Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert probably likes a lot of things about the pre-draft process, but he made it clear Monday afternoon during his annual press conference that he’s not a fan of leaks to the media that are intended to lower a player’s draft stock.
“I think it’s really bad for our profession when people put through whatever means they use to get information out to try to influence a draft, and they talk about a kid’s test scores, a kid’s injury, a kid’s character, I think that’s awful,” said Colbert, who has been with the Steelers since 2000. “I think it’s disrespectful to our profession, it’s disrespectful to the game, it’s disrespectful to the kid. I think it’s horrible.
“And knowing that, we really don’t pay attention to it. We’re just going to be true to what we believe. We don’t believe in mock drafts and what people are saying about other teams because so much of it is misinformation. You’d just lose your mind trying to figure out what everyone’s going to do. we’ll just be true to what we do and feel good about it and live with it.”
While Colbert might ignore the pre-draft misinformation noise that usual begins a month ahead of the actual draft taking place, that might not be the case with all the teams around the league. If such tactics failed to work all of the time, they would more than likely stop, right?
As far as injuries go, Colbert said Monday that all of the teams get the same medical information on the top guys. With that noted, one would expect the same would go for test scores. As far injuries go with the players who are expected to go later in the draft, Colbert did say that some teams will share information. Additionally, combine medical re-checks are part of the process as well, according to Colbert.
Over the course of the last few weeks, we’ve seen reports about LSU’s Jalen Collins and his multiple failed drug test while in college in addition to Missouri linebacker Shane Ray possibly needing surgery on a toe. One would think that all 32 teams already knew about whether or not this information is true with the draft now right around the corner and if so, you have to wonder why such information, or misinformation in some instances, is being leaked out.
While Colbert should be commended for taking a strong stance against the dark side of the pre-draft process, I doubt it will make a difference. He’ll just have to continue to not put any stock in any of it when it comes to the Steelers, or else he’ll probably lose his mind.
