Sometimes you hear things about somebody possibly leaving early for the NFL and you tell your self "Seriously?". One of those items this year is hearing that D.J. Foster may be thinking of leaving early for the pro's. Not sure if that is a good idea on Foster's end of it.
Watching D.J. in high school and now at Arizona State, I would say that he needs to stay in Tempe for his senior year and get a little more "seasoning" in college before heading for the big payday in the professional ranks. He leads the team in rushing at 1,002 yards and second on the team in receptions with 59 catches which is great, however, he still needs to develop that knack for taking a game over and being that complete game changer. He has great versatility, but he needs to get better in the running game. There were times during the season that he would disappear from the game and the stat sheet. I would look at his numbers and wonder what is going on with him.
Some of that disappearance is due to some good defenses taking Foster out of the game and the offensive coaches not using him as they probably should. He is a very dynamic player, but he's not a first or even second round pick this year. He might not even be a first or second round pick next year, but he needs to stay to get more reps and play because there are not many teams, if any, that are going to draft a "3rd down" running back. They want somebody that they can count on to make a difference on their team and I just don't think Foster is there yet.
D.J. Foster also needs to stay to land on All-Pac 12 teams, first team, or even third team. Even get a little Heisman talk or Doak Walker talk. Put his name out there a little more with some major awards and help drive his team to even more victories next season.
By all accounts this is all preliminary talk. Nothing has been talked about in absolutes or anything close to that. He says he is not worried about this NFL talk right now because he is helping his team prepare for their Sun Bowl game. That's football player talk for: "I don't want to say that I've been thinking about it yet." He's thinking about it for certain in my opinion. Somebody got in his ear and has been whispering things about his pro value. Hopefully somebody close to him and cares for his future will mention that the correct move is to stay in Tempe and help the Sun Devils win the south division of the Pac-12 and then win the Pac-12.
At the end of the day, D.J. Foster is a very good back with a chance to become a great back, but he needs more playing time and more time to showcase his abilities for NFL scouts. He's not a first or second round pick, but he can help his case to get into the third round or early fourth round for next years draft. It'll be interesting to see what his decision is in the next few weeks, but I really hope he stays at Arizona State.
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