There is no doubt Michael Sam is regarded as a player worthy of selection this May in the NFL Draft. There is no way of knowing how his announcement he is gay will affect his draft status, but that doesn’t mean there is a shortage of opinions on the suddenly well-known defensive end from Missouri.
Where Sam sits on NFL Draft boards is up for debate. Most early draft prognostications have him as no higher than a third-round pick, as at 6-foot-2 and 260 pounds he is perhaps considered too small to be a full-time defensive end.
Gil Brandt, senior analyst at NFL.com and the longtime draft guru of the Cowboys, tweeted that Sam has physical limitations.
“Michael Sam was not in my top 100 of senior NFL prospects,’’ Brandt wrote on Twitter. “Player without position. Can’t play in space, not big enough to play with hand on the ground.’’
The NFL Scouting Combine begins Feb. 22 and Sam figures to be the most heavily publicized player in Indianapolis.
Mel Kiper, Jr., ESPN’s NFL Draft expert, said Sam should be taken in rounds 4-6, given his definite strengths and weaknesses.
“He’s going to have to prove can he play in a situation where you’re a 3-4 outside linebacker, playing in reverse, playing on your feet, not just a designated pass rusher, like he may end up being,’’ Kiper said. “If he’s only a one-dimensional designated pass rusher, he becomes a fourth-to-sixth-round pick rather than a third-to-fourth-round entity.’’
ESPN’s Todd McShay questions Sam’s 2013 sack total of 11 ¹/₂, saying nine came in games against Arkansas State, Vanderbilt and Florida, teams McShay views as having sub-par offenses.
“There’s not a lot of productive and contributing defensive ends in the NFL that are under 6-foot-2,’’ McShay said. “He can rush the passer, he’s got a quick first step, he’s got some power for a shorter guy and there’s certainly a place for him in the league and he can contribute, but I think his best fit is going to be for a 3-4 team at that outside linebacker position.’’
The Giants do not appear to be a fit for Sam, as they run a 4-3 defense, but they do have a long history of taking chances on players with pass-rush credentials.
Bovada, the online gambling site, has put the over-under for where Sam will be drafted overall at 125 ¹/₂ , late in the fourth round.
“I watched the tape and saw him at the Senior Bowl and have a pretty good feel for him, and my take is he’s a third-to-fifth-round pick,’’ NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock told Philly.com. “If I were a team, I’d hope that I would look at him and say, ‘OK, this is what he is [as a player]’ and draft him in that range if he’s available. I think some teams are going to say, ‘Hey, I give the kid credit for coming out. I’d like a tough-minded individual like that in my locker room.’
“But I think there will be other teams that are going to look at it and say, ‘Do I want that distraction in my locker room?’ ’’
Mayock echoes the sentiment of many analysts that Sam does not have the skill-set to play defensive end in the NFL.
“He’s an explosive kid who’s much better going forward than he is going backward,’’ Mayock said. “His size would dictate he’s got to be a linebacker, but I don’t think his physical skill-set dictates that, and therein lies the rub. He’s got some ability coming off the edge and chasing a quarterback. However, I don’t think he has an ability to stand up and play linebacker.
“Depending on your scheme and what you’re looking for, he’s not an every-down play. The best case for me is he’s a four-team special teams player and a situational pass-rusher. It just depends on where you value that kind of guy.’’