NFL's Terrible Off-Field Year Impacts Draft, Scaring Teams Away from Risky Picks

CHICAGO — The first day of the NFL draft was here Thursday, in the Auditorium Theater, but in many ways the draft started with the murder of a man named Odin Lloyd in Massachusetts in 2013.

This April, a jury found that former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez killed Lloyd, and Hernandez now rots in prison where he belongs.

This draft started in other places as well. It started last February in a hotel elevator in New Jersey when Ray Rice knocked out his then-fiancee and now-wife Janay Palmer. It started last May in a Charlotte condo when Greg Hardy, a judge believed, accosted his girlfriend.

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The beginnings, the ripples that would affect this draft, were all over the country and the sport. An incident of domestic violence. A DUI. A pot smoker. A crime here. An allegation. Another NFL player arrested or charged or accused. The NFL's year from hell, 2014, transformed the sport. It is impacting this very draft.

It is true that the drafting at No. 1 overall of Jameis Winston, given he was accused of sexual assault and is facing a civil suit, shows there's been no extreme change. But in some ways, this draft demonstrated that enough teams have learned to take off-field issues less lightly.

The players, extremely talented ones, who were not drafted in the first round—despite being clear first-round talents—are proof this draft was different.

Nebraska pass-rusher Randy Gregory tested positive at the scouting combine for pot, he told NFL.com. This is a guy who would normally go, at worst, midway in the first. The positive marijuana test, and some more nebulous concerns, led to him not even being drafted Thursday.

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Offensive lineman La'el Collins, according to reports by ESPN's Adam Schefter and others, left Chicago, has been taken off draft boards and was denied by the NFL when he requested to move to the supplemental draft. Police are investigating the murder of a former girlfriend, and while Collins isn't a suspect according to The Times-Picayune, teams are staying away.

In a text, one team official said bluntly that Collins was taken off its board because "you just can't take any chances with that."

I think that before Hernandez, teams would have, in fact, taken a chance. Even early in the draft. Even in the first round. A team taking Collins would have simply said, "There's no proof he did anything wrong. In fact, the police say he's not a suspect. So shut up, media."

Cornerback P.J. Williams had his DUI arrest thrown out of court, but several team executives tell me they still have concerns. He's also a first-round talent.

Now, again, teams did draft players in the first round who've had problems with the law. So results are mixed. Sort of. Certainly before the hellish year, before Hernandez, some guys still waiting for the call might have gone in the first round. No "might." They would have.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

The learning curve in the NFL is long. The addiction to talent is powerful. The belief teams have that they can change a player's ways is typical NFL and still present. But there was clearly less of all that.

I can tell you that teams are more scared than they've ever been to take chances on a troubled player. That's partly because the league office is taking as harsh a stance on these players as the union and arbitrators will allow.

Teams have noticed this, and they've gotten slightly nervous. Not catatonic. But nervous. They know the league office will sit guys out for a season if needed, like with Josh Gordon. So they're being more cautious. Not totally, but enough.

I'll tell you something else: One reason why the trade interest in Adrian Peterson is low (for the moment) is that year from hell, and Peterson's not-so-pleasant actions of beating his own kid. I think, in a normal year, Peterson would have been traded long ago.

So no, the NFL hasn't totally changed. The first day of the draft wasn't totally misdemeanor-free. But it was different, and it all started a long way from here, many crimes ago.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.