Is Stetson Bennett Done Playing Football? | College Football Enquirer

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger discuss Stetson Bennett’s recent decision to opt out from the Senior Bowl and his potential future playing football.

Video Transcript

PAT FORDE: If you have an agent, the agent's going to take care of that.

[AUDIO LOGO]

DAN WETZEL: We detailed the bender that Stetson "Bender" Bennett went on the other day in Dallas. We've yet to hear any statements from him or anything like that. I don't know what to make of this. But it's an interesting question. And I normally wouldn't do this on a college player, but Stetson is now a 25-year-old who's a pro.

So moving on, this is his bid, @DraftVogel, and he just throws this out there. "Taking the evidence and putting it together, Stetson Bennett hasn't hired an agent--" I believe that to be true, at least at the time of this talking-- "never officially declared for the draft, didn't have to, but guys did this year anyways, turned down all-star games," And then on top of this incident in Dallas, "I don't believe he wants to play professional football."

Jim Nagy of the Senior Bowl said, "He could have really helped himself down here. And I hate to see what happened. My phone was lighting up the other day. Obviously, he's not in a great place because that stuff doesn't happen for a great place. He shouldn't opt out of the Senior Bowl--" This is obviously a guy who lives off the Senior Bowl-- "and then have that happen the day of arrival. If he just comes to Mobile, he doesn't get in any trouble."

I don't care what Stetson Bennett does. If he does want to play football, that's fine. He certainly also could say, look, I'm exhausted from the season. But you know, Max Dugan is there. A lot of guys are there. Thoughts on this theory? Anything?

PAT FORDE: It's interesting, I mean, when you pile up the circumstances, I guess you would say, having not hired an agent and not performing in Mobile for the Senior Bowl scouts, which is people say those things are really valuable if they have some significant questions about you. And I think with Stetson, just yeah, there's a lot of tape. There's a lot of film. And he's pointed that out many times of what he can do. But still, I think the NFL people like to see guys like him show up in Mobile and answer the questions and do the reps and do all those sort of things.

DAN WETZEL: Take the coaching? I mean, Bill Belichick coaching one of these teams.

PAT FORDE: Right. Yeah, yeah, it's helpful. So I mean, it at least raises the question of, yeah, are you really into being an NFL prospect or not? I don't know.

ROSS DELLENGER: I didn't even think-- it is interesting when you take all that evidence and pile it up. It is interesting. I understand the Senior Bowl director obviously wanting a really good player to be at the Senior Bowl. I just-- I don't know. And maybe it's just me that's shrugging off, like, he got drunk and walked around the streets at 6:00 AM. It could have been much worse. But I don't know that this-- I don't know. I don't feel like that this will be a big impact to the draft stock. But maybe it's just me.

But I think Jim Nagy does have a point in that it would have helped him more, probably, to be there. And I had covered that event for four or five years in a row. I stopped during COVID and haven't gone back. But it's a great event, and the biggest thing that comes away with it in media that are there, we report on what happens on the field, what we on the practice field and in the game.

But the big stuff happens in the lobby of that hotel in Mobile, where scouts sit down with all the players and get to know them and talk to them for sometimes hours. And that's really, really important for the draft process. And he missed out on that. Even if you go and don't play-- and a lot of players go and don't even play in the game or maybe can't even practice because of an injury-- you go and you just talk to scouts. It's worth it, they say.

DAN WETZEL: Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of an interesting theory. After the championship game I asked Stetson Bennett, what do you want the NFL to know about you? You're looking for a job now? He was always like, I don't want to talk NFL until this is over, which I thought was in a vacuum very admirable. But most players do because why wouldn't you?

And even after, he kind of had this, like, Oh, I don't care. We just won. He was like, there's enough tape out there. They'll know. He didn't really want to answer it. And that's fine. But again, it's like all the little clues. All of these things make perfect sense, except when you add them all up, and you go, geez. He hasn't had a statement come out saying, look, I made some mistakes on whatever night in Dallas. And it doesn't reflect me. And we haven't had any of that. So it's like--

PAT FORDE: And that is one thing. If you have an agent, the agent's going to take care of that.

DAN WETZEL: It's solved in five minutes.

PAT FORDE: Absolutely. There's a statement out, can't wait to work with the NFL.

DAN WETZEL: If Stetson Bennett doesn't want to play pro football, fine. You got a million things you can do in your life. You don't have to go play pro football. It's just, maybe he doesn't want to. I don't know. If he does, he's certainly not acting like he does.

PAT FORDE: No, he's not he's not playing the game. That's for sure.

DAN WETZEL: He's not playing the NFL's game.