re: Hypothetical: Nkemdiche eligible for 2013 draft, where does he go?

Someone would take a 7th round flyer. Theoretically it would take 3-4 years before he could he physically prepared to contribute. 4 year contracts are the norm for lower picks, so a team is basically grabbing his rights for his RFA year, sort of like baseball but with baseball you can own a guy for 7 years or so because of arbitration. In the NFL unless you franchise a player you can't hang on to them forever.

I recall this discussion way back when Tim Couch was the #1 prospect in the nation. Some NFL people said he was the first prospect they ever saw who would get drafted at 18 so they could sit on him and that would have been teams using a 7th. He eneded up as the #1 overall, so at might have been a worthwhile investment. Of course, he ended up sucking IN the NFL anyway. Nothing is certain in pro football.