After Roger Goodell announces the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, he might have to hug himself, because the projected top pick said that he doesn't plan on attending the event.
Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett told the Houston Chronicle on Friday that he plans on staying home for the draft, which is scheduled to be held from April 27-29 in Philadelphia.
"I'm staying at home," Garrett said.
Garrett's reasoning is simple: He wants to celebrate the moment with everyone who helped him get to where he is, and there's so many people that he couldn't possibly get them all to Philadelphia.
"I know at the draft you can only have a select amount of people there," Garrett said. "I knew I wanted to have everybody who's ever affected my life positively and helped me, build me up all the way to where I am now -- I wanted them to see what I've achieved and be a part of this big moment in my life, and I'm happy to include anyone in there who's been along that process."
After a season where he tallied 33 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks and two forced fumbles, the 6-foot-5, 270-pound Garrett is almost unanimously projected to go No. 1 to the Browns. In two early mock drafts put together by NFLDraftScout.com analysts Rob Rang and Dane Brugler, Garrett was projected to go to the Browns.
Although the top pick has skipped the draft before, it doesn't happen often. If Garrett does go No. 1 overall, he would be following in the footsteps of Jameis Winston (2015). However, before that, a top pick skipping out on the draft hadn't happened since 1994 when Ohio State's Dan Wilkinson went No. 1 overall to the Bengals.
During his interview with the Chronicle, Garret did say that at least one person is still trying to talk him into attending, so there's an outside shot that he could change his mind over the next two months. However, as things stand now, Goodell will likely be spending the first few minutes of the draft all alone on stage.
