5. How will off-field issues impact prospects?
Even as the draft itself neared, top prospects were not spared from more off-field issues. It started late last week when reports surfaced that former Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster failed a drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine earlier in the year. This came after Foster himself was involved in an altercation with a hospital worker during the annual event in Indianapolis.
Long considered one of the top-five prospects in the draft, there’s now a chance Foster himself could drop completely out of the first round. That’s only magnified by continued concerns over his health (more on that here).
Then, on Monday, another report came out suggesting that former Michigan linebacker/safety Jabrill Peppers also failed a drug test with a diluted sample at the combine. Considering Peppers himself is seen as a tweener and has been a divisive prospect during the pre-draft process, this could knock him way down that board come draft time.
With all that said, these two players face nowhere near the same criticism as others slated to fall down the draft board this week. Former Florida defensive tackle Caleb Brantley was charged with assault over the weekend after he allegedly knocked a woman unconscious. Brantley was seen as one of the top-three interior defensive linemen in the draft class. He’s now likely going to have to wait until Day 3 to hear his named called.
The same could pretty much be said about former Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon. By now, we already know the story here. A video surfaced late last year of an incident back in 2014 in which Mixon is depicted as punching a woman during a fight at a bar (more on that here).
Initial reports were that Mixon would fall completely out of the draft. But after he took several visits with running back-needy teams, suggestions came about that the star ball carrier might end up going in the second round. That has since changed, but we really have no idea where the former Sooner will land.
As the NFL world continues to face backlash over its handling of off-field situations and the further we get away from the most serious of those incidents, some wonder whether teams will continue to avoid troubled prospects. The 2017 draft will surely give us an understanding of where teams stand on this.