Stanford right tackle Cam Fleming became the school's third player in two days to declare for the NFL draft, the school announced Tuesday.
Like guard David Yankey, who made himself eligible yesterday, Fleming broke into the starting lineup as a redshirt freshman in 2011 to block for quarterback Andrew Luck. An Aeronautics and Astronautics major, Fleming was a fixture at right tackle the last three seasons and was named second-team All-Pac-12 this year.
With Fleming's departure, Stanford will have just one starter back on the offensive line next season -- rising junior left tackle Andrus Peat, who is considered a potential high first-round pick in the 2015 draft.
While replacing that many players would usually seem like a tall task, the situation at Stanford could be different.
Kyle Murphy, a highly-recruited player from the Class of 2012, figures to have a leg up over Brendon Austin to replace Fleming. In fact, all five projected starters on the line are from the same class.
After the Cardinal inked seven offensive linemen that year, coach David Shaw made a bold prediction on national signing day.
"This could be one of the best offensive line classes in modern football history," he said.
How's that for high expectations?
Of course, there's still a lot of time between now and the season opener against U.C. Davis on Aug. 30, but there's a good chance the line, from left to right, will look like this: LT Peat, LG Joshua Garnett, C Graham Shuler, RG Johnny Caspers, RT Murphy.
Fleming's announcement comes just hours after teammate Ed Reynolds also announced he would leave early for the NFL.
