No one's Burfict?

Back in January, 11-on-11 put out our second Mock Draft, featuring Vontaze Burfict as a first round pick,  going to the New York Giants.  Fast forward three months, and Burfict has all but destroyed his chances of being drafted at all, let alone meeting the standards of the lofty draft rating we gave him in January.

It was obvious throughout college that this guy had skill, but he was always known as a loose cannon with a bad attitude.  This side of Burfict first came out during media sessions at the NFL Combine.  Even before the Combine had started, Mike Mayock, who I would regard as one of the better talent evaluators out there, said that he didn't think Burfict was a first-round pick "at all."

Then comes the combine, and Burfict has a chance to make Mayock bite his tongue.  Instead, he posts laughable 40 times of 4.93 and 5.10, all but solidfying Mayock's claim.  Bruce Feldman of CBS Sports, who was present at the combine, said of Burfict, "I'm not sure any player here sparked a worse reaction than Vontaze Burfict.  I wouldn't touch him.  The guy is completely out of control.  There's no way you could trust him."  Harsh words, indeed.

The scary part about Burfict is that everyone, excluding Mayock, shed a negative light on his character, rather than his football instincts.  And with so many players having off-the-field issues in today's NFL, teams simply cannot take the risk on a guy who could blow up any second.  You need to be able to trust your personnel.

Couple that with a below average Combine, bad words from former coaches and NFL scouts, and a lack of endorsements from essentially everyone who has been around this kid, and he looks destined to fall out of the draft all together.

It seems as though this guy became a Youtube sensation, with his hard hits and carefree demeanor on the field, that no one cared enough to look and see if this guy was actually the real deal, until recently.  And while I do believe that Burfict was a good football player at some point in his college career, he had his worst season ever this past year, and it seems that his coaches have chalked it up to a bad work ethic.  So, why waste even a late round pick on this guy?

Well, it seems as though no team will.  Burfict hasn't received a single invitation for a private workout or a team visit, and it doesn't look like that will change in the next two weeks.

This story brings to mind the old saying, "No one's perfect,"  but, while Burfict, this guy is so far from perfect, that it's very hard to ignore his shortcomings and take a chance on him.


Look for Burfict to go undrafted on the 28th, to the chagrin of his Youtube faithful.

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