Coming off a season in which he led the Florida State Seminoles to a BCS National Championship victory and became the youngest player to win the Heisman, quarterback Jameis Winston is one of the top young prospects in college football. However, backing up comments made by FSU coach Jimbo Fisher this week, Winston says he intends to play college ball for two more years rather than entering the NFL draft when he’s eligible in 2015, according to Kareem Copeland of The Associated Press.
“Everybody says, well he’s going to stay one (more) year and leave,” Fisher said this week. “I think it’ll be two.”
Asked about his his coach’s declaration, Winston confirmed that “whatever he says most likely is true,” adding: “Obviously I’m a big baseball person, so that’s an accurate statement because I plan on playing baseball [at FSU] next season anyway.”
Plenty could change between now and next year’s draft, so there’s no guarantee that Winston sticks to his plan and waits until 2016 to head to the NFL. Still, even if he doesn’t declare his intent for the 2015 draft, it shouldn’t have a significant effect on NFL teams’ approaches for the coming offseason. Perhaps clubs in need of a young quarterback will be slightly more inclined to draft one this year, but considering how quickly Winston figures to come off the board when he’s draft-eligible, it would have been misguided for any one team to bank on landing him anyway.