Crabtree’s Injury “Not An Issue”?

Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree appears on the cover of the latest ESPN The Magazine with this boastful quote: “I could probably run a 4.4 with crutches.” Making that manuever even more impressive is the fact that he has never run a 4.4 without crutches, and plenty of league observers believe that he couldn’t. Seth Wickersham’s article explores in part the obsession with a player’s ability to run 120 feet in a straight line wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Though we believe to a certain extent that it’s a farce, we also realize that the folks who will be held accountable for draft picks that are squandered need the safe haven of impressive measurables in order to make the case when the owner wants to know what $30 million of his hard-earned dollars have been given to a player who hasn’t earned $30,000 of them. In Crabtree’s case, a back-and-forth decision-making process regarding a stress fracture in his foot eventually resulted in a decision to undergo surgery and not to run the 40-yard dash at all -- not at the Scouting Combine, not at his Pro Day workout, not anywhere -- before the draft. So whoever takes him had better be damn confident that he’s going to be a great player, or damn certain of his own job security. That said, some think that Crabtree’s injury isn’t a concern. “It’s not an issue to us,” an unnamed team exec tells Peter King of SI.com. “I view it as less worrisome than the stress fracture [Carolina running back draftee] Jonathan Stewart had last year. Crabtree might be the best player in the draft. He hasn’t been marked down by us because of the injury.’' Of course, without knowing the specific identity of the source -- or at a minimum the team for whom the source works -- it’s impossible to tell whether it’s an honest opinion, or whether perhaps the source hopes that someone picking above the source’s team pounces on Crabtree, pushing farther down the board one or more of the players whom the source’s team truly covets.