At one time, Ole Miss Rebels defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche was in the discussion to potentially be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Since then, questions about Nkemdiche off the field have led to a fall that could have him waiting until Day 2 to hear his name called.
With Nkemdiche sliding down draft boards, teams in the mid-to-late first-round could have a chance at a player they didn’t initially anticipate being available.
One of those teams that could have an opportunity to take a leap of faith with the Ole Miss star is the Detroit Lions.
While speaking about Robert Nkemdiche as a prospect, Lions General Manager Bob Quinn admitted the team has identified “red flags” but they have not completely ruled out the pick.
“That’s just things that we have to consider the value of the player compared to the risk involved in taking him,” Quinn said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “So it’s not like these guys are off the board. You just got to manage the risk and the reward of taking a guy like that.”
There is less than a week until the first-round kicks off in Chicago next Thursday, so the Lions will continue to do some digging into his background.
“That’s really one of the last things that we do in our process, is eliminating guys from the board for those off-the-field concerns,” Quinn said. “So we’re actually having meetings about that in the next couple of days, so I don’t have an exact number [of how many there are” right now. There will be a fair number of guys that we will not consider for character concerns and off-the-field reasons. But I don’t have a firm number right now.”
Just how far will Nkemdiche fall in the draft? We will find out soon.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
