With the NFL Draft season underway, and the Combine just around the corner, a major focus on numbers is about to happen. Reports about prospects will be centered around bench-press repetitions, 40-yard dash times, and vertical leaps. However, as interesting as those things are to fans, there’s more that goes into the decision on whether or not to draft a player. One thing that can play a part in a guy’s rise or fall is character. The question is how big a part does a player’s tendency to find trouble have on his draft stock. How much emphasis do teams place character?
Draft busts come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s due to misevaluation of a player’s talent, sometimes it’s due to an injury, but sometimes it’s due to a team not taking character into account enough. NFL history is littered with names like Ryan Leaf, Lawrence Phillips, and JaMarcus Russell, guys who, in varying degrees, didn’t have strong enough character to succeed at the NFL level. They, along with a multitude of others, had personality flaws that prevented them from fulfilling their promise, and left the team that drafted them holding the bag. They managed to slip through the process designed to weed them out.
In recent years, teams have become more focused on interviews to avoid wasting a high draft pick on a player who has high potential to flame out. Many teams drop guys with those kinds of concerns down their draft boards, or remove them completely, but is there a universal rule on character issues? No.
In the past few drafts, there have certainly been some examples of players being affected by their past. Janoris Jenkins dropped out of the first round. Da’Rick Rogers dropped completely out of the 2013 draft. Both of those players have, to varying degrees, shown they can be impactful for their teams, but have had to prove themselves due to the concern that they couldn’t stay on the straight and narrow. Vontaze Burfict went undrafted, but has become a Pro Bowl player. Being labeled as a character concern isn’t a career killer, but it does start guys behind the eight-ball.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has trended toward punishing players who cause trouble. NFL teams are responding by being more selective with their high draft picks to avoid the embarrassment of having a high-profile guy suspended. The word is getting out, and players who bring troubled histories should be aware that they could face consequences.
The 2014 NFL Draft ihas a few players who have character concerns, like tight end Colt Lyerla . Based on recent history, they should be prepared to have it affect them in some way. They’re likely to have some tough questions to face in interviews, but more importantly, they’re more and more likely to take a hit to their draft position, and as a result, in their wallet.