Several Players Test Positive
April 3rd, 2009 Shawn Posted in Zobel's Blog |
According to NFL Draft Bible, Percy Harvin, Jose Martinez, and Vontae Davis all tested positive for marijuana, while Clay Matthews and Brian Cushing tested positive for steroids. SI.com has also reported that B.J. Raji tested positive, for marijuana as well.
First off, how dumb can some players get? Like I’ve said before, I don’t normally call players out, but things like this are just amazing. These players know that they will be tested at the Combine, yet they still decide to use the drugs. For a player with that bad of decision making, it makes you question whether you’d want to use a first round pick on them, which is the case for 5/6’s of the players that were in the reports.
This is big news on the draft front. I personally think that the steroids issue with the two USC linebackers is biggest. Cushing has been under the spotlight for quite awhile now, so not many people will be surprised about this. It’s very disappointing to hear that Matthews tested positive, if it’s true. A former walk-on, Clay had worked hard to develop into a starter on the top defense in the nation. You just had really hoped that he was able to do it without taking steroids. This could hurt each player’s draft stock.
At the Combine there were two player who scouts continually told me had attitude problems, and that is Percy Harvin and Vontae Davis. By more than two or three teams I was told that they were bad characters off the field. With this news, both players will see their draft stock drop. If I was running a draft, I wouldn’t touch either of them. I love Harvin’s playmaking ability, but his attitude problems and now this make it too much for me to want to draft him. I detailed each player’s problems in my 2009 Draft Preview.
Jose Martinez could potentially lose his chance of playing in the NFL if the report is true. From a team’s standpoint, when there are several kickers to choose from every year, why would you take a chance on a rookie who tested positive for an illegal drug?
B.J. Raji may lose more money out of this than any other player. A potential Top 10 pick, I now think that Raji could likely fall to the ‘teens to a team like Denver, if they don’t trade up.
- With five of the top 84 picks, I think that it’s fairly likely that Broncos will attempt to trade up to draft USC’s Mark Sanchez. To assure themselves that they will get him, Denver will likely need to trade up to No. 3 overall with Kansas City in order to move ahead of Seattle, who could take Sanchez.
- The Ravens will reportedly be looking at wide receiver in the first round this year.
- The Chiefs told Cincinnati’s Connor Barwin that they would move him to outside linebacker if Kansas City drafted him. One interesting note from Barwin: “They [Kansas City] said they had the third pick right now but that things could change.”
- Like I said in my mock draft, there’s a realistic chance the New Orleans could select Beanie Wells in the first round.