Mallett?s Stock Fluctuates As NFL Draft Approaches (Opinion)

Ryan Mallett recently uttered one of the worst clichés in sports.

“Honestly, I just want to get picked and play football,” Mallett told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Tom Murphy. “I don’t care where. I just play for the love of the game because it’s the ultimate team sport. The money doesn’t matter to me.”

Yeah, right.

No offense to Mallett, the former Arkansas quarterback, but the money does matter. Otherwise, the NFL’s players and owners wouldn’t be embroiled in the labor dispute football fans have had to hear about ad nauseam.

If an agreement between the two sides isn’t reached before the league’s draft April 28-30, in fact, Mallett won’t be able to sign a contract with the team that selects him. No new contracts can be signed until an agreement is in place, which means guys like Mallett will continue to work out for the love for the game rather than get paid to play it.

Still, Mallett figures to join a pretty high tax bracket at some point in the relatively near future. There simply is too much money to be made by both sides for this dispute to drag into the regular season.

Perhaps more interesting, at least to those of us who watched Mallett play two seasons for the Razorbacks, are the fluctuations in his draft stock over the past several months.

Consider, for example, ESPN draft expert Todd McShay’s assessment of Mallett on Nov. 11 of last year. McShay pegged Mallett as the 12th pick — by the Jacksonville Jaguars — in a mock draft, and added this assessment: “Taking Mallett here would be too rich for my blood, but the Jaguars are in dire need of an upgrade at quarterback and Mallett’s riffle (sic) arm will be pretty tempting.”

McShay had Stanford’s Andrew Luck as the top pick at that point, and Washington’s Jake Locker as the eighth. Auburn’s Cam Newton and Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, meanwhile, were nowhere to be found.

Since then, Luck has decided to stay in school and the remaining four quarterbacks have played four games each. In that same span, McShay has released three mock drafts, all of which came after the bowl season was completed.

 Mallett has fallen to 25th in McShay’s Jan. 19 draft to out of the first round in the February and March versions. In his March 16 version, McShay has Mallett going 39th to the Tennessee Titans.

Locker, meanwhile, has dropped to 25th, while Gabbert and Newton have vaulted to third and fifth, respectively. All of this, remember, without an actual game being played.

McShay, and Mel Kiper Jr., and all the other draftniks, have juggled their mock drafts based not on game play, but the NFL combine, individual workouts and the pro days held at the respective schools. When they call it an inexact science, they aren’t joking.

Kiper also has cooled on Mallett. On Jan. 19, Kiper had the Seattle Seahawks taking Mallett with the 25th pick and offered these comments: “Everything about Mallett’s arm screams top 10, but he could fall a bit as a player who needs to develop footwork and the willingness to bite off only as much as he can chew. That said, Mallett’s game progressed in 2010. He showed improved accuracy and a willingness to move around and consider the dump-off passes he often passed up as a younger player. With a year of development, he could be a good value here and a long-term answer for the Seahawks. It’ll be asked, but my sources tell me the Seahawks prefer him to Washington’s Jake Locker — at least right now.”

Since then, Kiper has changed his mind even more, dropping Mallett from the first round on both Feb. 16 and March 9.

Perhaps it’s the persistent speculation and rumors about Mallett’s off-the-field behavior that have caused his stock to drop. Perhaps there is more to the combine and individual workouts than a fan’s eye can see.

It’s hard to believe, though, so much emphasis is put on what Mallett and every other player about to be drafted does in a controlled workout environment. It’s hard to believe some teams chart their futures based on what a player does while he’s wearing little more than a T-shirt, shorts and shoes.

Don’t all the games played over all the years mean more than a shuttle run or vertical jump? Don’t all those snaps taken under duress mean more than an interview on the NFL Network?

For my money they do, and that’s why if Mallett does indeed fall to the second round, I’d bet Kiper or McShay he’s a better long-term value than Gabbert or Newton.