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Washington V.P. of player personnel questions how well doubters really know Derrius Guice
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There was plenty of speculation regarding the negativity toward Derrius Guice leading up to the 2018 NFL Draft that proved to be real considering the drop the former LSU running back took during the league’s latest selection process. Washington stopped Guice’s fall by taking him with the No. 59 overall selection, but it was much lower than many would have predicted months earlier.
Despite his fall to the second round, Washington V.P. of player personnel Doug Williams isn’t buying into the whispers regarding Guice. Among them, that he got into a verbal altercation with the Eagles during the pre-draft process or was asked if he liked men at the NFL combine.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Williams stated his belief that a player of Guice’s upbringing might be tough to understand for some. Considering Williams comes from the same area, he believes he’s very familiar with Guice and his story.
“To be honest with you, he grew up in the area that I grew up,” Williams recently said according to Pro Football Talk. “I know more about him than a lot of folks have known about him. And when you think about this kid from where he comes from and to be in the position that he’s in, you’ve got to applaud the kid, and you know sometimes people will misunderstand a kid that comes out of where he comes out of. There’s an area down in Baton Rouge they call ‘The Bottom.’ Very few young men come out of ‘The Bottom.’”
It’s an interesting point of view and one that many may not be taking into account. For all the perceived “issues” surrounding Guice, he’s never been in legal trouble, never suspended and never publicly failed any drug tests in college. When you consider all the red flags some teams overlook to draft a player, case in point Antonio Callaway, it’s hard to imagine anyone passing on Guice for his pre-draft process.
That’s something Williams also touched on during his interview.
“For this kid, who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, hasn’t been arrested, no failed drug tests,” Williams continued. “He’s a happy-go-lucky kid.”
There’s a good chance Washington got the steal of the draft in Guice. Should he live up to his full potential on the next level, there will be more than a few teams expressing their regret that they let the pre-draft process cloud their judgment when it comes to the talent selection process.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
