Shane Ray On The Outside Looking In?

By Charles McDonald | Feb 26, 2015

Shane Ray had an unbelievably productive junior season for the Missouri Tigers. 65 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, and 14.5 sacks while playing in the SEC, arguably the toughest division in college football. Leading up to the NFL Combine, Ray looked to be a surefire top-10 pick.

However, Ray had questions to answer about his ability to quickly move laterally as his hips looked stiff at times on tape. He could alleviate some of these concerns with a strong showing at the combine. The ability to sink your hips and “run the hoop” around offensive tackles is a big factor in determining whether a guy can be elite or just a situational pass rusher in the NFL.

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But unfortunately he wasn’t able to workout in Indianapolis due to a foot injury. While Ray was forced to watch from the side, other edge rushers used big Combine workouts to vault themselves up teams’ Draft boards. Vic Beasley, Dante Fowler, Alvin “Bud” Dupree, and Randy Gregory all had solid Combines to validate their first round status.

Before the Combine, there were mock drafts and projections that had Ray going as high as number 3 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars as well as others (like mine) that had him going fifth overall to the Washington Redskins. Until his pro day in Missouri on March 19, he won’t be able to mitigate concerns that teams had about him going into the combine.

In the mean time, it’ll be difficult to mock Ray that high in upcoming mock drafts.

Some pundits will drop Ray out of the first round completely. That’s a bit ambitious, but he’s going to have to really impress teams in the upcoming months in order for them to feel comfortable spending a top ten pick on him. Right now, Shane Ray looks like a top-25 selection for the 2015 NFL Draft with an opportunity to improve his stock leading up to April 30.