Plankton
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/04/28/nfl-draft-first-round-raiders-gareon-conley
In the end, what saved Gareon Conley in the 2017 NFL draft was everything that happened before April 9. Conley played 41 games at Ohio State as a physical cornerback and a clinging cover man, with the football intellect of a five-year NFL vet. These were the qualities that had made Conley a first-round lock as NFL teams finalized their draft boards this spring. When the San Francisco 49ers’ brain trust left the combine in Indianapolis in early March, they agreed that of the 60 players the team interviewed there, Conley was the most impressive.
Then came his encounter in a Cleveland hotel in the early hours of April 9, news of which emerged on the Tuesday before the draft. According to a police report, a 23-year-old woman claimed she was raped by Conley in his hotel room that night, an allegation that Conley vehemently denied. Police are still investigating the incident. Conley, who had been a likely mid-first-round pick, seemed to be in limbo, because the probe was not going to be finished before the draft.
And so it was stunning, in this environment of heightened attention by NFL teams to domestic violence and sexual assault, to see Conley chosen with the 24th overall pick on Thursday night, by the Oakland Raiders. The 124th would have been understandable. But the 24th? In this climate?
“I understand the issues involved,” Oakland GM Reggie McKenzie, the reigning NFL executive of the year, told me late Thursday night. “But we did our research, and we read all the reports, and we did more than our due diligence. After all the information we got, we were comfortable with making this choice and confident in who this player is.”
In the end, what saved Gareon Conley in the 2017 NFL draft was everything that happened before April 9. Conley played 41 games at Ohio State as a physical cornerback and a clinging cover man, with the football intellect of a five-year NFL vet. These were the qualities that had made Conley a first-round lock as NFL teams finalized their draft boards this spring. When the San Francisco 49ers’ brain trust left the combine in Indianapolis in early March, they agreed that of the 60 players the team interviewed there, Conley was the most impressive.
Then came his encounter in a Cleveland hotel in the early hours of April 9, news of which emerged on the Tuesday before the draft. According to a police report, a 23-year-old woman claimed she was raped by Conley in his hotel room that night, an allegation that Conley vehemently denied. Police are still investigating the incident. Conley, who had been a likely mid-first-round pick, seemed to be in limbo, because the probe was not going to be finished before the draft.
And so it was stunning, in this environment of heightened attention by NFL teams to domestic violence and sexual assault, to see Conley chosen with the 24th overall pick on Thursday night, by the Oakland Raiders. The 124th would have been understandable. But the 24th? In this climate?
“I understand the issues involved,” Oakland GM Reggie McKenzie, the reigning NFL executive of the year, told me late Thursday night. “But we did our research, and we read all the reports, and we did more than our due diligence. After all the information we got, we were comfortable with making this choice and confident in who this player is.”
