I think we need to trust our eyeballs and have faith that Cardinal staff has come a long enough way to check out any medical red flags before surrendering a 4th round pick in order to trade up to get him.
In addition to this and other last-minute scuttlebutt concerning effort, there may have been other factors.
1. There was a talent-plateau extending from around #6 well into the 2nd round. Other teams may simply have felt there were safer options of equal talent.
2. Only so many teams placed DT at a higher priority than other positions. Recent news that Harrell's bench press indicated he had fully recovered from his pec injury elevated him above Branch on many boards.
3. Some teams consider drafting a DT in the first round an iffy proposition.
To those teams who opted out because of the so-called effort rumors, they should consider this:
Players don't change between the close of regular season and draft day (the only thing that changes are opinions about those players). Alan Branch's body of work coming into preseason was good enough to warrant a Top 10 grade at that time. Nothing during post season happened to change that. It's been said that, instead of being dazzled by post season drills and workouts in shorts, more GM's should trust the game tape that led them to conclude the young man was something special in the first place.
