Maurice Evans Follows Aaron Maybin into NFL Draft: A Questionable Decision

A few days ago, Penn State defensive end Aaron Maybin declared that he will be leaving for the NFL Draft. 

Although this is not a good decision because he will probably have to change positions, he is still projected as a Top 10 pick and he will probably make a ton of money.

Maurice Evans also recently decided that he would be leaving for the draft, following Maybin. However, this decision is questionable at best.

If Evans were to have declared last year, it would have made sense, and if he were to stay one more year and declare, that would also have made sense.  Declaring this year, however, makes no sense at all.

As a sophomore, Evans was eighth in the nation in sacks with 12-and-a-half, and sixth in the nation in tackles for loss with 21-and-a-half.  If he left after his sophomore year, he would probably have easily been a first or second round pick.

This year, however, he did not fare so well.  Before the season started, he and defensive tackle Abe Koroma were accused of being in possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Although it was an extremely small amount, Evans and Koroma were still suspended for the first four games of the season, which were the warm-up or "cupcake" games.  These are also stat games, in which Evans would have gotten a good portion of his stats.

When he came back from his suspension, he was rusty.  He did not have a great season, and although he had a couple of good games and great plays here and there, he ended up with only 31 tackles, three sacks, and four-and-a-half tackles for loss in his nine-game season (which includes the Rose Bowl).

This obviously will drop his draft stock.  His stock last year was a first to second round pick, and now he will drop more likely to a second or third round pick.

Even though he had a bad season, he is still 6'2", 264 pounds, which is a decent size for an NFL defensive end.

If Evans were to stay for his senior year and stay out of trouble he would have gotten one more season of playing, which would hopefully be a full season.  He would warm up and get stats in the non-conference games, so hopefully he would perform well and not be rusty in conference games. 

If he stayed for his senior year and had a season like his sophomore season, he would easily be a first round pick, especially because he would probably get even bigger in his senior season, perhaps gaining up to 10 pounds in muscle.

Maurice Evans said in an interview that he thinks he's a first round pick, but after this season he probably isn't, and it is likely the wrong choice to leave for the draft after this season.

Whether it ends up being the right choice or not we will never know, but based on what happened and what could happen, it seems like a very questionable decision for Evans to enter the draft.