San Diego Chargers Daily Links: May 8, 2014

The Rise of the Hyper-Informed Football Fan - Paul Glavic
For many Americans, football fandom is a knowledge contest, an anxious dedication to information gathering that drives us to consume the NFL’s human-resources wing as entertainment. Last year, more than 7.9 million of us watched the draft and another 7.3 million viewed some portion of the scouting combine.

Playmaker Score 2014 - Nathan Forster
This year, Playmaker agrees with conventional wisdom that this year's Draft is an exceptionally strong class for finding wide receiver talent. Indeed, Playmaker likes all of the receivers that are likely to be selected in the first round. However, according to Playmaker, the real strength of this wide receiver class is not the players on the top, but rather, its unprecedented depth. This year, there may be as many as 15 wide receivers drafted that have Playmaker Ratings of 80 percent or more. No other year has had more than eight such players.

Five Years Later, the 2009 NFL Draft May Be the Worst Ever - Robert Mays
Twenty years later, we can reasonably call 1994 the birth of modern NFL drafting. That’s when the NFL went to a seven-round format, down from eight the previous season. Over that time period, and with five years of perspective, it’s safe to say that the 2009 draft is the worst of that era. It’s not really close.

Dominique Easley and the Risk of Drafting Injury-Prone Players - Robert Mays
What teams have to weigh is whether all that top-15 talent is worth the chance Easley will live in the training room. Players tear ACLs and come back stronger all the time. That said, it happening once can be an isolated incident, but two starts to look like a trend. The encouraging part for Easley and whoever decides to draft him is that they already know he can come back from injury without any trouble.