Mountaineer RB Slaton to Enter NFL Draft

West Virginia University Junior RB Steve Slaton will follow his teammate, Junior Darius Reynaud, out of Morgantown and into the 2008 Draft. While the start of the 2007 season brought with it the expectation that Slaton would definitely declare for this year’s Draft, a lackluster Junior year combined with an incredibly deep 2008 RB class led to some doubt in recent days/weeks as to whether or not Slaton would leave school early. Nevertheless, Slaton has decided that now is indeed the time to embark upon his professional career, and the decision to do so comes with great intrigue, to say the least. There is no doubt that Slaton possesses terrific open-field speed to go along with sleek receiving skills out of the backfield; however, many NFL Scouts and GM’s express concern over the fact that Slaton is not very adept at shedding tacklers or breaking through stacked coverage in the defensive Front-7. In the eyes of many, the rather skinny Slaton is the product of an innovative collegiate blocking scheme which cleared huge holes at the line of scrimmage for the Mountaineer RB to attack, leading to many 30-50 yard runs in the process. In pre-Draft workouts (and in the NFL), Slaton will have to prove that he can be an effective runner while operating in a traditional pro-style blocking scheme which puts much of the responsibility for success in the rushing department on the individual tailback, and his ability to make plays in the face of contact. Slaton’s projected 4.4 speed should still land him a Round 2 selection this year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/news/story?id=3194897