Draft picks with baggage in a sorry state

INDIANAPOLIS - Jameis Winston arrived here this week from San Diego where he had spent the previous month and change preparing for the Scouting Combine.

He had a quarterback coach there to help him with his throwing mechanics, a sprint coach to help him with his technique in the 40-yard dash, a nutritionist to help him lower his body fat, a yoga instructor to help him increase his flexibility, and image consultants and media specialists to help teach him how to say, "I'm sorry."

For players like Winston and wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham and cornerback Marcus Peters and other prospects who are entering the predraft process with those dreaded "character" issues, the "I'm sorry" part is critical.

The sincerity with which they deliver their mea culpa in those 15-minute interviews with teams for whatever it was they did to earn that red flag next to their name is going to affect their draft status much more than their 40 time or vertical jump or reps in the 225-pound bench press.

Their agents, of course, are well aware of that, which is why they bring in people to prep their clients on what to say and how to say it when they are asked about the girl they allegedly knocked down a flight of stairs (Green-Beckham) or the crabs they stole from a grocery store (Winston) or the fights with coaches that got them thrown off the team (Peters) or the sexual assault allegations (Winston again) or the vulgarities they shouted from a table top in the student union (Winston again).

"I know I have a past," Winston said humbly the other day as he addressed reporters at the combine. "But right now, it's about me moving forward and earning the trust of all these 32 teams out there."

The Florida State quarterback hit all the right notes. He talked about getting involved in the community in whatever city he ends up. He talked about understanding the responsibility that goes with being the face of a franchise. He even made sure to mention all the little kids he let down.

You can be sure that he had rehearsed every line with his handlers over and over and over in the weeks leading up to the combine.

Giants general manager Jerry Reese admitted it's getting more and more difficult to judge the sincerity of the players' apologies for their misbehavior because of how well they're being prepped.

"They're really good," he said. "We've had interviews the last couple of nights, and they're well-versed in what they want to say. It's a little tougher right now [than it was]. But we have some crafty questions that help us get the right answers."

Truth is, most teams are using more than crafty questions to try and ascertain whether players like Winston and Peters and Green-Backham have truly cleaned up their acts. They're using psychologists and behavioral consultants and psychological testing, and even then, as the Cleveland Browns will attest, there's no way to know for sure.

"Depending on how much teams value the input of psychologists - and they're all using testing - if I'm an owner in the NFL today, I would demand testing on these high-level guys who have had issues off the field," NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said.

"I would want to see the results. Because the whole thing about predictive behavior, whether a guy is going to do what he did in the past or not, is pretty important here. All of these psychological reports, I think the owners ought to be going over them with their general managers and coaches."

Seven years ago, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and his general manager, Ozzie Newsome, dared to think outside the box and hired the Eagles' long-time special teams coach, John Harbaugh, to be their head coach.

That bold move has been enormously successful. In his seven seasons in Baltimore, Harbaugh has established himself as one of the best coaches in the league. The Ravens have made six playoff appearances under him, have had five double-digit win seasons, been to the AFC Championship Game three times and won a Super Bowl.

Harbaugh had hoped his success would open the door for other special-teams coaches to be considered for NFL head-coaching jobs. But it hasn't happened. None has been hired, and fewer than a handful have even been interviewed for vacancies in the last 4 to 5 years.

"I'm surprised," Harbaugh said. "I kind of thought it would happen. I was hopeful that if we did well, many of those guys could have gotten better opportunities. Hopefully, someone will think outside the box a little bit like Steve Bisciotti did and hire another one of these guys."

Harbaugh, 52, spent 10 years as an Eagles assistant, the first 9 as the team's special-teams coach. He switched to defensive backs coach his last year in Philly. But he said that had little to do with him getting hired by the Ravens. "I think Ozzie and Steve would've still hired me," he said. "I don't think the switch to secondary coach was any kind of determining factor. But they think a little differently than other people [in the league]. Steve, his whole business is personnel."

