NFL DRAFT LYING SEASON: Disregard Hit Pieces, Remember the Tape

The 2023 NFL Draft is less than a week away and it's this time every year where folks start to forget the tape and the need to analyze prospects from a new angle leads to criticisms of everything but football.

The Tennessee Titans and the rest of the NFL are finalizing their draft plans as we sit less than a week away from the NFL draft. Every year at this point in the process we start to get non-football reasons for why prospects aren't what the tape led us to believe. These outside influences should be dismissed and the focus should remain on what it has been throughout the scouting process, the film.

There are probably more examples out there, but we have seen two first-round prospects have hit pieces put out on them in the last few days. First we had CJ Stroud and the mystery of the S2 cognitive test. Something we wrote about here at AllTitans.com. The second example was Darnell Wright who is now being question for his "football character" in the tweet below.

No one should doubt the talent, but when multiple scouts have words THIS strong about attitude and work ethic, it makes you sit up in your seat a little bit. pic.twitter.com/D0Be4nEsjt

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) April 20, 2023

First thing that needs to be said, these reports could be true. That is within the range of outcomes here. However, you only need logic to realize how the timing of this is fishy. We don't hear anything about bad test scores or football character for months and months during the process and then a week before the draft is set to take place and all the sudden this information comes out. Has to make you sit back and wonder why.

The smart thing to do in these situations is to ask "who does this benefit?" Who is set to gain from this information being public knowledge. The obvious answer is a team who wants that player to fall. The NFL is a cut throat business and it would not be above an NFL team to purposefully leak bad information about a player to give them a better chance at landing that player.

The other reason is attention. At this point in the draft process, there is no more groundbreaking information to be shared. The media has endlessly examined the tape, measurables and data. It has been covered and dissected to no end. There is not much left to say about these prospects. 

Similarly, we see mock drafts get even more outlandish and wild during this time of year. A normal mock draft that is realistic and what people expect doesn't get any eyeballs at this point, so people start to jazz them up with crazy picks and trades to make them worth reading. 

The point of all this is to say don't fall for it. What matters most and will always matter most is the tape. What have these guys done on the football field and how does it translate to an NFL team. We are in the midst of lying season, so it's important to remember to keep the main thing the main thing, football.

Titans Related Stories

DUPREE JOINS FALCONS: The Tennessee Titans released Bud Dupree earlier this offseason and now the ex-Titans’ edge rusher is joining the Atlanta Falcons at a much lower salary than what he was set to make with the Titans. CLICK HERE

WR HELP WANTED: The Tennessee Titans may attack wide receiver on the first day of the NFL draft, but if they wait until day two, there will be some fantastic options they should target at the position. CLICK HERE

FIRST ROUND PASS RUSH: The Tennessee Titans could be aiming to bolster their pass rush group with their first-round pick according to recent buzz from ESPN’s draft analyst Matt Miller. Something that would be quite the surprise. CLICK HERE