“I know I would have been drafted higher had I not gotten injured, but without hindsight, I still would have played in it,” Ogbuehi said this week in light of Monday’s news that LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey opted not to play in their respective bowl games in order to focus on NFL draft preparation. “With hindsight, you never know. I don’t think about that, though. Everything happens for a reason.”
RELATED: Ogbuehi talks about benching, future
Ogbuehi said he empathizes with McCaffrey and Fournette for their decision.
He was projected as a top 5 pick before his injury but the Bengals still took a chance on him at No. 21 overall in the 2015 draft. Ogbuehi played five games last season and has struggled in his first full year.
Both Fournette and McCaffrey have suffered injuries this year and intend to leave college early for the NFL. Fournette missed four games with an ankle injury, and McCaffrey missed a game in October due to an undisclosed injury.
“I wouldn’t have even thought about not playing,” Ogbuehi said. “But if I’m a first-round pick running back, I would think about it. Running backs rarely go first round, and the less carries you get college-wise, the better you are for saving yourself for the NFL.”
It also depends on whether it’s a playoff game or one of the minor bowl games, Ogbuehi added.
The knee injury sustained by former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith in the Fiesta Bowl last year, costing him millions and potentially his career, has been linked with the decisions made by Fournette and McCaffrey, but Smith indicated via social media Monday that if he was given a redo, he would still play.
Smith went from a potential top-five pick to a second-round choice for the Dallas Cowboys and is still working back from the injury. Reports out of Dallas last week indicated he has made little progress in his recovery and may never play again.
RELATED: Whitworth hopes to be back in 2017
"Honestly," Smith wrote on Twitter. "With everything I've been through, if I could go back to Jan. 1st I'd play again."
Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd, the team’s 2016 second-round pick, said he thought about the risk of injury before playing in the Military Bowl last year with Pittsburgh, but he hadn’t decided to declare himself eligible for the draft yet so opting out wasn’t a consideration.
It wasn’t until a few days after the loss to Navy that he made the decision to forego his senior year.
“Before deciding I wanted to come to the league, I definitely felt that on my shoulders if I wanted to continue to play and stay healthy,” Boyd said. “At the end, I didn’t want to let my guys down. I was playing with guys I grew up with in my hometown, so that wasn’t even a question for me. I just wanted to get that last game under my belt.”
Boyd said he doesn’t think there is a right or wrong decision. He understands why potential first-round picks wouldn’t want to risk injury.
However, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick had stronger opinions. His last game at Alabama was for a national championship but even had it been a lesser bowl game, the Bengals’ 2012 first-round pick said he still would have played.
“I don’t agree with it,” Kirkpatrick said. “At the end of the day, you started something with some guys, and I feel like you should finish it with those guys. That’s a sign of selfishness. I feel like I was on one of the greatest dynasties ever, and even when we didn’t go to the championship, our first-round picks were still contributing to the bowl games. They still played and gave it their all, still led as leaders, left examples for me as a young guy coming up.
“I don’t condone it, but I think you’re going to see a lot more of it now. Everything is all about hype. Some guys feel like they don’t have to play in that game.”
Kirkpatrick said there is always a reason to play. Even now as a professional, sitting out wouldn’t be an option, but with the Bengals out of playoff contention, it would be easy to think about what risk he’s at in a contract year.
However, Kirkpatrick said he’s not worried about what happens in free agency next year.
“You can’t think about injuries,” he said. “You just got to go out there and play, continue to give it your all. There’s still a lot of guys, a lot of teams still fighting for things that we still have to play, hopefully we can go out and play hard and compete at a high level and just try to swallow a lot of people up.”
About the Author