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Roger Lewis declares for the NFL Draft

After only two seasons, the sophomore receiver is leaving Bowling Green to pursue his NFL dreams.

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

First reported by Josh Norris, who writes about the NFL Draft for Rotoworld and NBC Sports, Bowling Green's Roger Lewis has declared for the upcoming NFL Draft.

As a sophomore (22 years old), Lewis was second in the nation with 1,544 receiving yards on 85 receptions. Despite not breaking 100 receiving yards in his last five games as a Falcon, he still had seven games in the triple-digits, three with at least 200. If we're filtering out receivers that had under 40 total receptions on the year, Lewis led the MAC with 18.2 yards per catch in 2015 (fourth on the list otherwise), and ninth nationally (28th without said filter).

The 6-foot-2 receiver had a career-high 261 receiving yards on seven catches (37.3 avg.) in the home opener against Memphis, scoring on three of those receptions. That's also when Lewis had his career-long 94-yard touchdown. The week before that against Maryland, Lewis had a season-high 15 receptions for 200 yards and a pair of scores in BGSU's 48-27 upset win on the road.

In the 2015 MAC Championship, Lewis caught six balls for 75 yards with one touchdown, leaving the stadium as a MAC champion. That's an improvement compared to the 2014 title game when he had three catches for 22 yards.

If people didn't know too much about him before he played his first game as a Falcon, they certainly knew who he was when he played a huge role in beating Indiana at home. His freshman season, the Falcons beat IU 45-42 when Lewis had a career-high in receptions (16), going for 149 yards and a touchdown. That came after a 6-catch, 140 yard performance against VMI, and continued to end the season with six games with at least 100 yards receiving.

As noted, he had the one game as a sophomore with nearly 40 yards per catch, and had two performances as a freshman with at least 30 yards per catch as well. One at home against Kent State (3 rec., 116 yards, 1 TD) and one to end the season with a 33-28 bowl win over South Alabama (4 rec., 137 yards, 2 TD).

Rec. Yards Yards/Rec. TD Yards/Game Long
2014 73 1,093 15.0 7 78.1 82
2015 85 1,544 18.2 16 110.3 94
Career 158 2,637 16.7 23 94.2 94

After being third in the MAC with 1,093 receiving yards as a freshman, Lewis was named a First Team All-MAC honoree. He was our no. 6 player in the MAC before the season began, and obviously became a First Team All-MAC star again for the 2015 season. He was one of 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award this season. Lewis was also tabbed as a Third Team All-American by the Associated Press, Second Team All-American by the Football Writers Association, honorable mention by Sports Illustrated.

Lewis' great career wasn't too much of a surprise. Once an Ohio Bobcats commit before running into legal issues, the Pickerington, Ohio native was a anywhere between a 4-star and 2-star recruit coming into the program, depending on the scouting service, holding offers from other MAC programs as well as Washington and Kentucky (per 247Sports).