Washington wide receiver John Ross was projected to be a first-round pick throughout his final college season and his record-setting 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis didn’t do anything to lessen those expectations.
Mike Mayock of NFL Network suggested recently that concerns about Ross’ health could lead to a longer-than-expected wait to hear his name called in Philadelphia, however. Ross has dealt with several knee injuries over the course of his career and Mayock reported that teams have dropped Ross down or completely off their draft boards as a result.
During an appearance on PFT Live, Ross said that he believes such concerns are overblown.
“Well there was a lot of reports saying a lot about my knees where I had a sprained MCL, I had two torn ACLs,” Ross said. “Well all that’s kinda true. I just tore my ACL and tore my right meniscus and I played a whole season without it bothering me, without me having to sit out or come out of a game because of my knees or anything. I think the biggest thing was just my shoulder which I previously got fixed and that’s kinda what I was worried about. My knees fell great, they feel better than before I tore them so I’m not worried about that and I think with the world we live in today there’s a lot of great doctors, there’s a lot of great trainers and a lot of good technology you know. So I think it’s much different than before where I can’t get treated for something or if I’m feeling a certain way I can’t get treated for it so I’m really not worried too much about that. You know it’s football everybody is gonna get wear and tear no matter if you tore your knees before or not so I don’t think durability will be that much of an issue if I stay on top of it and take care of my body.”
Even if 31 teams have downgraded Ross, it just takes one for him to wind up as a first-round pick. We’ll know in a little more than 24 hours if that’s the case.