Washington receiver John Ross has been pegged as perhaps the best receiver in the draft class of 2017. But might his injury history hinder his draft stock?
According to Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller, yes. In fact, Miller has been told that past injuries could knock Ross completely out of the first round.
“Two things can sink a prospect’s value like nothing else: injuries and off-field issues. For Washington’s John Ross, multiple teams have told me he’s falling due to past injuries—including microfracture surgery on one knee and a torn labrum that was repaired after the combine,” Miller wrote in his Scouting Notebook. “Ross, who some teams projected to be the top receiver in the class at one time, could be looking at the second round now.”
This goes hand-in-hand with a previous report that Ross was falling completely off of some team’s draft boards, which you can read here.
Obviously, injury history is a red flag. Nobody wants to burn a first-round pick on someone who’s struggling to stay healthy at 22. History says that that won’t get any better with age.
But at the same time, Ross is certainly worth the gamble after the first round. He caught 81 balls for 1,150 yards in 2016. Additionally, Ross caught 17 touchdowns, ran for another and returned a kickoff for a score. Those numbers — along with his record-setting 40 time at the combine — show how dangerous of a weapon Ross is.
It’s certainly hard to ignore his injury history. But that history could lead to some team getting the absolute steal of the draft after the first round.