Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.
Elijah Holyfield, Jonathan Ledbetter, Natrez Patrick and Jayson Stanley all had to deal with marijuana and/or impaired driving charges while at Georgia. All of them ended up as undrafted free agents. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe they’d have been undrafted anyway. There’s simply no way to know for sure.
Maybe is doing a shitload of work there, but Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.
Again, there were plenty of NFL draftees that had been arrested for something during college — or before — and still heard their name called during the draft. But I’d suggest that it still affected their stock.
Mississippi State defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons is the first that pops to mind. He was arrested for the awful offense of punching a woman in a fight when he was still a recruit. Yet, Simmons was drafted with the 19th pick by the Tennessee Titans. Without that significant blemish, though, his talent surely would have seen him be one of the first to go off the board this past Thursday.
Likewise, LSU’s Devin White went with the fifth pick despite a couple of arrests before he’d signed with the Tigers. One of his purported offenses was complicated beyond my comfort with even discussing it here and ultimately was expunged from his record, anyway. But White has the size of Georgia’s Patrick and ran a blistering 40.
Imagine how much higher in the draft White might have gone! Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.
Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.
Get The Picture 
Au contrare Mr. 7 years of college. “Maybe” is doing a bong load of work.
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What is he trying to accomplish with this article? Clicks? Trolling Kirby and UGA? Does he have a quota for “articles”?
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He’s a beat writer. Of course he has a quota for articles.
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Simmons goes 19 in one of the most loaded d line classes ever.
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I don’t even think Chip knows what he was trying to accomplish with this article. He implies that the off-the-field issues might have impacted their draft stock, then goes on to list all the combine stats that actually did affect their draft stock. Is he arguing with himself here?
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Its been bad over there for awhile (all pages/sections), but the past month or two things have really fallen off a cliff. Fewer and fewer articles even make coherent sense or have a central theme or point of gravity. It is just a jumble of one or two sentence paragraphs jumbled together…
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My wife likes to read the fish wrapper with her morning coffee – I occasionally read the sports drivel.
Trying to read much less comprehend what D. Orlando Bedwetter types is downright painful.
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When did Chip start writing for the Puritanical Times?
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I think not drafting Holyfield was a miss for some NFL teams. He was a dependable runner for 3 years in Athens against some good defenses, rarely fumbled, and never missed a play for injuries that I can recall. Won’t get you the 60-70 yard runs, but picks up tough yards in the 3-15 yard bursts by running angry. You pick up over a 1000 yards sharing time with other backs in the SEC, you would get my vote over several small school players that were drafted ahead of him. But I don’t think one MJ arrest was a significant factor, and shouldn’t be included with the domestic violence situation.
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No one has said it but Holyfield had some knee problems early on. I suspect they linger and are reflected in the 40 times. Same may be true of Ledbetter.
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I keep reading in comments on other sites that Holyfield should have returned for his Sr year because of where he was drafted. However, 40 times will not improve due to staying in school another year. You may have a point on the knee being the root of the 40 times. I wish him the best and while I’d like him in Athens, I don’t see a major change on his draft stock if he waited a year.
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Agree. Holyfield is a bruiser and he could complement McCaffrey well in Carolina’s offense. Seems to me that Carolina’s offense kind of pussyfoot’s it and could benefit from somebody who can play smashmouth like Elijah. I never expected him to go high (pun intended, Chip) but I think he’ll make a bunch of nfl GM’s look dumb for passing on him.
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Thomas Dimitroff is an expert at looking dumb.
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Carolina drafted Scarlett from FU ahead of Holyfield. I don’t recall feeling he was a back to be feared but they obviously felt he was better than Holyfield. Granted, he didn’t run behind an OL as talented as UGA’s last season, but surprised they would sign an UDFA contract with Holyfield as a Plan B. Certainly not aware of their rationale but I know that would not be a decision I would have made haven seen the two of them play.
