NFL Draft 2012: Janoris Jenkins and the 7 Most Controversial Possible Selections

The upcoming draft is drawing near and NFL fans are more excited than ever to see who their team is going to select to help their team add the missing piece to their championship dreams.

Teams from the end of the regular season through these last few days have been assessing each and every prospect, labeling them as they see fit for their teams needs.

Each team has their own value system in which they grade players and it is hard to analyze what they do in the war rooms, but it is fun to give educated guesses and predict which players each team will draft.

As you read, teams are addressing any physical, mental or character flaws the individuals may have and are comparing and contrasting each attribute to the other and each player to another to see which athlete is worth what draft pick and why.

Character, because of recent history, is a big issue in each teams' draft room. Character is such an issue in the NFL that each rookie is now required to attend a rookie symposium to educate about mistakes of those in the past.

Without further ado, here is a list of the seven most controversial possible selections in the 2012 NFL Draft.

Janoris Jenkins

One of the most talented defensive backs in the 2012 draft is facing questions about his drug history. After having to transfer for having 2 drug related arrests in 2 months while attending Florida, Jenkins faced accusations that he continued to smoke marijuana at North Alabama.

Other teams also question his character because they believe he would be distracted by his family issues. Jenkins has four children with three different women. Although Jenkins denies that it will be a distraction, teams question his focus, and some scouts doubt his ability to keep out of trouble.

Throughout all of these accusations and arrests, he still remains on some teams' draft boards as a possible first-round pick. But some teams speculate whether he is worth the risk, and those teams have him on their board as a possible third-round pick.

Vontaze Burfict

After Burfict's sophomore season, there was talk about him being the second coming of Ray Lewis. Most scouts thought Burfict could instantly be plugged into any team with a linebacker issue and he would fill it perfectly.

Amazing how much can change in one year for one man. He has gone from a possible first-round draft selection to falling on some teams' boards to the fifth round, and completely falling off other teams' draft boards completely.

Burfict has a combined 16 personal foul penalties over the last two seasons. He ran a offensive lineman type 40-yard dash at 4.9 at the combine and has been known to lose his temper on the field and in the locker room. NFL.com's Mike Mayock even referred to Burfict as being "an undraftable kid".

Ryan Tannehill

Most scouts seem to agree that Tannehill has the potential to be a great quarterback. What they will disagree on is when he deserves to be drafted. Mel Kiper, Jr. and Todd McShay seem to have daily discussions on ESPN about Tannehill's value.

Tannehill has great work ethic according to scouts and seems to have a great understanding of offensive play calling. The one gripe on Tannehill's game is his decision making. So, like it or not, this is a pick that will be talked about three-to-five years from now as either a draft-day bust or a great pick by whoever selects him.

Trent Richardson

Through no fault of his own, Trent Richardson has become a controversial pick. The decline in value of running backs in the NFL has led to most scouts to believe that running backs should no longer be valued as top-10 picks.

Richardson is without a doubt the best running back in the draft and was even labeled by ex-Colts general manager Bill Polian on ESPN as being one of five elite players in this draft class.

The Cleveland Browns have the fourth pick in the draft and are projected to take Richardson, but you can bet if the Browns select him, it will not go without criticism from fans and scouts around the league.

Dontari Poe

Dontari Poe weighed in at 346 lbs. at the combine but ran a 4.87 40-yard dash and impressed scouts with his 44 reps of 225 lbs.

Poe was labeled as a "classic workout warrior" by ESPN's Todd McShay. McShay believes Poe is a wonderful athlete and will be a good player, but believes he is being overvalued because of his combine alone. Poe did not have wonderful stats while playing for Memphis, only accumulating 22 total tackles and 1 sack in 2011 in Conference USA.

No matter where he is drafted, I am sure the critics will voice their opinion loud and clear, and only time will tell if he was overvalued or undervalued.

Alshon Jeffrey

It was reported at one time that Alshon Jeffery weighed as much as 260 lbs and clocked in at 4.89 in the 40-yard dash. This got scouts speculating about Jeffery's work ethic and commitment to the game. Scouts are caught between the thought of his spike in weight being an anomaly or sign of things to come. 

Jeffery did get his weight down to 217 and his 40 time to 4.5 for his combine appearance. Bleacher Report's own Matt Miller has him projected as a first-round draft pick and the No. 1 overall receiver in the draft.

Others have him as a mid-second-round draft choice and the sixth best receiver in the draft behind Stephen Hill, Kendall Wright and Brian Quick.

It will be fun to see if a team takes a risk to draft him or takes a chance to see if he will fall to the second round.

Alfonzo Dennard

At the beginning of most mock drafts, Alfonzo Dennard was near the top of scouts' cornerback rankings and was projected as a potential mid-to-late-first-round draft selection. As of late, Dennard has been sliding down draft boards with his most recent issues of allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Before this latest incident, he had been sliding down draft boards for not having a stellar performance at the combine, and some scouts even questioned his size and strength to be a starting cornerback in the NFL.

It is obvious that he will not be selected in the first round, but his latest incident could not have come at a worse time and will probably lead to him slipping into the third or fourth rounds because of his character issues.