UCLA LB Myles Jack withdraws from school, will enter NFL draft
UCLA linebacker Myles Jack has made up his mind; he’s going pro.
Bruins head coach Jim Mora announced Tuesday that Jack, who suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago, has withdrawn from school and will enter the NFL draft.
Jack hurt his knee during a non-contact drill in practice on Sept. 22, ending his junior season. The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Jack had the game-sealing interception for the Bruins a few days prior to the injury against BYU.
Jack emerged as one of the country’s more unique talents in 2013 as a freshman. He quickly ascended the depth chart and saw significant playing time at both linebacker and running back for the Bruins, finishing the season with 75 tackles and two interceptions along with seven rushing touchdowns. In 2014, Jack registered 88 tackles and eight tackles for loss at linebacker while also totaling 113 yards and three touchdowns rushing.
Before going down with the knee injury, Jack tallied 15 tackles in three games for the Bruins this season.
Despite Jack’s consistent production, Mora, a longtime NFL coach, voiced a bit of hesitancy about Jack’s decision.
“My personal opinion is I think he’s a tremendous football player and a tremendous athlete but it’s very risky to do this,” Mora said per BruinSportsReport.com. “Having been on that side, there’s going to be a lot of speculation as to what he is and where he fits. As I told Myles on Sunday, NFL teams are very, very conservative, and if there’s any question whatsoever, they’ll pass on you in a heart beat.
“They’re going to take the sure thing. So I explained that to him, but I feel like they’d already made their decision. Like I said, I hope it works out best for him. But as a guy that’s spent half my life in the NFL, I would move with great caution.”
Mora said the fact that Jack only has three games of game tape from his junior for NFL teams to evaluate could be an issue.
“If he played all year I was thinking that he wouldn’t (return for his senior year),” Mora said. “But when you only play in three games, and that’s all the tape they have on you in your junior year, I’ve been in 25 draft rooms and I’ve never seen a guy taken off of that. Never. So I worry about that for him.
“I think he’ll get himself in great shape and get ready and get rehabbed and perform well at the combine and perform well at his individual workouts and it’s just a matter of do the scouts have enough game film to go off of. They may, they may not. That’s their decision, not mine. I just know that I’ve never seen it. So it’s kind of a new world for me.”
UCLA is 4-1 on the season after losing to Arizona State over the weekend. The Bruins have a bye this week before facing Stanford on the road on Oct. 15.
For more UCLA news, visit BruinSportsReport.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
