With the draft only 10 days away, get ready for even more rumors about players who are rising and falling.
Here’s the game. A team that loves a player will put out negative information in the hopes that the player will fall to it. A team that hates a player will put out positive information in the hopes that someone else will burn a pick on the player, pushing farther down the board someone that the team wants.
And if agents are doing their jobs properly, they’ll quickly throw water on any negative information that is out there.
Our pal Ross Tucker of Sirius NFL Radio summed the situation up perfectly on Twitter. “Information is [a] valuable NFL commodity,” Tucker said. “Not logical for teams to leak injury ‘concern’ info (M. Ingram, D. Bowers) if they’re really worried.”
He’s right. Whether it’s about Alabama running back Mark Ingram or Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers or, most recently, Baylor defensive tackle Phil Taylor, teams that have concerns should keep their mouths shut so that someone drafting ahead of those teams will pick a player that those teams don’t want. It’s fair to infer, then, that any team putting out bad information about a player truly likes the player, and thus wants the player to fall into that team’s lap.
Of course, it won’t stop reporters from reporting on the rumors without scrutiny. And we’re not saying that anyone should. But folks should take into account the teams with whom their sources are affiliated before swallowing the hook when it comes to rumors that could help fuel a slide to the team that inexplicably is willing to share otherwise confidential information.