For years, we’ve accepted the truism that a team’s coach, scout or front office person’s assessment of a player, on its own, has some value. For example, it’s newsworthy that an offensive coordinator believes Lamar Jackson will fail in the NFL for example, or at least that’s the way we treat these anonymous sources.
But let’s stop pretending that’s true. Let’s also stop pretending those types of quotes are farmed out for any reason other than they drive clicks, push readers and people on the internet to engage, and incite the talking heads on podcasts, radio, and television to pop off on them.