Crabtree has stress fracture in foot

[rbaloha1]

WR prospect Crabtree has stress fracture in foot
Adam Schefter By Adam Schefter | NFL.com

INDIANAPOLIS -- Medical testing at the scouting combine here revealed that Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree, one of the top prospects in this year's NFL draft, has a slight stress fracture in his left foot that will require surgery to insert a screw, league sources said Saturday morning.

Ben Liebenberg / NFL.com
Michael Crabtree's draft status could be affected by news he has a stress fracture in his left foot and will need surgery.

The injury and surgery is expected to sideline Crabtree for at least 10 weeks, jeopardizing his NFL pro day, which now is expected to be cancelled, and raising questions about when he will be healthy again. Doctors believe that with the precautions the All-American wide receiver is willing to take, Crabtree will be sufficiently recovered in time for training camp this summer.

After doctors found the slight stress fracture on Friday they conducted more testing on Crabtree, including a bone scan that revealed that the injury happened only recently, possibly during training for the combine. Since finding it, Crabtree has been investigating the best and smartest way to treat the injury.

Crabtree is hardly the first player forced to battle through a slight stress fracture. Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens once had one before having a screw inserted in his foot, and just last year, running back Jonathan Stewart opted for the same procedure that Crabtree soon will undergo and Carolina still drafted him with the 13th overall pick.

There now will be concerns about Crabtree and his foot. But one doctor said Saturday that there would have been more concerns if Crabtree were not going to have the surgery, because then teams would know at some point his foot would break.

Crabtree also measured slightly shorter than expected, coming in at 6-foot-1 3/8 and weighing 214 pounds. Most teams thought Crabtree was 6-foot-3. But as Seahawks head coach Jim Mora pointed out, Crabtree had the longet arms of any receiver in the draft, and it easily would cancel out whatever the wide receiver was missing in height.

The only two-time Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation's top wide receiver, Crabtree was regarded as a surefire top-five pick. He still is expected to be a top pick, but how his injury will affect his draft status will be one of the most hotly debated questions.


Maybe available to Packers?

[Harlan Huckleby]

he won't fall even a single slot in the draft.

he's already had his audition.

[TheCheese]

he won't fall even a single slot in the draft.

he's already had his audition.

Even though we are loaded at WR, if he somehow fell to 9 I would be stoked to get him. It wouldn't be a need at all but it would be the right pick.

[digitaldean]

Yes. I'd say he'd fit the best player available IF he fell to #9.

Doubtful he falls out of top 5 though.

[Lurker64]

With Seattle, Oakland, and Jacksonville all desperately needing an impact receiver, there's realistically no chance that Crabtree falls to 9 unless this is a sufficiently glaring medical flag that taking him at 9 would be a reach. Remember, Jacksonville picks one spot before us and they need a receiver much worse than we do.

[pack4to84]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

[Lurker64]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

[rbaloha1]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

Crabtree is a Fitzgerald type receiver with instant impact potential. Number 3 receiver and another weapon for AR.

DD is getting older but is still playing at a high level. The Crabtree and Jennings combo provides seasons of dynamic wr play.

Too good to pass on regardless of need.

[red]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

i think both injuries happened at the same time. thats the way they made it sound today.

he didn't even know he had the stress fracture until the combine exam found it. he's been working out this whole time with the injury without knowing anything was wrong

that said, there is no chance what so ever that we take him. we are about to break the bank wide open for jennings. driver still has at least a couple good years in him, last years 1st pick looks very promising this year, and jones might have broke out at the end of last year. not to mention ruvell isn't the worst WR in the world.

we would be better off IMO, reaching for tyson jackson or the 4th OT, rather then grabbing crabtree if he was there. we just don't need greg jennings ver. 2.0 at this point

i think it was a waste to draft a WR at the top of the second last year, i think it would be insanity to take a WR this year on the first day this year

[red]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

Crabtree is a Fitzgerald type receiver with instant impact potential. Number 3 receiver and another weapon for AR.

