If a bad character reference does anything to scare NFL teams away from wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham in the NFL Draft, it won't come from Gary Pinkel.
The coach who dismissed Green-Beckham from the football program at Missouri made it clear at the school's pro day Thursday that the feedback he's given to NFL personnel executives inquiring about the troubled underclassman has been of a positive nature.
"I just want to make sure (NFL teams) understand this is a pretty good kid that made a very, very serious mistake," Pinkel said, according to stltoday.com. "He needed some help with some things. ... He's a good kid with a good heart. He made a very, very serious mistake. He'll learn from it and hopefully it's going to help him out."
While it's not surprising that Pinkel would defend Green-Beckham, a Missouri native whom he recruited very heavily, he certainly wouldn't feel the same obligation to do so that a coach would for a player who hadn't been dismissed. That's not to say Pinkel won't be fully open with NFL personnel executives about Green-Beckham's attitude and behavior during his two years on the MU campus, but if anyone tells clubs to steer clear altogether, it obviously won't be Pinkel.
Green-Beckham's ouster from Missouri stemmed from a burglary investigation for which the 6-foot-5 receiver was not charged, but was alleged to have pushed a woman who fell several steps down a staircase. Two marijuana-related suspensions preceded the incident, and in fact Green-Beckham was suspended under the second of those at the time of the incident. He transferred to Oklahoma, where the NCAA required he sit out the season under transfer rules, and declared his intention to enter the NFL draft in January without having played in a game for the Sooners.
An impressive performance at the NFL Scouting Combine helped Green-Beckham's draft stock (he ran a 4.49 40-yard dash at a bulked-up 237 pounds), but amid a deep draft class of receivers, there is uncertainty about where in the draft Green-Beckham might be chosen. Three NFL Media analysts project him to be selected in the first round, while three others do not.
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