Report: Mallett Skips Meeting With Panthers; Agent Responds to Report

According to a report from Brad Biggs of NationalFootballPost.com, former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett was not present for a scheduled meeting with the Carolina Panthers earlier in April as part of an official pre-draft visit.

Mallett had dinner with Panther’s officials on April 8 but called the team and told him he was sick the next morning when meetings were scheduled. According to the report, multiple sources claimed Mallett was “out on the town” late after his dinner meeting with the Panthers.

Many questions have been asked about Mallett’s character and leadership abilities throughout the past couple of months. While some believe he has all the physical ability to be a solid starting quarterback in this league, others believe his character concerns should drop him into at least the second round.

Mallett was arrested for public intoxication in 2009. There have also been rumors that floated around about drug use, rumors that he wouldn’t answer questions about at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February. While some, including Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino, have come to Mallett’s defense regarding his character issues, this certainly must concern people if true. A report from Michael Lombardi of NFL Network recently said that according to his sources, the Washington Redskins were legitimately interested in Mallet with the tenth pick overall.

It will be interesting to see which team takes a chance on Mallett in approximately a week when the 2011 NFL Draft gets under way. Quarterbacks can be tricky as some teams will look past off-field issues in a desperate attempt to find the future of the franchise under center. Let’s see if Ryan Mallett can be that guy for a certain team.

**Update: Mallett’s agents, J.R. Carroll and David Dunn, have released a statement on the report, taken from ProFootballTalk.com:

“There is absolutely no truth to the unfounded and irresponsible report that Ryan skipped his visit with the Carolina Panthers on April 9 because he was too sick after a late night out on the two the previous night. Rather, Ryan had dinner with club officials from the Panthers on the evening of April 8 and then returned to his hotel that evening along with Julio Jones. Ryan and Julio were together the entire time that evening until Ryan and Julio turning in for the night around 10:00-10:30.”

“Upon returning to his hotel room, Ryan became ill and was up most of the night and into the morning with flu-like symptoms. Keep in mind that this was Ryan’s fourth team visit in the previous week and that Ryan had crisscrossed the country with stops in Cincinnati, Fayetteville, Seattle, Fayetteville again and Minneapolis before Charlotte. Nevertheless, Ryan met with Panthers representatives on the morning of April 9 as scheduled and informed the club at that time that he was extremely sick. Carolina officials decided to send Ryan back to his hotel room for some medicine and additional rest in hopes that they could meet with Ryan later that morning. Ryan did as instructed and contacted Panthers officials later that morning to resume his meetings with club officials. However, given that Ryan was still sick, Carolina officials decided to cancel the remainder of Ryan’s visit with the team.”