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NFL Draft rumors. Everybody loves a good one. Sometimes, those “rumors” aren’t even rumors at all. Rather, they are just speculation from a draft analyst, reporter or blogger taken as reporting by information-starved fans who spread it across Twitter with the hungry belief that “something big involving my team is about to go down.”
With the New York Giants owning the No. 2 pick and the Internet telling us that just about every quarterback-needy team in the league would like to sweet talk GM Dave Gettleman into giving it to them, the rumor mill is already on blast. More than three months before the draft, and before anything is really likely to happen.
Well, far be it for me to tell you not to get yourself all worked up into a tizzy every time somebody says something MIGHT happen in the draft more than three months from now. I’m going to let Greg Gabriel, a 30-year veteran of scouting including working for the Giants and spending nine years as scouting director for the Chicago Bears, and now a writer for Pro Football Weekly and other publications, tell you.
Gabriel went off on a weekend tweet-storm about draft rumors, including the one about the Buffalo Bills wanting to get the No. 2 pick away from the Giants. Clip it, save it, do whatever you need to do so you can reference it over the next couple of months every time you read the latest rumor about who offered what to the Giants for the No. 2 pick, or someone saying they “know” exactly what the Giants are going to do with the second overall pick.
Contrary to what some believe, no team makes calls to move up in the draft 2 months ahead of the draft. No point (meaningless)Those calls don’t happen until the final 2 weeks
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
Teams are 6 weeks minimum away from even putting final grades on players. Except for maybe the Browns or Giants it’s way to early to pinpoint 1 certain player. This is a long process each team goes thru
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
If any Bills fans are interested, for the Bills to get to 2 it would cost more than both of their 1’s and 2’s. In this draft that would be ludicrous. No QB in this draft is worth that
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
The BS by some is starting earlier than usual. It’s only Feb. 17th and I need to put boots on
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
Please tell me.. why would a team picking at 21 inquire about moving into top 10 nine weeks out when they have no idea who will selected in top 6 or 7. Until FA we don’t even know what teams MAY draft a QB. FA will change things
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
I think this year I’m going to keep a running scorecard on all “rumors” on twitter (including mine). I think we’ll find out it’s about 90% fabricated nonsense.
— Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) February 18, 2018
Just keep all of that in mind as the draft process unfolds. Some small portion of what you hear might actually turn out to be true. Maybe the Giants and Bills actually will pull off a draft day whopper. Right now, nobody knows. Most of what you hear is just dart-throwing by analysts/bloggers/reporters hoping to be able to look back and tell you “see, I was right,” or info floated by teams aiming to hide their true intentions.
Speculate all you want. Turn over scenarios, figure out trade partners and calculate potential deals. I do it. That is a big part of the fun of the buildup to the draft. Just don’t convince yourself that you know what’s going to happen.
We still have to get through the combine, free agency, Pro Days, official visits and private workouts. Right now, not even the decision-makers know what is going to happen.