Miami Hurricanes defensive end Jaelan Phillips to enter NFL Draft, skip senior season
University of Miami gifted defensive end Jaelan Phillips will forgo his senior season to enter the NFL Draft, the Miami Herald learned Friday.
Phillips announced the news in a video on Sunday.
The 6-5, 270-pound Phillips, a redshirt junior who will be represented by agents Ben Renzin and Brian Ayrault, arrived at UM last season after starting his career at UCLA as the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2017. He’s had an exceptional season for Miami.
Phillips will not play in a bowl game and ends his college career by leading the Canes in 2020 with eight sacks and also leads UM with 15 1/2 tackles for loss. He has 45 total tackles, an interception, three pass breakups and five quarterback hurries.
ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper projected Thursday on his Big Board that Phillips is the nation’s No. 12 overall draft prospect and will be the first end and second defensive lineman chosen in the draft.
“He has wreaked havoc on offenses lately,’’ Kiper wrote. “He has 5.5 sacks in his past three games and eight on the season. A former five-star prospect who had some injury issues at UCLA, Phillips landed at Miami and has put all of his talent together.”
Phillips has overcome significant injuries, some of which stemmed from a January 2018 accident in which he was hit by a car while on his scooter and later required intricate wrist surgery. He transferred to UM and began working out last fall at 225 pounds, the lightest he had been since high school. The transformation to this season has been astounding.
It’s as if he had been “creating a player on NCAA Football when they used to have that video game,’’ defensive coordinator Blake Baker said of Phillips before the season began. “He has very low body fat percentage [and is] flexible. Very, very smart young man, so he’s got all the tangibles and intangibles.’’
The Hurricanes have ended their season at 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the ACC. They will learn their bowl destination and opponent on Sunday.
“It’s obviously huge for Miami,’’ Phillips said of the pending bowl game just minutes after the Canes got routed by North Carolina last Saturday. “...Our focus is definitely on winning this next game. It’s paramount for us to stay together.’’
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 9:08 PM.