In the early '80s, Bisciotti started a business that provided staffing for aeronautics and engineering companies.

Harbaugh has long believed that coaching special teams is better preparation for becoming a head coach than serving as an offensive or defensive coordinator.

"Special-teams coaches get exposed to a lot of head-coaching responsibilities," he said. "Personnel evaluation, game day roster, talking to the whole team. I think it's a great big-picture training ground to be a head coach, for sure."

UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks would love to get drafted by the Eagles and play next to his older brother Mychal. But Mayock doesn't think the 6-0, 232-pounder would be a particularly good fit there. "Those inside linebackers in a 3-4 are kind of like a tandem," Mayock said. "One guy is a thumper and the other guy is more of a run-free guy. If you had the Kendricks brothers together, you'd kind of have two similar athletes. You'd rather have a thumper and a WILL on the inside." Like his younger brother, Mychal is extremely athletic, but undersized (5-11, 240).

* Shaq Thompson is the most versatile player at the combine. He played linebacker, safety and running back at the University of Washington. Giants general manager Jerry Reese appropriately described the 6-0, 228-pound Thompson as a "Swiss Army knife kind of guy."

Mayock has Thompson as his No. 2-rated safety behind Alabama's Landon Collins. But Thompson indicated over the weekend that his preference is to play linebacker at the next level, either outside in a 4-3 or the inside WILL in a 3-4. "I'm going to put it out there [when I talk to teams] that I want to play linebacker," he said. "But [if they want me to play safety], I can't say no to that."

Said Mayock: "I see him as a safety who plays dime linebacker. He's been a linebacker and that's comfortable for him. I think the value of Shaq as a defensive player is you don't put a label on him. Because he's going to be a three-down player and it doesn't really matter where you line him up."

* While the NFL Scouting Combine has become a really big deal to football fans, the truth is this week's results, and those at the upcoming Pro Day workouts, aren't going to have a very big effect on a team's draft board. The primary tool for grading players is and always has been their tape, though some teams have been known to get carried away with an impressive combine workout. Can you say Mike Mamula, boys and girls? "The main part of the evaluation has happened already from August through December," Steelers personnel chief Kevin Colbert said. "The combine workout is icing on the cake. What we think a player runs we'd like to verify, and we'll do that through the workouts here and the college Pro Days. But 90 percent of the work is done at this point. You still want to get the medical and you still want to get the measurable part [height, weight, hand and arm length, et al]. That's what we do here."

Said Cardinals coach Bruce Arians: "I'm not a big track meet guy, and this is a track meet. Too many guys skyrocket when they get to the combine and run a 4.3. Then you turn the tape on and they don't hit anybody. You can't get too enamored with the numbers."

* Marcus Peters, who is considered by many to be the No. 2-rated cornerback in the draft, was dismissed from the University of Washington football team last November by head coach Chris Petersen after a series of confrontations with the coaching staff. Peters finally went up to Seattle a few weeks ago and apologized to Petersen and has been given permission to participate in UW's Pro Day workouts on April 2. "I had a real good conversation with Coach Petersen," Peters said. "We sat down and talked about everything that happened. I sincerely apologized to him for what happened and what I put him and the team through. It was a good conversation and he welcomed me to the Pro Day."

* The Giants are hopeful that wide receiver Victor Cruz is going to make a full recovery from the right knee injury he suffered last October against the Eagles. Cruz ruptured his patellar tendon. Players usually are able to return from that injury - Nate Allen ruptured his patellar tendon late in his rookie year and is still playing. The million-dollar question is whether he'll be the same player. "When a guy has a big injury like Victor had, you can't put all of your eggs in his basket," Giants GM Jerry Reese said. "Doctors say he looks good. I've seen him down in the training room working out with our trainers and doctors and he looks good. But until he gets out there, his game is quickness. Until you get out there and move around, you really never know how he's going to recover from that. We're hoping and praying that he's going to recover from that 100 percent and be the Victor Cruz that we know. But you can't be sure."