Pro Football Weekly’s brutal scouting report on Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has been the hottest draft-related topic of the week. PFW draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki held a conference call on Wednesday, and PFT asked Nawrocki whether he’d spent any time with the 2010 Heisman winner before publishing the attack.
Nawrocki admitted he’s spent no time with Newton.
(That’s even less than top Newton supporter George Whitfield would’ve guessed.)
But Nawrocki “stands by” his evaluation.
“I feel very comfortable (with the scouting report),” Nawrocki said. “I stand by what was written. ... I feel very strongly about what was written and stand by it fully.”
A comparison to Jimmy Clausen was made during the call. Nawrocki indicated that Clausen and Newton are similar in that they’re both “egotistical and disingenuous ... scripted players with a sense of entitlement.”
Nawrocki says he’s heard the terms “fraud”, “narcissist”, and “con artist” mentioned when discussing Newton with scouts.
Instead of one-on-one time, Nawrocki attributed his scathing assessment of Newton’s character to “an enormous amount of research” in dealing with people in the league.
Said Nawrocki at one point on the call, “Three of the five decision makers I’ve spoken to in the last 24 hours expressed that Newton was disillusioned about his past.
"(And) anybody that does their homework and really digs hard will come away with a lot of the same conclusions.”