re: 2019 Early Departures

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I think at least 3 we don't expect out of..

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Uh, no.

You are merely listing draft eligible players who were between contributors and starters. Only White and Williams should and will leave.

Fulton is the best prospect left. But there are several factors that will cause him to stay. First, he has shown flashes of brilliance that give him a real shot at being a first rounder. Second, he had the drug test issue that remains fresh and relatedly, he has limited game reps. It may come as a surprise to those of us who live and breathe LSU football but there are a bunch of talented, raw defensive backs on other college teams. And there are a bunch of talented, experienced DBs on other college teams. Fulton right now might be a late third, early 4th, but his limited playing time and eligibility issue will cause him to slide. Leave now, probably the best you do is what Anthony Averett from Bama did last year - Fourth round. That's a 4 year contract for $3.1 million of which the only guaranteed money is the signing bonus of $667,000. After that you get a base salary of under half a mill, escalating to $750K. Leave a year from now, and you are looking at the deal that Jaire Alexander signed with Green Bay as a middle of the first round pick. Also four years. But...$6.8 million upfront and $12+ million all guaranteed.

So the full value of the contract is 4x. The signing bonus is 10x and the guaranteed money is 18x.

This is not even close to a hard decision.