Brandon Gibson goes to Philadelphia

BRANDON GIBSON, the record-setting Washington State receiver from Puyallup, went to the Eagles in the sixth round of the NFL draft on Sunday. He became the third WSU receiver drafted in the last six years, following in the footsteps Devard Darling and Jason Hill, who were third-round picks in 2004 and 2007, respectively.

Gibson was the 194th player taken overall in this weekend's draft and the 25th receiver. He was the third receiver from the Pac-10 to hear his name called, joining USC's Patrick Turner (3rd round, Dolphins) and Arizona's Mike Thomas (4th round, Jaguars).

Last fall Brandon Gibson was widely believed to be one of the top 100 players that would be available in the draft but his stock dropped a bit when the Cougars' offense sputtered and then took a nosedive when he tweaked a hamstring during Senior Bowl preparations in January. While the injury wasn't serious, it prevented him from working out at the NFL Combine and also limited his activity at the subsequent Pro Day in front of NFL and CFL scouts in Pullman.

Gibson visited with a number of NFL coaches at the Combine, however. He said in an interview with CF.C in March that one topic that came up was the series of uncharacteristic drops he had in 2008 – the types of balls he didn’t drop in 2007.

“I was trying to make the big play and took my head off the ball,” Gibson said of his inconsistent 2008, in which he caught 57 passes. “Every time the ball came my way I was trying to make a play because our offense was struggling. I was trying to do too much instead of being myself. I ended up fixing it toward the end of the season.”

Gibson completed his Cougar career last fall as WSU’s all-time leader in career receiving yards (2,756) and ranked No. 2 on the school’s career receptions list (182). Gibson’s 17 career touchdowns rank sixth all-time at WSU.

He was voted first-team All-Pac-10 in 2007 and honorable mention last season.

While Gibson was the only Cougar on NFL draft boards this year, linebacker Greg Trent is expected to sign a free agent contract, and there could be one or two others.

NOTABLE:
* WSU has had at least one person selected in each of the last 15 NFL drafts.

* Gibson was the only player from a college in the state of Washington to be drafted.