Royce Freeman will avoid the 2017 NFL Draft and return for his senior season at Oregon.
Royce Freeman’s name has come up for the 2017 NFL Draft since, if he declared, he would be among the best available players at the running back position. This stems from his past production at Oregon (1,836 yards in 2015) and the speed to break away from defenders. He had an inconsistent season with five games at 50 yards or below, but it still would have warranted a mid-round selection in the upcoming draft.
Well, Freeman is going to get the chance to pad his stats and improve his draft stock for the 2018 event, as Oregon announced that their star running back will return for his senior season. They did so in this announcement below:
Freeman returning to Eugene gives new head coach Willie Taggart a top mainstay from the disappointing 2016 team, which led to the firing of Mark Helfrich. This gives the Ducks a stud at running back for the 2017 season instead of potentially going through a competition this spring as well.
However, what Freeman did by not going into the 2017 NFL Draft is getting himself away from the stacked running back class. LSU’s Leonard Fournette, Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, Florida State’s Dalvin Cook and Texas’ D’Onta Foreman will all potentially be first round picks, pushing other backs down into the draft. This would potentially cause someone like Freeman to lose money by going in the second or third round, so this could be his way of taking a chance and hoping to get toward the top of the 2018 running back group. Then he could put himself in play as a first round pick without these other players lingering.
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If Royce Freeman can put up stats similar to his 2015 season, then he may get that first-round status for 2018 solidified.