FSU Football: Writer Rips Travis Rudolph Decision to Enter NFL Draft

FSU football saw several former players go unpicked during last month’s NFL Draft – including Travis Rudolph, who one writer took issue with that decision.

In the coming days, several former FSU football stars will continue their entry into the NFL as rookie camps continue across the league. One of those will be in suburban New Jersey, where the New York Giants will open their workouts with several undrafted players among the group – including former Seminoles wide receiver Travis Rudolph.

Rudolph, who declared for the draft not long after Florida State won last season’s Orange Bowl, was never expected to hear his name called early on in this year’s selection process – but was not among the 253 names that were called at all in Philadelphia over a three day period. His decision to turn pro was met with hesitation from some who thought he should have stayed another year.

One of those people is Tallahassee Democrat senior writer Corey Clark, who made it very clear that in his mind, Rudolph’s decision to turn pro was pretty crazy:

"How in the world does this happen? How does someone enter the draft, with a year of eligibility remaining, and not have concrete 100 percent certainty that he’s actually going to get drafted?Did Rudolph just get terrible advice? Or did he not listen to the good advice he did get?There is no chance Jimbo Fisher told the not-so-big, not-so-fast receiver that he was ready for the NFL. None. And there’s zero chance anyone with any real information told him he was a surefire draft pick."

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To be fair, Clark did later go on to say that he wishes Rudolph well – like the rest of FSU football nation – and hopes that he does overcome the odds of being an undrafted free agent and make the Giants or any other NFL team.

Truth be told, Clark is not the first person to say such a thing. Heck, the Chop Chat staff had this conversation the day Rudolph turned pro and immediately following this year’s draft. There are plenty of people on both sides of the issue who can understand why he did it and those who still think it was crazy.

I would tend to fall in the camp of those who think he should have stuck around for one more season. Even if the writing was on the wall that Nyqwan Murray was going to be the number one receiver on the team next year, Rudolph could have at least benefited from being number two on a  FSU football team who will likely be in the College Football Playoff this season. That exposure wouldn’t have made him a first rounder – but would have at least gotten him selected.