Auburn defensive end Carl Lawson will enter the NFL draft.
The fourth-year junior All-American announced his decision on Wednesday afternoon via his social media accounts.
Thank you to the whole AU family for your love and support. Please send prayers my way as I embark on this new journey to the #NFL #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/3n33DVgIvS
— carl lawson (@carllawson55) January 4, 2017
ESPN draft analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay both project Lawson as an early-round selection. McShay ranks the star edge rusher 27th out of his top 32 prospects and Kiper has him eighth among a deep crop of defensive ends in his positional rankings.
In his final season, Lawson recorded 34 tackles, nine sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss for an Auburn team that reached the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
He had dealt with injuries for much of the previous two seasons, sitting out the entire 2014 season after surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and then missing half of the 2015 campaign with a hip injury sustained in the opener against Louisville.
Lawson was a freshman All-American for the 2013 Auburn club that won the SEC title and came within 13 seconds of beating Florida State in the BCS championship game.
Lawson participated in Auburn's senior day festivities at the end of the regular season, which most interpreted as a sign he would not be back in 2017. However, he did not publicly reveal his decision until days after the Tigers' Sugar Bowl loss to Oklahoma.
As a junior, the SEC's coaches named him to their first-team all-conference list and he earned second-team honors from the media as well as defensive MVP honors at Auburn. The Football Writers Association of America also named Lawson a first-team All-American.
