lemme ask you something...you guys research seems to point to mallet MAYBE being an occasional pot smoker...there is still no concrete evidence to suggest anything harder...if teams doing their homework on this kid have roughly the same findings what gives you confidence mallet makes it to pick #15 other than the old school mentality gms and coaches seem to have when it comes to drug use and qbs and that for all we know right now mallets name is not one that seems to be moving up the boards rumors wise???
Important stipulation. Our research points to there being SOMETHING, something that is presumably important, that we do NOT know. And whatever this something is, 99% of the rest of people out there don't know it either, and the ones that do are not putting it out for public consumption. We can speculate what that is, but it's baseless speculation. The only "evidence" is that when he was arrested for public drunkenness, the cop SAYS he smelled like marijuana. So if you want to speculate that the big something is marijuana, then nobody can claim that your speculation is "baseless"...it would have a basis, but not a strong one. Before you thought the big something was cocaine addiction. I personally see some ways to deduce that cocaine addiction is probably not it...but who knows?
What you have is a media market and fanbase that are attempting very hard to come up with a reason not to like Ryan Mallett. They're trying extremely hard, through a combination of making mountains out of molehills, and/or just making things up. I'm not saying it's a conscious or nefarious effort. But it's there and it's pretty undeniable based on what we've seen. Why would they do that? I think it's because everyone knows and has taken their cues from the NFL that this guy has a big issue that's not "known" within the public sphere. But it looks bad when someone expresses an opinion that so-and-so, who clearly has 1st round talent at the most important position on the football field, should not be a 1st rounder because "Well...just...because...I can't say what it is he's done, but it's not good." Nobody likes that, nobody settles for it, so that's why they go about making mountains out of molehills and/or creating negatives out of thin air. People want to know things, they can't stand not knowing things. And they want to know why Ryan Mallett is not a 1st rounder.
All we are doing, we being our UD piece, is calling a spade a spade, and pointing out there are a lot of over-reactions and baseless criticisms out there, not to mention directly false information. Yes, we realize there's probably something we don't know and it's a significant thing. But NFL teams aren't sharing, and whatever they do share with you has to be looked upon skeptically as teams are intentionally untruthful this time of year. We just believe that whatever it is that constitutes this smoking gun has to be viewed within the context of his history at Arkansas, which is littered with reports of what a hard worker he was, his ability to win 10 games at Arkansas, leading one of the most prolific passing offenses in the history of the SEC, his ability to elevate the talent levels of the players around him, his ability to (for whatever reason, ulterior or altruistic, doesn't matter) inspire teammates to go to bat for him, his ability to inspire coaches and local media to do the same, his ability to come off sounding like a good guy in interviews, and finally his ability to put on display NFL franchise skills that produce on Sundays. So whatever this smoking gun is, has to be viewed within all that context.
Because we don't know it, we can't say for certain where this guy is going to go in the Draft. You have to try and do what is difficult, figure out where teams are REALLY leaning. Follow the clues. Right now, I'm seeing teams like Seattle taking an interest in him, them picking late in the 1st round, and the Bengals, who pick early in R2, I hear the Vikings looked at him and I know he's got a secret visit lined up with the Patriots who I'll be damned if they'd use their early 1st rounder on him. The money seems to be where the mouth is, for SOME teams, in the claim that Ryan Mallett is being looked at as a late 1st or 2nd round guy. That could change.
