White Injury, Williams Decision Will Alter Draft

The LenDale White injury and the Ricky Williams hearing graced the internet and the sports pages this week with little fanfare, but these two supposedly unrelated events have something very much in common.

Both outcomes have a lot of meaning as far as the NFL Draft is concerned. How you may be thinking? I'm glad you asked.

Throughout every draft, a high-ranking player on every scribes draft board falters. That's the nature of the business of football. This is a numbers game. The NFL has numbers for 40 times, vertical leaps, bench press reps and even a value is given for the round your picked in and what salary you can earn for each round.

White has become this years avalanche. Aaron Rodgers was the guy last season. Most experts had him going one or two - he ended up at 24. Before the combine, White was projected as a top ten pick by some, a top 15 by most.

That is, until the combine. At Indy, White didn't participate in any event but the 225-pound bench press. He maxed out at 15 reps. His teammate, Reggie Bush, who is 45 pounds lighter, did 24 reps. Uh-oh!

Then some two months later at the USC pro day, White weighed in at 244 pounds, nine pounds heavier than at the combine and didn't participate in any workouts. Red flags were waved. His stock was dropping faster then Enron's and Martha Stewart Living put together.

This week came the news that White has a torn hamstring up near the pelvic area. What are the ramifications from his injury? For starters, White's chances of being drafted in the first round are over. No one is going to take a player in the first round who is injured and hasn't a 40 time or any significant numbers to compare to other backs.

He will fall into the second round and may become the steal of the draft. Only time will tell. The implications of his injury are immediate. White was projected to be a top 20 pick. With that gone, all other backs move up. UCLA tailback Maurice Drew could move into the first round. The Indianapolis Colts are sick, because they were pretty confident that Laurence Maroney was theirs. Now he may be gone by the time they pick at 30. The draft boards of some teams will be completely re-organized.

Williams made a huge splash in 1999 when Mike Ditka, then head coach of the New Orleans Saints, did the unprecedented and traded away his entire draft for the rights to take Ricky. We all remember Ditka wearing dreadlocks and saying how great of a deal he made. Right.

Now eight years and much bong resin later, Williams is causing a draft stir again. Only this time it's because of his off-field incidents.

The Miami Dolphin back, who rushed for over 700 yards after coming back from retirement, failed a fourth drug test, according to the NFL and will be suspended for the season. Williams immediately filed an appeal. In it, the former Texas Longhorn star stated that he wasn't taking any drugs, but a natural herb supplement.

The NFL heard his appeal this week. Williams even had Dolphin head coach Nick Sabin on hand to lend support.

Make no mistake, Sabin was doing it for selfish reasons. He was close to trading Williams to the Broncos this off-season and now that Denver has two first round picks, he really wants to talk. But, even if a deal wouldn't go down, Sabin would love to keep Ricky just in case something should happen to Ronnie Brown.

Make no mistake, whatever the NFL decides about Williams will have major draft implications, at least for the Dolphins and maybe the Broncos. The mysterious power of synchronicity is at work here. The LenDale White and Ricky Williams stories may seem unconnected to the undiscerning eye, but come draft day, many teams will feel the effects of both.