Spoke with an NFL scout regarding early departures today.

I have a very good friend 15+ years that is an NFL scout here on the west coast. I am not about to name names or even team because I don't want this coming back to him in anyway because he told me things he doesn't want associated with his name. He is a good friend and I am going to respect that. So take this anyway you want, I don't really care just trying to bring some perspective to the board from someone who lives it.

After hearing about Montgomery, I called to ask him what are his and "the general perception" of the players coming out of LSU last year. He stated emphatically that around the circles in the NFL last years draft out of LSU is disappointing except for the few that were expected and projected to make an impact. He had high praise for Reid, Mingo & Mathieu and said Logan you could go either way but he puts it in the should have stayed another year.

The rest of the early entrants "including Minter" he said it would have been better if they would have stayed in school. He literally feels that each individual would have bettered their position at the end of this season including the un-drafted free agents.

He also stated that if it were his kid, relative or friend and they asked his advice "unless their position is RB" and they are an underclassmen, if they are NOT projected to go in the top 2 rounds he would do everything in his power to convince them to play out their eligibility. He did say there are exceptions to the rule and that is a generalization but it applies to 90% of the early entrants. He also stated that sports agents are absolutely killing some of these kids futures "and he did put blame on scouts also."

He went through the advantages of why to stay if your not a 1st our 2nd rounder, most of them are obvious but the one he harped on is continued game experience and knowledge of the game a simple statement he made was "the more you see, the smarter you get playing the game." He could not emphasize enough with the complexity of offenses and defenses now a days being a smart football player has almost as much to do with it as being a physical football player. Again he said that is a generalization and their are exceptions to everything, but knowledge of the game through experience is huge.

I won't bore you any further because most of this stuff is pretty apparent but hopefully Miles uses the disappointment from last years draft class so far in the NFL as incentive for the underclassmen to stay in school, both for the player and the school. I truly can't even imagine what the team would be like this year if the defense had not have been decimated from all the early departure that he felt should have stayed. He named Minter, Logan, Montgomery & Simon specifically. Again those are his opinions but he says that is pretty much the general thought around the league within the scouts.