CLEMSON, S.C. -- At a time when many of his contemporaries are prepping for the NFL draft, Christian Wilkins watches intently and shouts words of encouragement as Clemson's younger defensive linemen go through some extra work on pass-rush moves after a recent spring practice session.

Dabo Swinney calls it ownership. Wilkins takes it a step further. The Tigers' 6-foot-4, 300-pound All-American defensive tackle calls it finishing what he started.

"You want to make it better than you found it, and I'm not done doing that here at Clemson," said Wilkins, shedding some light on why he and two of his defensive line brethren at Clemson -- defensive ends Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant -- passed on the NFL draft and decided to return to school, giving the Tigers the kind of defensive front for the 2018 season that most teams can only dream about.

More than ever, the fleeting nature of football makes it rare that players projected to go in the first couple of rounds of the draft elect to hang around for another season of college football. It's even rarer that defensive linemen do so, particularly when everybody at the pro level is looking for those guys who can rush the passer and collapse the pocket.

"I weighed the pros and cons," said Ferrell, who led Clemson with 9.5 sacks last season. "The main thing I kept coming back to was the legacy I wanted to leave here. You walk around and see all these great players on the walls, and I'm up there a little bit, but I didn't come to college to be an NFL player after three years. I came to be a great player here in college, just like the Vic Beasleys of the world. It kept me grinding when I was making that decision."

The brotherhood that Wilkins, Ferrell and Bryant share played a major role in their decision to return to school, although it was never a case in which they made a joint decision to come back. Swinney jokes that the real reason they decided to stay was that they didn't want to leave Dexter Lawrence behind by himself. The Tigers' mammoth junior defensive tackle could very well be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft.

Clelin Ferrell, left, Christian Wilkins, middle, and Austin Bryant, right, all decided to stay and play at Clemson one more year. Mike Comer/Getty Images

"Those guys are all very much in tune to their legacy," Swinney said. "Clelin doesn't want to be just another good player who came here. He wants to be one of the best ever. That's his mindset. He wants to leave a huge imprint on this program, and Christian and Austin are the same way. They're tight buddies and have valued their time together as friends. Here are three guys from totally different places who have bonded and made this great friendship.

"Plus, they knew Dexter was going to be back. I just think that's what college is about, the friendships, the relationships. They will be in each other's weddings. They will be godparents, all these things for the rest of their lives, and that's what college does. They know when they leave here that's going to change."

Indeed, the NFL is a business, and there was certainly a business component to their decisions. For starters, none of the three received a sure-fire first-round grade from the NFL draft advisory committee. Ferrell and Wilkins were in the first/second-round range, and Bryant in the third-round range. But even without the guarantee of first-round money, all three had people close to them advising them that they needed to go ahead and take their shot at the NFL right now and not wait.

"There were more people telling me to leave than there were to stay," said Ferrell, who redshirted his first year at Clemson and has played only two seasons of college football. "You had those people who would say, 'I will be happy with whatever decision you make.' But in reality, they really wanted you to leave. I understand. They see what's right there in front of them rather than the whole picture. They don't have the same information that I have."

Bryant, who had 8.5 sacks last season, wasn't willing to settle. Nor was he ready to leave Clemson and everything that comes with it.

"I feel like I can be a first-round draft pick if I improve my craft and improve physically, and then I also have a chance to get my degree from a top-10 public university," Bryant said. "The chance to have that under my belt before I leave here would be valuable, and I also felt I could leave a legacy here of a really good player, somebody that when I come back 10 or 15 years from now that people still know who I am.

"The other thing a lot of people don't see when you make a decision like this is that it goes beyond football. It's a great environment here, and the people around you here help you get better each and every day. There's a competitive spirit all through the building in everything we do."

Swinney is not so naïve to think that had all three received solid first-round grades that it would have been unlikely they would have returned. That said, there's something to be said for the environment that Swinney has created at Clemson and the sense of ownership that permeates the program.

"Say what you want. You get a second-round grade, and that's hard to walk away from," Swinney said. "But again, in their minds, they're like, 'Hey, I get one chance at this,' and they've seen Vic Beasley, Mike Williams, everybody who's been a high pick like that come back and better themselves. Shaq Lawson came back for that extra year and went 19th in the draft. That stuff resonates.

"But at the end of the day, I just think they've loved their Clemson experience and they value that and they like college football. Christian is a guy who knows he's going to play football for a long time, Lord willing, and he knows he's got 10 more months to be a college player, and he's going to maximize that."

Wilkins, who has already earned his undergraduate degree in communications, said he kept arriving at the same conclusion: Why be in a rush?

"You want to be here," he said. "A lot of guys can't say that, but you're around guys you love and care about and know the coaches want what's best for you. It doesn't get a lot better than being at a place you love and doing what you love.

"Everything else can wait."

That's not great news for the opposing offensive lines, who will have to block Clemson's defensive front next season. Already, the comparisons to some of the best college defensive lines in recent history are starting to float out there, although Ferrell is quick to diffuse such chatter.

"At the end of the day, all the expectations around you and all the hype, it's just that," Ferrell said. "You've still got to go out there and do it. I won't say we're the best defensive line ever, but come November, we'll see. We definitely have the guys to do it, the right guys, not just talent-wise, but character-wise, too."

Either way, the 2019 NFL draft figures to be top-heavy with Clemson defensive linemen and potentially even historic for the Tigers. When you add Lawrence to the equation, all four of Clemson's starting defensive linemen next season could easily be taken in the top two or three rounds of the draft.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Miami is the only school in history to have four defensive linemen taken in the top three rounds of the same draft when Cortez Kennedy was selected in the first round of the 1990 draft and Jimmie Jones, Willis Peguese and Greg Mark all went in the third round that year.

"There are always going to be great D-lines out there and other great D-lines that come through here, but what's going to separate the group that we've got is the type of people we are and how we care more about giving to others than what we get for ourselves," Bryant said. "That's what I'm most proud of and why I'm back to build on what we've already done."

Or as Swinney is fond of saying, it's why Clemson's program is built to last.