The Loganville Grayson product was a dominating force on the field. Off it, as far as Farrell could tell, early in his recruitment Nkemdiche was reserved, certainly not diving out of hotels with plans to buy wild animals.
As time went on and Nkemdiche’s popularity spiked, Farrell said, he saw changes in the five-star which could have continued to Ole Miss and now into his uncertain NFL future.
“The recruiting process sort of tipped off this attitude,” Farrell said. “The recruiting process can change a kid. The recruiting process can give a kid that sense of entitlement and really tear into their work ethic.
“This is a kid we saw as a junior who was fairly quiet and was just a remarkable physical specimen who was super athletic who turned into the hype machine – committing, de-committing, the mom got involved, he could go with his brother (Denzel), waiting until Signing Day even though everybody knew he was going to Ole Miss.
“The hype got to him, and I wouldn’t touch him with a first-round pick at all simply because the off-field stuff scares me enough.”
A look at that phenomenal, program-turning Ole Miss class of 2013 also tells a story. Five-star Laremy Tunsil is expected to be the first offensive tackle off the board and was the consensus top overall pick before teams started making trades to scurry up the board for quarterbacks.
For all the concerns over Laquon Treadwell’s speed since his knee injury, the five-star is expected to be one of the first – if not the first – receiver taken in the draft.
Treadwell and Tunsil were ranked No. 5 and No. 14, respectively, in the 2013 class.
And then there’s Nkemdiche. The former No. 1 prospect faces an uncertain draft status with questions abounding about his on-field consistency and his off-the-field shenanigans.
“Everybody had him No. 1 from start to finish and we were always looking for that guy that could be No. 1,” Farrell said. “We weren’t as sold on him as everybody else. Everybody was saying this is (Jadeveon) Clowney all over again, this is the clear No. 1 and there is such a distance between No. 1 and No. 2. I didn’t think that at all.”
Nkemdiche is a risk – and NFL teams like sure things, especially in a draft loaded with skilled defensive linemen. It’s still an intriguing thought to take someone this talented and do everything within an organization’s power to hope Nkemdiche straightens up.
He could be a bust in this draft. Or he could be a tremendous steal.
“It’s enticing and you look at some teams, Seattle late in the first, Arizona late in the first, there are teams who have traditionally taken chances on guys who have some character baggage and backgrounds,” McShay said.
“If they wind up doing it, who knows? You can hit, but there is enough risk there that I would want to wait at least into the second round before I drafted him.”