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So far, we've looked at four Pitt football players with pretty good chances to be selected in this week's NFL Draft - Nathan Peterman, James Conner, Dorian Johnson, and Adam Bisnowaty. But the Panthers have at least a couple of more guys with real chances to be taken, too.
One of those is defensive end Ejuan Price. Price was a highly touted recruit that came to Pitt but had some injury issues early on. He was a six-year guy that guy some extra eligibility and that's part of the problem. Already 24 years old, some teams will be scared off a little bit.
But if you look at what Price did on the field, he's proven he's capable of playing in the pros. He didn't do too much in his first four years here, but his last two seasons have been superhuman. Price's 2015 season saw him pick up 11 1/2 sacks and 19 1/2 tackles for losses. What I love about him is that he still managed to have an even bigger 2016 year. Despite Pitt missing its other starting defensive end Dewayne Hendrix and teams being prepared for him after 2015, he still went on to have 13 sacks, 23 tackles for losses, and three forced fumbles.
Price's 29 1/2 career sacks are fourth on Pitt's all-time list. He was a first-team All ACC player in those last two years and he was a second team All-American in 2016.
I get that he's a little undersized and that he's older. But what he did in the last two seasons was pretty mind-boggling. As one of the top defensive ends in all of college football, I don't think a late-round pick is too much of a gamble. What do you think?
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