Weatherspoon’s Big Mouth May Be His Smallest Asset

Sean Weatherspoon, one of the top linebacker prospects in this year’s draft, has a big mouth.

So big is his mouth, that a term has been coined for players like him: “The Ochocinco Effect.” In a story by profootballtalk.com, Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly was quoted as saying “(H)e never shuts his mouth. It’s a big concern to a lot of teams that have stepped in and even removed him from their draft boards. That’s how strongly they feel he could negatively effect their locker room,” Nawrocki told Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald.

“The Big concern is just how he’s a little bit like [Chad] Ochocinco in Cincinnati. It’s going to become a big distraction, and it’s going to get in the way, it’s going to be difficult to coach,” Nawrocki said. “He’s never played a snap in the NFL , and he’s already worrying about things that really shouldn’t matter for a guy at that stage in his career. He’s worrying about his image and his post-career aspirations.”

Would a player who talks as much as Ochocinco does, and how much Weatherspoon reportedly does, still be worth a high pick? Teams cannot measure how much players like these effect a locker room negatively, but if the production is high, a team will take a risk, and so far it has worked out for Cincinnati (minus the whole, reach the Super Bowl thing).