How 49ers, other teams deal with misinformation as draft approaches

How 49ers, other teams deal with misinformation as draft approaches originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

This is the time of year in which all the happenings around the NFL are going on behind the scenes.

Teams have mostly put their free-agent activity on hold as all the attention shifts toward the upcoming NFL Draft.

There is a lot of information floating around that can be used for a competitive advantage — if only teams could easily identify fact from fiction.

“There are a lot of ways we try to get a feel for what other teams are thinking,” Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke answered when asked by NBC Sports Bay Area how he knows what reports or rumors can be believed this time of year. “If I shared that with you, you’d take that back to San Francisco.”

Oh, and paranoia is running at a high level as the draft approaches, too.

“I think you can drive yourself crazy trying to do that,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said. “Now having said that, you want to always be aware of things that are said in the media, reports on who’s coming in for 30 visits and things like that. People have gotten pretty good at identifying those things. They can give you some clues. Or they could be pulling your leg.”

Each team is allowed to bring in 30 out-of-the-area prospects to their team headquarters. In some cases, there is genuine interest in those players. But other visits might be arranged to address concerns over character, pre-existing injuries or, simply, to provide a smokescreen.

The deadline for such visits is April 17. The 49ers will also host a group of local prospects for a pre-draft workout on Wednesday in Santa Clara.

“You try to get a gauge on what the team needs are for other teams, and who they’re sending guys around to look at.” said Baalke, who spent six seasons as the 49ers’ general manager. “Those are things we chart and keep track of.”

There have been plenty of instances of misinformation — or misinterpretations…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/49ers-other-teams-deal-misinformation-162653662.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-04-10 17:07:48

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