Manti Te’o’s once-soaring draft stock appears to be stuck in a state of suspended animation.
The consensus of NFL draft evaluators and experts was wait-and-see yesterday, while baffling and contradictory details continued to emerge about the Notre Dame linebacker’s imaginary love life.
“Guys who have done much worse than [Te’o] get drafted all the time in this league,” an NFC personnel executive told The Post. “We don’t even know yet if he did anything wrong, so it’s still way too early to tell what this is going to do to [his draft positioning].”
The NFL opinion of Te’o suddenly is a red-hot topic after Deadspin.com’s bombshell report Wednesday that his girlfriend of nearly four years, who allegedly died of leukemia last fall, was a complete hoax.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick held a news conference Wednesday night in which he said an investigation by the school showed that Te’o was a victim of an elaborate prank.
But Te’o hasn’t spoken publicly since the story broke, and that fact combined with his repeated embellishments in earlier interviews had NFL executives feeling a bit queasy about a Heisman Trophy finalist who had once been viewed as a lock to go among the top 20 picks.
LA WOMAN WHOSE PICS WERE USED IN TE’O HOAX ‘SHOCKED’
Draft analyst Gil Brandt, the former Cowboys personnel chief who helps coordinate the scouting combine, said he feels Te’o already has suffered major damage to his reputation even if it turns out he was duped.
“I think some teams will say it isn’t worth the problem” to draft Te’o, Brandt told the Associated Press yesterday.
Te’o, of course, could have saved himself money and considerable embarrassment had he declared for the draft last year, when he still was a viable first-round pick. On the other hand, there isn’t agreement his first-round prospects this year are now shot, either.
One thing everyone seems to agree on: Te’o’s upcoming interviews with NFL teams at the combine in Indianapolis next month and on site leading up to the draft in April suddenly take on enormous importance.
“All 32 teams will get ample opportunity to interview this kid,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, who also did analysis on Notre Dame games televised by NBC, said yesterday. “How he handles this going forward is going to be critical to his future as an NFL player.”
Te’o already might have cost himself in the NFL’s eyes before the bizarre hoax became public, however, thanks to a dreadful performance in Notre Dame’s 42-14 loss to Alabama last week in the BCS title game.
Te’o already was unlikely to go in the top 10 because he plays a position that isn’t highly valued by most teams, and all of his missed tackles and blown assignments against the Crimson Tide were considered red flags.
If NFL teams are convinced Te’o can bounce back from that game and be a productive pro player, the fake dead girlfriend won’t matter. But Te’o will have plenty of explaining to do to people doing the drafting in the coming weeks.
“Between now and 97 days from now when the draft comes, there’ll be a lot of people investigating just what took place,” Brandt said.