Willis McGahee won’t be the best player from this year’s NFL draft come training camp.
And maybe he’s pushed himself too far too fast these last three months following reconstructive left knee surgery in the wake of his Fiesta Bowl nightmare.
But the Miami Hurricane has this message for NFL teams (Patriots, Raiders?) thinking long and hard about making him a first-round pick tomorrow.
“Don’t look past me ’cause I got hurt,” McGahee said. “Look at me now. I’m rehabbing, doing everything right that I’m supposed to be doing. In due time, everything’ll be all right.”
In due time he’ll be a franchise running back. Just not in 2003.
“I feel I won’t make a big impact, but I’ll make some kind of presence known that I’m there,” McGahee said. “I won’t be on that level where I’m supposed to be, but I think it’ll take a year.”
Should the team that drafts him decide to protect its investment by placing the 6-0 1/2, 223-pounder on injured reserve, McGahee can fall back on his lucrative deals with Xbox and Nike. But ask him if he’ll be set for training camp, and naturally he says: “I’ll be ready.”
Ask him his running style, and he says: “A Willis McGahee style.”
What is that?
“It’s times when I can run over you, I can run by you, I can just get the job done. My style’s just get the job done.”
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2003 NFL Draft Order
1. Cincinnati
2. Detroit
3. Houston
4. Chicago
5. Dallas
6. Arizona
7. Minnesota
8. Jacksonville
9. Carolina
10. Baltimore
11. Seattle
12. St. Louis
13. a-JETS
14. b-New England
15. San Diego
16. Kansas City
17. New Orleans
18. c-New Orleans
19. New England
20. Denver
21. Cleveland
22. JETS
23. d-Buffalo
24. Indianapolis
25. GIANTS
26. San Francisco
27. Pittsburgh
28. Tennessee
29. Green Bay
30. Philadelphia
31. Oakland
32. e-Oakland
a-from Washington
b-from Buffalo
c-from Miami
d-from Atlanta
e-from Tampa Bay