DD is getting older but is still playing at a high level. The Crabtree and Jennings combo provides seasons of dynamic wr play.

Too good to pass on regardless of need.

then he would be too good for the 8 teams ahead of us picking to pass up too

because none of them, except maybe the lions with cj, have 1 wr that's has good has jennings

[The Shadow]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

Ah, a voice of wisdom.
We don't need yet another receiver!

[retailguy]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

Ah, a voice of wisdom.
We don't need yet another receiver!

But, if he's the "BPA" then we take him, right? Is that what you guys always claim?

[Lurker64]

But, if he's the "BPA" then we take him, right? Is that what you guys always claim?

Well, really... the idea that's there are two schools of draft philosophy "Best Player Available" and "Draft for need" is really sort of specious. Everybody pretty much agrees on everything but minor details.

The BPA guys will tell you that the reason you don't just draft a QB every pick is that you don't measure "best" so much by the guy's tape or his upside, you measure "best" in terms of "the guy who will help your team the most." But the guy who will help your team the most probably fills a need, doesn't he?

The "Draft for need" guys will tell you that the way you identify "needs" on a team is really by looking at which positions are most upgradeable. As in "what position could you replace a guy with another guy in such a way that it improves the team the most." If you upgrade a position and it doesn't really help the team, you're not really fulfilling any sort of "need". In other words, you're drafting the best player available.

Since every team needs "the best players they can get" and the players that help you the most are generally the best available (by the only useful standards for best), there really isn't a huge difference between the two "camps."

Really, we just like to argue about whether you should "reach" for guy x at position A because we need better players at position A, defined as a "reach" because we don't think that teams drafting after us will take guy x for many picks; or whether we should take "value" in a guy that, though not a position we think is lacking, would be a guy who teams after us would jump for joy if he "slipped" to them.

The fact of the matter though, is that as NFL fans who are varying degrees of casual about it, we don't know our own rosters or the players in the draft well enough to really know what our "needs" are or who the "best players available" are. We guess, and sometimes we're right, but sometimes we're very much not right. Remember, the year we took Harrell, many people were claiming that our biggest need was a WR to be "A weapon for Favre" and we argued about whether we should take Bowe or Meachem." Well, turns out we got no weapon for Favre with that pick (and really no value from our #1 at all), but we still had one of the best offenses in the NFL. Most everybody who argues about football on the internet doesn't know half as much as they think they do. The guys who know really, really know personnel tend to be employed by teams, and the guys who are a couple steps below those guys tend to be employed by the media. The rest of us just have to argue football on the internet for something to do.

By the same logic, none of us really knows if Crabtree is going to be really good in the NFL. It's possible that he's a guy who had tremendous production in a gimmicky offense against some suspect defenses, and it's also possible that he's going to be a first ballot hall of famer. Some guys don't work out for reasons nobody could have possibly forseen. No one can really say whether Crabtree would be the "Best Player Available" at #1, #4, #9, #50, or #200. Odds are he won't be terrible, but he could be.

[The Shadow]

He seems to have a injury bug. He hurt his right ankle in his last game. Now he has a stress fracture on his left leg. To me that is a red flag no doubt about it.

Personally, I wouldn't draft him just because we don't need him. There are only so many footballs, we already have a superstar WR in the making (Jennings), and a solid core behind him. If he's sitting at 9 and is really "amazing value", somebody else should want to trade up to get him.

Ah, a voice of wisdom.
We don't need yet another receiver!

But, if he's the "BPA" then we take him, right? Is that what you guys always claim?

Um....clarify please?

[Bretsky]

I was not a huge fan of the Jordy Nelson pick; Brandon Flowers seemed to be a smart call in round one and we were OK at WR's....I thought. I also didn't really think Nelson stood out to me.

Crabtree, on the other hand, has to be seriously considered.

At the end of the college season I thought he was the best player in college.

If he falls to 9, which I really doubt happens, and TTT considers him a future superstar, I have no problem taking him.

I would not even argue with somebody who says we should.