Official Non NFC North NFL News 2014 (Unofficial Johnny Manziel)

[MadScientist]

SEC defensive player of the year (finalist?) in any other year would get a 4-5 round sniff from someone. He fell because of the pending media circus. Media puts up what sells. If we stop clicking, watching, etc. they will stop putting it on TV. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

He had a bad senior bowl week before the bad combine as well. Football outsiders did a statistical analysis / projection of all pass rushers (DE/OLB) and Sam came out dead last. You can bet that if some outside site is doing projections, teams are doing similar analysis and coming up with similar results. The SEC DPOY may have given him a 6th round sniff without the circus, but anything higher would have been a reach.

[Guiness]

He had a bad senior bowl week before the bad combine as well. Football outsiders did a statistical analysis / projection of all pass rushers (DE/OLB) and Sam came out dead last. You can bet that if some outside site is doing projections, teams are doing similar analysis and coming up with similar results. The SEC DPOY may have given him a 6th round sniff without the circus, but anything higher would have been a reach.

Yup, this is the way I see it too. Appeared at first to be a mid round talent, but laid an egg when it mattered, and hurt his draft position. The combine can make a huge difference, and the senior bowl is closely watched. He's undersized for an 4-3 DE, and for an OLB his combine numbers are awful.

Who knows, maybe he was distracted??? No doubt he was as preoccupied as hell with the going ons, and maybe the Rams landed themselves an unlikely sleeper, one that everyone was watching closely.