Is it wrong for a player to skip a bowl game?

After West Virginia quarterback Will Grier announced he would skip the Mountaineers’ bowl game to prepare for the NFL Draft, former quarterbacks Brock Huard and Jake Heaps wondered: how bad is it to skip a bowl game?

Heaps: Plenty for No. 10 Huskies to improve on offense for Rose Bowl

During the Blue 42 segment of Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle, Huard asked Heaps for a little insight from a former NCAA player.

For Heaps, the answer is a bit complicated.

“I hate seeing college players skipping out on bowl games,” Heaps said. “That’s just right off the top. I think it’s one more opportunity to play with the guys on your team and an opportunity to show that you’re a team guy. Also, a guy like Will Grier by the way, he’s not a shoo-in to be a first-round draft pick. So you have an opportunity to continue to build your resume to the NFL. If you go out and have a phenomenal bowl game, that’s going to put a stamp on your career and also it’s the last thing for these NFL scouts and head coaches.

“But now the last thing is: will Grier make it a business decision? I don’t like that trend and it’s not for everybody. However, for a very, very few elite players who basically are a shoo-in to be a first-round pick – like we talk about Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey – I understand the business decision. Because for guys like that who take a pounding and are putting their bodies through a lot in the course of a given game. I can understand that.”

Fournette, a former LSU running back, and McCaffrey, a former Stanford running back, both opted to skip their respective bowl games. Both were standout players during their college careers and were drafted 4th-overall and 8th-overall, respectively, in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Bowl game injuries to other stars have served as cautionary tales for surefire first-round picks. Former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith was projected by many to be a top-10 pick, but midway through his bowl game he tore his ACL and LCL in his left knee and was left with serious nerve damage. He was ultimately drafted in the second round by the Dallas Cowboys. More than a decade earlier, former Miami running back Willis McGahee — who was expected to be a top-five pick — tore his ACL, MCL and PCL in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Both Smith and McGahee sat out a year in the pros while they recovered.

“You’ve got one more opportunity,” Heaps said. “What does that bowl game really mean to that player? If they’re fully bought into the university and that program, that means a lot. But if not? If you’re looking out for your self interests in that point in time? I mean, if you look at it in the grand scheme of things, you’re one game away from taking yourself out of an opportunity to make millions and millions of dollars. So that’s the hard part I have with that. I think for a few elite guys, I get it. But I don’t want this to be a trend that opens the flood gates.”

The two former quarterbacks examined that question and more – including Russell Wilson’s speed against the Vikings and the firing of Vikings’ offense coordinator John DeFilippo – in today’s Blue 42. Listen to the whole segment in the audio clip embedded above.