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2015 NFL Draft Stock Watch: Noah Spence

By @rickstavig

Noah Spence, 2015 NFL Draft

Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

The 2014 college football season is wrapping up and opportunities for seniors and juniors (and some redshirt sophomores) to boost their stock for the 2015 NFL Draft is drawing to a close.

Noah Spence is a guy who didn’t get a chance to boost his stock all year long, and it looks like that won’t change after he was ruled permanently ineligible for athletic competition by the Big Ten. Instead, the talented pass rusher will very likely declare himself eligible for the draft next spring.

Spence hasn’t played a down this year for the Ohio State Buckeyes after two suspensions, both appearing to be related to multiple failed drug tests. Obviously, that doesn’t look great to NFL scouts, but he should still draw early round consideration because of his immense physical gifts.

The 6-foot 3, 250-pound Spence was a mega-recruit coming out of powerhouse Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg (PA), and considered a top-10 player nationally by multiple recruiting outlets. He didn’t make much of an impact as a true freshman in 2012 but started putting it all together in 2013, his sophomore year, where he racked up 14 TFL’s and 7.5 sacks en route to all conference honors.

After already catching the eyes of scouts during his breakout sophomore campaign, much was expected of him in 2014, both by the Buckeyes as well as scouts looking to see further development. That obviously wasn’t realized due to the aforementioned suspensions.

So now Spence has no opportunities to boost his stock until the NFL Combine (late February 2015) at earliest. It’ll be there where he’ll have his best chance to begin repairing his reputation.

No one can deny his athleticism, however. While playing the majority of his snaps at DE for the Buckeyes, he projects favorably to OLB in 34 fronts as well. He has a good first step with impressive explosion and violent hands. His speed, lateral quickness and range should also be in the upper echelon at his position in the ’15 draft class. He’s still somewhat raw (why missing the whole year this fall really hurts), but has a very high ceiling as an edge rusher.

How much will the suspensions hurt his draft stock? That will very likely depend on how well he interviews and how he conducts himself in private one-on-one meetings with coaches and scouts leading up to the draft. He’ll need to convince them that he’s matured since then and that the team that drafts him can depend on him to not hurt the team in the future, like he has in Columbus.

Remember though, this is a bottom-line-driven league, and second (and third, and fourth) chances can be found everywhere, especially for the ‘crimes’ he committed.

Rick Stavig is an NFL Draft Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickstavig or add him to your network on Google+.

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