Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey drew a lot of negative attention in December when neither decided to play in their respective bowl games, but it certainly didn't harm them last week when both were selected among the top eight picks of the 2017 NFL Draft.
And for at least one NFL team personnel director, it's now a sign of things to come.
"I think you will see more top players do it due to the minimal effect it had on their draft stock. If a player's team isn't playing for a national title, why risk your future earnings? The NCAA isn't paying them," the director told Sports Illustrated, "(but) if you are not a top pick, your ass better play in the (bowl) game."
Fournette was selected No. 4 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars and McCaffrey by the Carolina Panthers at No. 8, leaving future top prospects a glaring example that skipping a bowl game doesn't necessarily hurt one's draft stock. There was a glaring example on the other side of the equation, as well. Michigan tight end Jake Butt, one of the draft's top prospects at his position, suffered a torn ACL in the Orange Bowl and slipped to the fifth round of the draft. It could be October before he's ready to play for the Denver Broncos, who selected him at No. 145 overall.
As such, Butt became the latest cautionary tale but certainly not the first. NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks, a former NFL scout, believes the knee injury suffered by Notre Dame's Jaylon Smith in the Fiesta Bowl in January, 2016Â likely had a hand in the decisions made by Fournette and McCaffrey. Smith, considered a sure-fire first-round pick before his injury, slipped to the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 2016 draft and missed his entire rookie season.
It will make for an intriguing backdrop in December once bowl matchups are announced. Draft prospects will weigh the importance of playing in a bowl game that -- for all but the College Football Playoff's four-team field -- amounts to an exhibition, versus the risk of injury and draft status. As the personnel director noted, those who aren't considered elite prospects would be unwise to assume that NFL clubs would view them skipping a bowl game in the same way Fournette's and McCaffrey's decisions were viewed.
But that doesn't mean there won't be a growing number of early goodbyes.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
