To most, Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon is the most controversial prospect in the 2017 NFL draft class.
To one, Mixon is the best player in the draft.
It’s an odd development, but here goes—according to a poll done by Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, one of 16 executives asked to name the best prospect in the class said Mixon.
Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk tallied the other results:
Garrett was chosen by 11 of the 16 executives, while two named LSU safety Jamal Adams and one each named Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster, Stanford defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and Mixon.
It’s a hard stance to justify.
Mixon is likely the best back in the class if one takes away his off-field problems. But his being caught on camera punching a woman in the face and other past alleged issues we’ve documented in depth suggest a trend of red-flag behavior.
To his credit, Mixon has worked hard to clean up his image and settled the civil suit over his off-field incident recently. But that doesn’t make his problems or flags disappear. How interviews with NFL teams went behind closed doors is hard to say, though it might play into an executive claiming he’s the best player in the class (being anonymous helps too).
Maybe Mixon is the best player in the class. But the team willing to take the risk wherever it happens faces the same PR hit regardless and the flashy gamble might not work out.
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