Agreed.
How do you read that to mean his sitting out means nothing to a GM??
What the GM actually said is that his sitting out is "one more part of the picture" - i.e., it matters.
Isn't that basically the opposite of what you are claiming?
Nowhere have I claimed it doesn't matter. I am claiming it's not as big of a deal as some of you are making it out to be. If you read my post you would have seen I am claiming exactly what the GM said in the quote you posted...
"If someone like Johnny Manziel sat out his bowl game, I would absolutely agree with you he acts selfishly on and off the field and has a character issue and should be dropped down on draft boards. Not SOLELY because he sat out a bowl game, you have to take his entire situation into account."
i.e., it matters but not to the extent of completely black balling a player just for skipping a bowl game.
If a player gets bad reports from coaches, he drops on my board. If a player gets arrested, he drops way down on my board. If a player fights constantly with teammates, he drops on my board. If a player takes plays off, he drops on my board. Way down on the list of negative attributes of a college player is skipping a non playoff bowl game to prepare for the draft. If a player has multiple of these red flags, he's probably off my board entirely. Never have I said skipping the game doesn't or shouldn't matter, but to make that the sole deciding factor for completely removing them from a draft board or questioning their entire character is what I'm saying is wrong.
I can understand from the player's perspective why they would make that decision and I think it's unfair for fans not in that position to automatically assume that player will be a bad future teammate when if you take out that one decision to skip a bowl game, everything else points to the contrary for these players.
Aren't all college bowl games "meaningless" as far as the NFL is concerned?
If a guy has nothing left to prove, yes it's meaningless. But there aren't many of those players out there which is why bowl games still mean something to most players, just not all.
And sitting out is okay so long as you are a "1st round talent"? But not 2nd round, I guess?
So how about a lower round 1st round pick sitting out the playoffs? No good, right?
How about an early 2nd-rounder sitting out the Sun Bowl? Ehhh, well ... not so sure.
How about a 3rd rounder sitting out the Rose Bowl? No go, right?
Why? Still millions of dollars at stake, and the Bowl game does not matter.
See how difficult this becomes? Any time an analysis has more gray areas and maybes then definites, it becomes untenable.
It's actually not that difficult to understand and it's not as gray as you think.
If Fournette plays and has a great game in the bowl game, does that change the fact he would've been the 1st RB off the board if he played or not? If McCaffrey plays and has a great game, can he do enough to overtake Fournette as the #1 RB? Doubtful, Fournette was already the #1 RB and there's nothing McCaffrey can do about it any longer aside from maybe the combine. Neither player can change their draft spot substantially enough to take the risk of playing in their bowl games. There's also a chance of having a bad game and falling a few spots, not the end of the world either. Get injured and fall out of the 1st round entirely, now we're talking losing many millions because of that 1 game and for what, the potential to maybe move up a couple draft spots? Again, minimal reward. That's why according to the GM interviewed, each circumstance needs to be evaluated independently and by taking everything into consideration.
A 2nd rounder has a shot at a big game and maybe sneaking into the 1st round. They get a better salary and go to a good team picking at the end of the 1st. On the other hand a 2nd round prospect gets injured and falls to the 4th. Ok so they went from potentially making $5.5m to now making $4m, not a huge loss and had they played the game of their life, there was still that potential to earn $9m or $10m by getting up into the 1st round.
The further down the draft board you go, the more the extra game means to those players because it's one more game to catch a team's eye and move up draft boards. The reward is there for the risk they're taking in playing in the game.
