Baylor draft prospect charged with sexual assault:

It’s just over two weeks away from the start of the 2016 NFL Draft, and Baylor defensive end Shawn Oakman’s draft hopes may have just gone out the window. Oakman was arrested Wednesday and charged with sexual assault stemming from an alleged incident that occurred in a Waco, Texas duplex on April 3^rd.

When kids get popped with weed or arrested for something else foolish before the NFL Draft, you can call that a stupid mistake, but if the sexual assault charges against Oakman are true, it’s much too despicable of a crime to be called a mistake.

One can look at a crime of stupidity and ask why did a person make that mistake so close to living their dream, but violent crimes like sexual assault are too incomprehensible to understand on any level, and it’s unlikely a person capable of committing such atrocities thinks much about the timing of their crimes.

Whether or not Oakman is eventually found guilty of this crime, the timing of the charges pretty much guarantees he will go undrafted.

As one NFL executive told Lance Zierlein, “Those charges are not going away in 2 weeks. He’s undraftable now.”

Sexual assault isn’t the kind of crime that makes you want to grab a young man by the shoulders and scream what’s wrong with you. It’s the kind of crime that makes you want to never see a human being again. Anywhere, let alone on a football field. We won’t go over Oakman’s stats or the fact that he was likely a late-round pick before being arrested, because honestly who the hell cares? If he’s guilty, his college successes don’t much matter, and unfortunately if he’s innocent, he’s going to have to prove that before any NFL team touches him.

Patriots release Dominique Easley:

The New England Patriots made a surprising move Wednesday when they released former first-round pick Dominique Easley after two solid seasons as a rotational defensive tackle. The now former Patriots defensive tackle was fitting in nicely in New England when a quad injury ended his campaign in Week 14.

This is an ultimate Patriots kind of move. It doesn’t matter what round you were drafted in, what position you play, or your popularity with Patriots fans, when Bill Belichick sees you as expendable, you’re gone.

The issue for Easley wasn’t his production on the field, but it was his attitude off of it that cost him his job in New England. CSNNE’s Tom Curan reported that it wasn’t one incident that made the Patriots decide to move on from the talented defensive tackle, rather a difference in philosophy on things like, you know, “following injury programs.”

There’s an old saying that you can’t make the club in the tub, but if you’re not even making it to the tub for your treatment, that’s likely going to be an issue with your coaches as well.

NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport also reported that the split between the Pats and Easley wasn’t purely a performance/football matter, citing “off field issues.”

It’s at the point now where when the Patriots release a talented football player, you’re less inclined to ask what’s wrong with them, and more inclined to wonder what’s wrong with the player. Easley has too much ability to not get picked up, but his inability to become a Belichick guy will be a red flag for other teams.

Eagles explore moving up to No. 1:

The Tennessee Titans are licking their chops. After drafting their quarterback Marcus Mariota with the second-overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft, the Titans are sitting atop the 2016 draft just waiting for teams to start making offers for their top selection so that they can draft theirs’.

According to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, one of the teams that may be angling to try to pull off a trade with Tennessee, and has already had exploratory talks with the Titans is the Philadelphia Eagles.

There has been a lot of speculation that the Cleveland Browns would likely select quarterback Carson Wentz with their pick, the second overall, meaning any team hoping to prevent them from doing so would need to move up all the way to the first pick to keep them from snagging the North Dakota State quarterback.

Have we mentioned that the Titans are licking their chops?

Whether it’s the Eagles or another team, they’ll likely have to leapfrog Cleveland if they want to be sure they’ll land Wentz.

The former North Dakota State quarterback has quickly shot up draft boards from a guy who many thought could be a second or third-round pick to a guy who might go before anyone else. It’s a testament not only to how good the tape of Wentz looked to NFL clubs, but how he performed at the Senior Bowl, NFL combine as well as during his pro day.

Some teams have fallen in love with Wentz’s size and athleticism, and just about everyone he’s interviewed with seems to gush about the young man’s presence. It’s not a boisterous confidence or over the top leadership, but just a calm confidence that has some believing he’s prepared to be a great leader at the next level.

In the coming weeks it will be interesting to find out just how much we’ve learned about team’s draft plans, and how much nonsense we believed as well. After all, this time of year is always short on information, and long on misinformation. At the end of the day, we all hate all of the speculation, and at the same time we can’t get enough of it. Yes, you read that correctly.