Florida will lose a pair of juniors on the offensive side of the ball to the NFL Draft.
Jim McElwain has announced that running back Kelvin Taylor and wide receiver Demarcus Robinson will declare for the NFL Draft. They’ll join fellow juniors Vernon Hargreaves and Alex McCalister, (though McCalister was really forced out) and a handful of seniors in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Both are surprising, though Taylor’s decision makes somewhat more sense than Robinson’s. Taylor needs 15 yards in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan to become Florida’s first 1,000 yard rusher since Mike Gillislee in 2012, and the second since Ciatrick Fason in 2004. That’s a solid year to end on, objectively speaking, and have NFL scouts judge as your last. Besides, if Taylor waits another year, he’d be in the same draft class as Nick Chubb, Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook. Not exactly ideal. Pending the results of his combine, I’d say Taylor goes in the middle rounds.
But Robinson’s decision doesn’t make any sense at all. He arrived in Gainesville as the trophy of a huge recruiting victory by Will Muschamp over Clemson, and never proved to be worth the fight. There were flashes here and there, sure, but the overall sum of his three year career at UF was disappointing at best. To be completely honest, the three years of inconsistency don’t really provide NFL teams with a whole lot to be excited about, although the glimpses he’s shown is probably worth a team taking a shot at him in the later rounds.
Nevertheless, I wish these guys the best. They’re Gators for life, and I’ll be rooting for them on Sundays.
