What’s your take on all this noise about how Joe McKnight, he of the recent draft and ZERO plays in the NFL, suddenly appears to be the biggest bust in the draft? It seems like New York sportswriters like Rich Cimini can’t get enough of talking about his issues with mental toughness and immaturity. Yet all we’ve seen of him is a brief rookie camp and a bunch of college highlights that suggest he can absolutely break a game open with his speed and quick changes in direction.

Is McKnight a victim of the gasoline fire that is the New York media? Should I really be worried about him? None of this is really adding up -– I have faith in Rex and Mike T., I don’t think they would have picked some kid who they thought would be any sort of liability (or would fail to make the team out the gate for character issues). Why are we picking on McKnight so much? Do those writers just need a story?

– NeverSeenThemWinOne, comments section.

I missed a lot of noise surrounding McKnight while on vacation, but I imagine NeverSeenThemWinOne is referring to blog posts like this one, among others.

I would say any firestorm is at least partly due to writers needing a story, as suggested. People eat up NFL offseason news — look at all the coverage around the draft and schedule announcement. So probably every paper in town assigned a writer to cover the Jets’ rookie minicamp, and McKnight — given his upside and backstory — makes for the easiest copy.

That said, he’s a fourth-round pick, so if he’s a bust it’s not like he’s Vernon Gholston. It’s entirely possible that Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum drafted McKnight for his physical tools and took a calculated gamble on the character issues. It’s not like they’ve shied away from character issues this offseason, and maybe Ryan — with all his bravado — thinks he can take a talented but perhaps unmotivated kid and turn him into a superstar. The downside is he can’t, in which case the Jets wasted a fourth-round pick. Not great, but hardly a crushing blow.

As for the character issues themselves? I’ve got nothing. I know he barfed at minicamp, and that’s probably a bad sign. But minicamp doesn’t count for anything. A 22-year-old should have plenty of time to work himself into decent playing shape by the start of the actual season, and so I’ll reserve judgment on his motivation until he’s puking or otherwise unprepared when the games count.

And that recruiting stuff, and the nonsense with McKnight driving an SUV in college? Whatever. This is something I should probably tackle in an entirely different post when I have a lot more time to hash it out, but a) I’m certain that type of stuff happens way, way more often than we realize at many major NCAA programs and b) I cannot fault McKnight for driving a car he probably felt he deserved for contributing to the football team at a school with a huge and presumably hugely profitable program.

None of that stuff should really fall on McKnight anyway. Recruiting and rules violations are the school’s problem, and I can’t imagine anyone would expect a 21-year-old to police himself when offered the keys to a Land Rover.

Frankly, if anything I’m more concerned about his injury history than anything. He could turn out to be Gandhi in the locker room, but it won’t matter much if he blows out his knee.