Micah Parsons has his sights set squarely on the 2021 NFL Draft
As of today, there have been two players — Caleb Farley of Virginia Tech and Rashod Bateman of Minnesota — that have made the decision to forgo the 2020 football season to prepare for 2021 NFL Draft. Now joining them, one of the best prospects in this upcoming draft class, Penn State superstar linebacker Micah Parsons.
The COVID-19 has had a large impact on the sports world as it has caused leagues to come to a halt, and completely reorganize how they operate. Football luckily was not being played at the time the pandemic began, but with the virus still looming it has forced them to make changes.
Those changes involve limiting Power 5 schools to conference play only and shortening their schedules. The virus has also made players opt out of the season because of medical concerns.
Parsons will be a huge loss for the Nittany Lions if there is indeed a season. If Parsons did not elect to skip the season and put another year of tape together, he would have a good argument as one of the best, if not the best linebacker prospect to come out since Luke Kuechly in 2012. Even without this year, he is still in the conversation.
Presently, one could argue that Parsons is more of an athlete than a football player, but as the season prolonged, he started getting a much better feel for the position. It should be noted that Parsons was an edge rusher in high school and is new to playing middle linebacker.
Another year of football certainly would’ve given him that boost needed in the mental processing part of the game, but he’s a good enough prospect today to be drafted somewhere in the top-10. For Bateman and Farley, they had little else to gain by risking it in 2020; Parsons is in similar company, maybe even more so.