According to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune one of the factors that motivated University of Illinois defensive end Whitney Mercilus, who led all FBS schools with 16 sacks, to enter the NFL Draft after his junior season was the chance to help out his family. Mercilus, who also ranked second nationally in tackles for loss and forced a school-record nine fumbles, said “My stock may not be as high coming into next season. This was probably the best opportunity to help out my family.”

The Ball Says: The 6’4″ 265 pound Mercilus may well be right, as prior to this season’s outburst he had only two sacks in the prior two seasons combined, leading some to question whether Mercilus may have been a “one year wonder”. Regardless, Mercilus was a relentless pass rusher in 2011 who played well against the Big 10′s premier offensive tackles, makes up for the lack of an outstanding burst off the line with great leverage at the point of attack and an impressive array of pass rush moves, and he may well be taken in the first round of April’s NFL Draft

As is often the case with rookie IDPs, Mercilus’ landing spot will go a long way towards determining his fantasy value, especially in the short term, as he’d be more desirable as a 4-3 defensive end than as a 3-4 outside linebacker. It’s somewhat rare for rookie defensive linemen to make a huge IDP dent, although the likes of Ndamukong Suh and Jabaal Sheard have shown that it can be done over the past couple seasons, so should Mercilus wind up as a DE he’d likely fall into the DL3 range for next season, while a switch to linebacker would likely drop Mercilus into low-end IDP LB4 territory at best, with his value in Dynasty formats slightly higher.