Usually, the best option for an NFL Draft prospect is to leave school after an outstanding season. However, in the case of Rutgers University senior linebacker Khaseem Greene (6-foot-2, 215-pounds), who tallied a team-best 127 tackles and earned the Big East Conference's Co-defensive Player Of The Year honors, that will not be the case, as he has decided to forgo the 2012 NFL Draft and return to Pitscataway, N.J. for his redshirt-senior season.
"I’ve decided that the best thing for me to do is to stay in school," Greene told the media Tuesday during a brief pre-Pinstripe Bowl news conference.
"From the outside looking in, you have what everybody thinks is a great season and (they say) you’ve got to go when you’re hot and all of those things. People start talking (about you) and you get a little buzz and you think maybe you could potentially leave and get drafted and try out for a team, whatever the case may be.
"That was the hardest thing."
More on Greene's NFL draft projections after the jump...
According to the Star Ledger, Greene was a third- or fourth-round draft prospect. Meanwhile, SB Nation's NFL Mock Draft blog Mocking The Draft, thinks this was a solid move for Greene.
"It's for the best for Greene," wrote Dan Kadar Monday. "In the 2012 draft, he would have been behind fellow weakside linebackers Zach Brown, Nebraska's Lavonte David, TCU's Tank Carder and Florida State's Nigel Bradham, among others. That's even if NFL evaluators consider the former free safety a linebacker at the next level."
The Scarlet Knights, who Friday play Iowa State University in the Pinstripe Bowl (3:20 p.m. ET on ESPN), will now wait for the NFL Draft decision of wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.