Self-Scouting: Evaluating recent five-star athletes

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Over the course of a few weeks, Rivals.com is taking a look at five-stars at each position from 2012 to 2015 (classes that are now nearly completely out of college football and off to the pros) and how they fared compared to our ranking to determine which spots we got right and which ones we got wrong. We finish off the first week with athletes.

MORE SELF-SCOUTING: Quarterbacks | Running Backs | WRs & TEs | O-linemen

Terry Godwin, Ray-Ray McCloud III, Adoree’ Jackson, Bo Scarbrough, Eddie Williams, Josh Harvey-Clemons

Five of the six five-star athletes during this stretch are playing in the NFL, even if many of them were selected in the later rounds of the draft.

Of the six, Jackson was the only first-round selection, and he’s been an important part of the Tennessee Titans’ defense. McCloud, despite not having a huge career at Clemson, was a sixth-round pick, and then Godwin, Scarbrough and Harvey-Clemons were all taken in the seventh round.

The only major miss among this small group was Williams, a five-star from Panama City (Fla.) Arnold who went to Alabama but had legal issues and left Tuscaloosa. He later landed at a junior college, but has fallen off the map.

The athlete position is designed for players who have played on either side of the ball and don’t have a designated spot. In the case of these six players, three ended up on offense in Godwin, McCloud and Scarbrough and three wound up on defense in Jackson, Williams and Harvey-Clemons.

All five of the players who were drafted are still in the NFL.

The athlete position is interesting because we try to place prospects at positions as best we can, but some players are just too talented and versatile to pigeonhole at one position. That leaves guys like Jackson, who we figured would be a cornerback but could also impact on offense and on special teams, at the athlete position. To have five of the six in the NFL is very good, and it’s a good mix of jumbo athletes like Scarbrough and Harvey-Clemons and guys like Godwin and McCloud who could have played wide receiver or defensive back. Ranking a player as an athlete is a last resort, but sometimes you have to have the position for guys like this and most of them have worked out.