We all remember Greg Isdaner’s supposedly bizarre decision to enter the NFL Draft. The greatest defense was he must have gotten some positive feedback from the advisory committee about his potential.

Not really.

“The exact wording was, ‘You do not have the potential to be picked on the first day as of right now based on game tape,'” Isdaner said.

And yet he chose to sign with an agent and remain in the draft. Seems strange to say this, but my hunch is he did the right thing. He’d already graduated and played three years in some pretty prolific offenses. He’d been through shoulder operations and concussions. He’d done and seen a lot.

What was he really going to accomplish that would affect his post-senior year draft status so much that he’d be in a decidedly better situation than he is now, which is a mid- to late-round pick? Wouldn’t he really be in about the same situation? Maybe not, but then again the risk — and it was a risk to return, in some regard — wasn’t worth it.

Isdaner, who played for three offensive line coaches in his three seasons, had never been healthier following a season than he was following the Car Care Bowl. He also realized Stanchek, center Mike Dent and right guard Jake Figner were all graduating and things would be very different in the 2009-10 season.

“In some ways I felt like a senior last year because I was with those guys for three years,” he said. “It would have been so hard to go back and not have Ryan and Mike and Figner to lean on when times got tough.”