Questions continue to surround both players but Peters is likely to be selected in the first round. Thompson might slip to the second round as teams wonder what position he will play in the pros.
It has been a busy buildup to the NFL draft for former Washington stars Shaq Thompson and Marcus Peters — so busy that Thompson didn’t even get a chance to celebrate his 21st birthday Tuesday.
Thompson spent Tuesday morning in Philadelphia for his final team visit with the Eagles, and then spent the afternoon and evening flying cross-country back to Seattle. He didn’t get back to his campus-area home until about 10 p.m. — and insisted he headed right to bed.
“I was too tired to do anything,” he said.
On Wednesday, he had a quiz in his American Ethnic Studies class at UW. With just six more classes needed to complete his undergraduate degree, he has continued his studies this term even as he’s flown around the country to meet and work out with nine different NFL teams.
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“It’s important for me to get a degree,” he said. “If I start something, I want to finish it.”
Questions continue to surround both Thompson and Peters as the first round of the NFL draft looms next Thursday. The types of questions differ greatly. With Thompson, many wonder about his position fit in the NFL. With Peters, character concerns cloud his draft prospects.
Even so, there’s an outside chance both could hear their names called in the first round. Peters, dismissed by UW coach Chris Petersen in November, is the more likely to be selected first. NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock, in a conference call Thursday, said if not for the behavioral concerns, Peters on talent alone would be a top-15 pick.
Rob Rang, a draft analyst for CBSsports.com, projects Peters going to the Dallas Cowboys with the 27th pick in the first round. Peters, according to a source, has met or worked out with 17 NFL teams, the Cowboys included. (Neither Peters nor Thompson has had a formal meeting with the Seahawks, whose first pick is the 63rd overall.)
“Marcus Peters is such an incredible talent that he’s going to go in the first,” Rang said Thursday. “The question is which club is willing to take him. The Dallas Cowboys make a lot of sense. I would be surprised if he doesn’t go in the first round, but I do know some clubs that have taken him off their board completely.”
Thompson said he’s tried to stay away from the mock-draft projections. He says he’s received positive feedback while meeting with teams, but he doesn’t have a strong feeling where he might end up (or, if he does, he wouldn’t say).
“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “They might be saying something to you and saying something totally different to everybody else. I don’t know. It’s a business.”
Thompson is the most diverse player in the draft, and as such, opinions about him — and his best position — are strongly divided. He played linebacker, safety and running back during an All-America junior season for the Huskies last fall and won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player.
Petersen has said Thompson’s best position might be running back — and some scouts believe he has the potential to be a starting running back in the NFL — but Thompson has repeatedly said his heart is set on defense. At 6 feet, 228 pounds, he doesn’t have ideal size for an outside linebacker and he also doesn’t have much experience at strong safety.
“Because of his instincts, his athleticism and his ball skills, to me he’s one of those guys that he can play linebacker when you need a linebacker and he can play safety when you need a safety,” Rang said. “He’s a movable chess piece on defense.”
The Eagles offer an intriguing subplot for Thompson, who, as the nation’s top-ranked high school safety out of Sacramento in 2012, was recruited aggressively by Eagles coach Chip Kelly when Kelly was at Oregon. Thompson had strongly considered signing with the Ducks before settling on the Huskies in the final days of the recruiting process.
Rang, coincidentally, projects Thompson falling to the Eagles with the 52nd pick in the second round.
“Once he starts playing, a creative defensive coordinator is going to take full advantage of what he can do,” Rang said. “Some day, we’ll probably question why this guy didn’t go in the first round.”