NFL Draft news roundup: On anonymous sources and character assassinations

As he often does this time of year, Nolan Nawrocki is generating buzz and attention for delving into the character of NFL Draft prospects. Now that Pro Football Weekly is no longer a thing, Nawrocki is working for NFL.com.

In lieu of linking to his latest flame job, here is a link to Spencer Hall’s take down of Nawrocki.

The general premise behind what Nawrocki does is get information from scouts and publish it. There isn’t necessarily an exact right or wrong to using this information. Clearly it’s popular, otherwise these words you’re reading right now would not exist. Some people like the information, some loathe it.

But people who write about the NFL Draft – including myself – have to make a professional decision about using anonymous sources and information. If you’re dedicated to covering the draft, getting inside information isn’t all that challenging. Choosing what to do with that information can be.

For me, it comes down to personal ethics. A conscious effort is made not to generate content based around what a scout who must remain anonymous says. We’ve used some things in the past, but only anecdotally and never as a be-all, end-all indication about a player.

As great as a source may be, you never fully know if they’re giving you false information or not. Or if you’re receiving a full break down. That’s especially true if that opinion isn’t vetted and in line with at least one other source. Having just one opinion about a player is a dangerous game. How an single scout or executive views a player will differ greatly from team to team.

If you dig anonymous information, that’s great. There are plenty of people online who use it (and/or make it up). You’re just not going to find a lot here.

To keep this short, former Chicago Bears executive Greg Gabriel summed this all up pretty nicely.

Mike Mayock of the NFL Network released his first set of NFL Draft rankings this week, and really they were fairly tame. The only real surprise was seeing Notre Dame’s Chris Watt ranked as the No. 4 guard prospect.

Mayock’s other rankings are fairly defendable. He has Blake Bortles as the No. 3 quarterback behind Teddy Bridgewater and Johnny Manziel. Dee Ford is his third defensive end. Anthony Barr is behind Khalil Mack and C.J. Mosley as linebacker (with no inside or outside designation).

The only other ranking that really stands out is Calvin Pryor above HaHa Clinton-Dix at safety. But that’s something that happened in our latest mock draft.

Alfie Crow at Big Cat Country raises an excellent opinion about drafting quarterbacks. Forget getting an Andrew Luck-type signal caller. He’s not out there. But what if the absolute known threshold on a player’s talent is Andy Dalton. That means good enough to get you to the playoffs but probably not much else. Is that good enough? He has another good bit on manipulating the salary cap with rookie quarterbacks here.

Last week we evaluated Michael Sam’s play on the field. In short, he’s a third day prospect who will have to be used in a 4-3 system as a pass rusher. At least initially. Greg Bedard of themmqb.com dove deep into Sam’s game, evaluating 12 games of the Missouri defensive end. Ah, to be able to have the time. Anyway, Bedard concluded that it’s hard to find a position for Sam and he doesn’t look like a special teams player in the NFL. He also thinks there’s a possibility Sam goes undrafted.

“To my eyes Sam is decidedly average, with nothing exceptional about his game—though he will be helped by the fact that this draft is not deep with pass rushers, and those are always needed.”

• NFL mock draft: Our final pre-combine prediction

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• The Incognito/Martin report: The NFL has an a**hole problem

• Longform: The rejection of Myron Rolle

• NFL draft: Finding a place for the “tweeners”