CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -Illinois receiver Arrelious Benn will skip his senior season and enter April’s NFL draft after a disappointing junior year.
The Washington, D.C., native said at a news conference Wednesday he thinks he is ready for the National Football League and wants to take care of his family.
“I know this is the right time to challenge myself at the next level,” Benn said while standing with his mother, Denise Benn. He is one of five sons she raised on her own, he said.
“I feel like I’m ready,” Benn added, “and I’ve proven a lot on the collegiate level.”
Benn is considered a top prospect and high-round pick even after a disappointing junior season at Illinois, which finished 3-9.
He struggled much of this season with an ankle injury, saw starting quarterback Juice Williams benched while the offense struggled and caught just 38 passes for 490 yards and two touchdowns.
But Benn had already made his mark at Illinois.
He caught 67 balls for 1,055 yards and three touchdowns his sophomore year. And a year earlier, during the surprise 9-3 season that landed the Illini in the Rose Bowl, Benn was named Big Ten freshman of the year after catching 54 passes for 676 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Benn finishes fifth on the school’s all-time receptions list with 159 and sixth in receiving yards with 2,221.
Draft expert and former Dallas Cowboys general manager Gil Brandt believes Benn will be a second-round pick. Brandt said Benn faces a tough adjustment to pro-level coverage, and said that this season he didn’t look like the same receiver who rolled up more than 1,700 yards in his first two years in college.
“I think if what you know about him (is from) before this year, he has first-round potential,” Brandt said. “But people draft on what they see, not on what they think they’re going to see.”
Illinois coach Ron Zook praised Benn for his character and representing the university well.
“He will be greatly missed, not just because of his abilities on the field but because of what he brought to the team in work ethic and leadership,” Zook, who was out of town, said in a printed statement.
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