Combine bombshells

It took just an hour, if that, for things to shake up dramatically at the top of the Rams' draft board.

NFL Network reports that Michael Crabtree has a stress fracture in his foot that will require surgery. He'll be out up to ten weeks. The draft is nine or ten weeks away. The team that drafts Crabtree will have to do so without seeing him work out. Something I have even more concern about: Crabtree's been listed everywhere up till now as 6'3", leaving fans, at least, thinking their team would be drafting another Larry Fitzgerald. Except Crabtree's official measurement is under 6'1.5".

First of all, this reminds me how much I hate college football programs for lying about the sizes of their players. But most importantly, should the St. Louis Rams really consider spending the #2 overall pick in the draft and 30-some-odd million dollars on a wide receiver of average size who has a bad foot?

Super coverage by NFL Network, not only with Adam Schefter breaking that news, but by the announce team, who've mentioned Terrell Owens and Jonathan Stewart playing with similar injuries - successes despite the injury - but also by mentioning the NBA's Grant Hill, a spectacular bust as a result of the same injury. As another network would say, fair and balanced.

The Rams, by the way, don't need to spend that high pick and tens of millions of dollars on a shorter-than-expected, injured player, whose speed we don't really know and who doesn't fill their biggest need. Crabtree's no longer the BPA at #2 assuming the Lions draft Matthew Stafford.

Scratch Andre Smith way, way off the list for the Rams. I wouldn't even consider him with the 2nd round pick. We don't need head cases here. Smith announced at the weigh-in yesterday that he wouldn't work out at the combine because hadn't worked out hard on his own and was badly out of shape. And today, he's AWOL from the combine. No, really. Nobody can find him.

But to be fair and balanced, Smith could be worth a look with the 2nd round pick if he nails his on-campus workout. His college tapes should speak for themselves, and his honesty, if perhaps not wise, is at least refreshing. Right now, he's really not blowing it any worse than a lot of players who were out of shape for the combine and just lied about why they didn't work out.

I put the blame for Smith's meltdown squarely on Nick Saban and the Alabama football program. We have long ago quit believing in the myth of the "student-athlete". Smith left Alabama as a junior. Odds are he'll never collect a degree from the school. But don't the school and its football program at least owe it to Smith to have him prepared enough for the combine not to be a public relations nightmare? Why not keep him working out as part of a pro-preparation program? Why not give him decent advice on what's smart and not smart to do in front of the pros? Wouldn't these services be appealing to prospective Crimson Tide players out of high school?

Do Nick Saban and the University of Alabama really care that little about their football players once they're done with them to let them come to the combine so physically and mentally unprepared?