Joe Schoen's thoughts on NFL rookies going back to college

Joe Schoen may be one of the few GMs in the league who is excited about at least one aspect of the new rules regarding players returning to college after spending time in the NFL.

“I played four years,” he said on Wednesday of his career as a quarterback and wide receiver at DePauw. “With a fifth-year year, at 47, maybe I can go back. I have one more year in me.”

Assuming that does not happen, he is left being the general manager of an NFL team where suddenly the door between college and the pros swings both ways. With NIL now paying players more than they might make as practice squadders in the league, it can make more financial sense for some to return to college rather than stay in the NFL.

Other GMS have expressed disgust over the concept. Chris Ballard of the Colts said this week it is “the stupidest [expletive] I’ve ever heard.”

Schoen said he hasn’t had any players ask about being released to go back to school, but he did hear from several schools that reached out following the team’s rookie minicamp in the spring to ask about players who had the potential to return to college.

“I haven’t heard from any of those schools since then,” he said.

As for the future, a player having options other than the NFL may wind up playing a role in how the Giants scout and select their personnel, but Schoen doesn’t see it as a huge disruption.

“If they are draft eligible we’ll go through the proper work and figure out if it is going to be all-in with them if it’s still the rule by then,” Schoen said. “Who knows what it’s going to be a year from now. But our college scouting staff does a great job with the background and digging deep on these guys so I don’t think it will really affect us moving forward.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.