Originally posted by DownSouth:Originally posted by KRS-1:Baggage is baggage. Injury is not the only reason CrabGREED fell in the draft. Different teams weigh certain baggage differently. Some teams avoid players with injury concerns. Other teams seriously downgrade players that have off-field issues or attitude problems. Crab went into the draft with several bags. Injury, questions as to his pure speed, attitude issues (the "diva" tag), the gimmicky offense in college, and he was a sophomore. All of those are things that hurt a player's draft status.
How is Crabtree's injury comparable with someone charged with battery resulting in a major college program revoking it's scholarship offer (he signed a letter his letter of intent as it was his dream to play there) then testing positive for marijuana thus violating your probation and then let go by another major college program for violating your probation and ending up at a DII school thus later affecting his draft stock.
The so called baggage is far from comparable situations. Players get drafted early all the time regardless of injuries they may have suffered or are recovering from (see Jonathan Stewart in 2008 or how about Adrian Peterson from 2007)
That is why his situation is not significantly different than that of other highly rated players that fell due to various factors. CrabGREED is no different.
Next year, he'll have all the same concerns (baggage) that he had prior to the 2009 draft, only he will have conclusively proven that he has attitude issues (the diva tag fit). A year long holdout may also raise concerns about his desire to play. Since he won't be able to workout, interview, or take a physical with any other team, the only new information teams will have on him in the 2010 draft is that he hasn't played football in a year (baggage), and that he will be hard to sign if he isn't the first WR taken (more baggage). He'll fall again. Maybe reality will finally sink in.
He may have been a RS sophomore but he dominated in his 2 years on the field and came up big in big games. Not having a timed speed hurt a little but teams could turn on the tape and see his game speed on tape. Timed speed in a pair of shorts is overrated. He may have played in a gimmick offense but that didn't stop him from being hailed one of the best if not the best player in the draft class by fans, analysts and experts alike. Again he was a big time player who really stood out as a playmaker and lots of NFL players come from gimmick offenses.
We only know of 1 team who flagged him as a diva pre-draft and he visited multiple teams. So it seems there were multiple teams who were not known to be concerned and coupled with the fact that false rumors leak every year prior to the draft the diva issue pre-draft is pretty much moot.
His issues were so small in comparison to the off the field incidents of Randy Moss. People are overblowing the whole situation now. The final weeks and days leading up to the draft no one thought he'd make it to us at number 10 and the reaction to selecting him had 49er fans everywhere abuzz because they knew of the reputation that preceeded him in college. All of a sudden people forget about that reputation of a quiet hardworking kid who displayed a good attitude.