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I wouldn’t think any pro scout that does his homework would have any qualms about the character, work ethic and determination of Elijah H.
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Chip knows he needs a link from the Senator to hit his click bait quota.
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Unfortunately for Chip I never click the links to his article, so, checkmate.
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Bingo, and it is interesting to see how weed triggers some people. I have never tried it nor intend to but…. In My Opinion the war on weed is lost a cause that leads to a pool of wealth in probation fees for bureaucrats, a dangerous black market, and potential instantly lethal substances being laced in and sold. We may have stumbled on the playpen topic for Wednesday.
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Would-be scientists comparing data as Chip did are bound to get it wrong whenever they undertake to pretend to correlate. They usually miss the largest comparisons when doing so, just as Chip has here, and I’m sure he will begin to rectify his assessment over time.
That correlation would be one of age, Chip. Duh. Dick length would be next to show an inverse proportionality to tripping while playing.
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Yes, Jayson Stanley – Jayson Fucking Stanley, catcher of 3 career passes – would have surely been drafted if not for marijuana.
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… and yet, the Falcons signed him as an UFA. One can only assume they signed him just to cut him because there ain’t no way the Falcons would keep a UGA player. The mind reels.
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He’s a very good special teams player. Maybe they plan to use him as a gunner? Do teams still keep guys for specific roles like that?
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I just found this:
https://247sports.com/college/georgia/Article/Georgia-Bulldogs-Football-Jayson-Stanley-Atlanta-Falcons-131650058/
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So yeah, that seems to be the plan and maybe see if he can develop as a corner.
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Holyfield is going to make it in the pros. He seems to have pretty good football speed meaning he hits the hole quickly and gets upfield to get the yards he can. If you can do that and secure the ball, you can have a productive career. Throw in a willingness to play special teams early on, and I believe he makes the Panthers roster.
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Senator, I appreciate the warning when a Chip Towers article is involved. I refuse to knowingly click on anything he writes since his negative Nancy attitude in 2017. 2017!!! A season to be herald, and he was stuck in his ‘Georgia is not going to win against (fill in the blank) because we didn’t win against them years ago’ attitude. I’m probably older than Chip and I think he’s an old fart along with Bill King. SDS idea of an article seems to be, read a tweet and make a story of it and Dawgnation isn’t far behind. Thank goodness for your blog and The Athletic. Personally, I think Chip is trolling Kirby since their little falling out, but he can’t be blatant about it, so he’s passive aggressive. I check out Dawgnation for the headlines, that’s it. I rarely click on their articles and stopped reading Chip or Bill’s articles since 2017, but that’s just me. YMMV
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Chip: Pearls clutched. Check. ✔️
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Why does that Laremy Tunsil pic make me think had Pink Floyd been just a wee bit more creative in “The Wall” they would have thought of that. I kid, I kid.
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Can we pivot and discuss the slow train wreck that has been Ole Miss football ? It basically began with THAT picture and the admission of money changing hands on NATIONAL TV the same night………and you might say they’ve finally bottomed out after last weekend’s draft and the departure of the last of their rangy, top tier receivers who committed before the wheels came off.
I always think about our game with them in 2016 and how on that day those programs were literally ships passing in the night as far as future trajectory goes. Their high water mark.
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So then the consensus is pro scouts and teams don’t take drug arrests, woman punching, etc into account?
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I would not say Chip is all wrong. While off field problems do not always (each case and the time frame in which it happened is different) effect the draft status of star players. I bet it has a huge bearing on players that are viewed as marginal/chance players and whether or not they are drafted.
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I read that article and chuckled at the pearl clutching. I think minor legal trouble was the least of our draftees’ worries. Their poor combine performances (and for some, marginal NFL talent) was really to blame. There’s a reason the Athletic poached Seth instead of Chip, and don’t get me started on Mike Griffith. I used to read everything over there. Now I mostly just read Sentell and the breaking news pieces.
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