Derwin Gray decided to go back to his senior season in large part because he wanted to finish what he started with his football program. It’s likely that it helped him to get drafted, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2019 NFL Draft, but it was more to it than that.
He was one of two leaders on that team, himself and their other offensive tackle, Damian Prince, both of them seniors, both of them following similar life paths before meeting up together in college. In spite of the fact that they lived near each other, they never knew the other existed prior to their experience on the football field, and they became fast friends.