Michael Sam was the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year. He set a Missouri Tigers record for sacks in a single season with 11.5 in 2013, and was expected to follow in the footsteps of past Tigers like Aldon Smith and Sheldon Richardson on his way to the NFL.

Unfortunately, Sam was seen as a “tweener;” not big enough to play defensive end in the NFL and not fleet of foot enough to handle the outside linebacker’s responsibilities. His workouts were poor, and as the pre-draft process wore on Sam fell from a sure draft pick to a fringe seventh rounder with a chance of going undrafted.

Of course, when Sam came out of the closet and revealed his homosexuality, setting him up to be the NFL’s first openly gay athlete, that altered his draft stock as well whether that’s fair or not.

But Sam’s free fall to the last 10 picks of the 2014 draft was due to more than just his sexual preference. He ran a 4.9-second 40-yard dash and boasted a vertical leap of only 25 inches, neither of which left scouts impressed with his physical tools.

Sam spent time in training camp with the St. Louis Rams, spent time on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad during the season and now remains unclaimed by any NFL team.

However, for the second year in a row, Mizzou is poised to send two more defensive ends to the NFL: Shane Ray and Markus Golden.

Ray followed Sam as the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year last fall, and he’s put on weight since the end of the season to avoid Sam’s “tweener” during pre-draft workouts. He’s bulking to prove he’s big enough to play defensive end and fast enough to play outside linebacker in a 3-4, and he’s a projected first round pick with top-10 upside as a result.

Golden, on the other hand, may be following in Sam’s footsteps. He ran a 4.9-second 40-yard dash at the combine as well, and weighed in at 260 pounds, which is a bit light for an NFL defensive end.

Scouts say he lacks explosiveness off the line and that much of his success at the college level was due to strength that won’t translate as well to the pros and effort. Many think he’s destined to be a special teamer at the NFL level for the duration of his career, and his draft stock has fallen to the mid-to-late rounds of the draft.

Although he showed he has some pass rushing capabilities with his 10 sacks last season, many wonder how much of that was due to playing opposite Ray, just as many wondered how much Sam benefitted from playing opposite fellow 2014 draftee Kony Ealy.

Sam remains out of the league, which could be a scary sight for Golden as he prepares for draft day. He lacks a natural fit at any position on the defense and appears to be mostly heart and soul and not much athleticism, which sounds good in a cliché manner but is not what NFL executives are looking for. This is the same issue Sam encountered a year ago.

So while it appears Missouri will have two defensive ends drafted for the second year in a row, a feat worth boasting about in CoMo until the new season begins, it also appears that for the second year in a row one of those former college stars may not have the NFL future we all thought he would.