Crockett skipping his last year
Missouri's offense will have to replace another piece in 2019. Junior running back Damarea Crockett announced on Monday afternoon that he was skipping his senior season to enter the 2019 NFL Draft.
Crockett burst on the scene with a 1,062 yard effort as a true freshman in 2016. That included 225 yards at Tennessee in what would end up being the final game of his freshman season.
As a sophomore, Crockett ran for 481 yards in Missouri's first seven games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. In 2018, splitting time with Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie in the backfield, Crockett carried 147 times for 709 yards and seven touchdowns. Crockett did not play in the Liberty Bowl. The official word was that he was injured, but he had practiced in Memphis leading up to the game. He finishes his Missouri career with 2,252 yards on 380 carries.
The Tigers will return Rountree, who ran for 204 yards in the Liberty Bowl, giving him 1,216 yards for the year, the fifth highest rushing total in school history and the third most ever by a Tiger running back. Badie, a true freshman, ran for 437 yards on 89 carries and also had 130 receiving yards this season.
Missouri also has SImi Bakare, who ran 11 times for 53 yards and a touchdown in the last two games of the season. The Tigers signed three-star Texas back Anthony Watkins in December.
The 2019 draft does not have a sure-fire first round pick at running back. But players like Alabama's Damien Harris, Kentucky's Benny Snell, Iowa State's David Montgomery and Oklahoma State's Justice Hill lead a running back class that is relatively deep with potential second and third-round picks.