Teams may be less likely to take a risk on Te'o in the draft if they don't believe he can become a dominant player.

Brandt noted how the inside linebacker position doesn't carry as much importance in the NFL as it once did. In the last 10 years, only four inside linebackers were taken in the first round, although one of them was perennial All-Pro Patrick Willis of San Francisco.

"I think it would be different if it was a quarterback who would change the game," he said. "But linebackers are a piece to the puzzle; they don't solve the puzzle. Other than Ray Lewis, I don't know of any linebacker you say, 'We've got to have this guy.'

"(Inside) linebackers are not as important as they used to be. We're down to one or two first-round linebackers now."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/...-draft-stock.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

These quotes from Brandt illustrate a point I was making about the ILB position earlier. The impact of the position has to be a consideration in what you draft up high. It comes down to the evaluation. If you think Teo is the next Lewis or Willis, then you can justify taking him early. If you don't have him in that class then you're wasting a top pick on a lower impact position.

As for his draft stock potentially taking a hit, of course it does. It's naive to think that some teams wouldn't have lower opinions on him if they think he's lying to them. If you're arguing otherwise than it's fairly clear that you're so in love with the prospect that you're not being objective.

 

The draft isn't for another 100 days. We're only in the 2nd day after the whole thing broke as a story.

Is Manti Te'o still going to be a punchline 100 days from now? Or is everyone going to tire of talking about it closer to 20 days from now?

I'm guessing the latter, and within months of the Draft you won't even hear this stuff mentioned again.

People IMO generally lack foresight with respect to stuff like this. Everything is the right now, the immediate moment, and it's always huge and will always stay huge, etc. I don't think people generally have a great concept of what time does to perceptions.

 

The story won't be as big down the line, but if he lied (in his statement not originally since we know he lied then) and continues to lie to the teams at the combine then that will knock his stock down.

 

I think it will be brought up every time they talk about him in regards to the draft, which I think will be pretty often. Maybe not so much on ESPN, but NFLN does so much draft coverage that I think you'll hear it brought up a bunch of times on there. He may be the Tebow of this year's draft, in the way that Mike Mayock publicly discusses how much he dislikes over-talking about him and not the other prospects.

 

I actually agree with you, but I think about a month prior to the Draft, if not sooner, the whole subject is just going to get old and when it's mentioned it will only be cursory. And if the vetting process from NFL teams doesn't turn up a pattern of disturbing behavior, it'll start to be mentioned by the pundits only so that they can specifically say it doesn't really mean anything to the NFL teams, and they'll be talking about how overblown it was, etc.

And within months after the Draft, you may never even hear about it again.

 

If you thought he was a top 10 pick before (i sure dont) then your mind has likely not changed.

 

Worst case scenerio is its a cheap publicity stunt to win the HT. He is a young kid who made an immature decision. I dont see this story influencing his draft postion very much. I love Brandts great prediction that it could lower his selection. Sure it could but its doubtfull unless he shows mental problems that look like they will lead to bigger problems. None of this is going to effect his ranking on a draft board.

 

The way he was manhandled by Alabama will depress his draft status much more than having a made-up girlfriend will.

 

Ahh, shades of Vontaze Burrfect, he played well enough in Cinci this yr as a rookie.

 

Not really. Te'o isn't lazy, out of shape, and doesn't play like he is a loner on the field just doing whatever he wants.

 

I do hope he drops.... Way back into one of our picks in the 2nd....

 

Exactly.

And how, pray tell, would that be worse than taking money to play college football? That's my question to all these ridiculous over-reactions.

 

Exactly. This is way, way, way, way more tame than Vontaze Burfict. Who, as padre points out, was actually a pretty damn good linebacker this year.

 

I don't know this is a unprecedented type of incident with a player. Anyone that drafts him will spend the entire offseason answering questions about him, ESPN and every media outlet will be in training camp covering every breath the guy takes. He's big news and I don't see it going away, I mean this story isn't just on a sports page or sports website, its a lead story on Yahoo, CNN, etc. Heck my wife asked me about this guy's story.......and she probably doesn't know if he plays football or cricket. If you don't think he's a future allpro then you probably drop him into the later round picks for your team, some owners probably don't want him on their roster at all at this point. Considering this weird story and one of the worst big game performances I've ever seen in the National Championship game his stock has taken a huge hit. Could he go in the first round, sure. Could he drop to the third round or worse? Sure.

 

He missed so many tackles during that game, it looked like he was trying to hug his girlfriend.

 

roflmfao.

 

this just made me LOL