After leading Alabama to the national championship this season as a senior, Lakota West High School graduate Ryan Kelly said it was that deep run that ultimately led him to skip last month’s Senior Bowl.
Speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis today, Kelly was asked about his decision to skip that first big step in the draft process.
“I went back and forth on the decision for awhile,” Kelly said. “Ultimately, I felt that after a 15-game season the trade off to go to the Senior Bowl versus another extra week of training, when everybody else had two weeks of training ahead of me, it wasn’t a trade off I was willing to make. I figured I had 15 games of game film that coaches could look at.”
Kelly is projected to be the first center taken in this year’s draft, and that selection could come in the first round. Since 2009, only three centers have gone in the first round.
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