As the 2012 draft approaches, there’s increasing buzz that Alabama cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick is “dropping” on draft boards.
The truth is he isn’t dropping. The truth is that he was already lower than the media believed. Which, as more information trickles out about the actual content of draft boards, creates the impression that the player is dropping.
That dynamic remains one of the fundamental flaws with the pre-draft process. Draft experts put guys higher than they really are, which unreasonably raises their expectations — and which in turn sets them up for a major letdown when the truth comes out.
So whenever you hear that a guy is rising or falling as the draft approaches, it rarely if ever means any team has changed its views on a player. Instead, it means that the media’s assessment of the player was wrong, and that the true assessments are causing the media to now move a guy up, or to move a guy down.