Paul Dawson was the big man on campus at TCU. He was a fantastic linebacker who had great instincts and a nose for the ball. He was a huge reason why TCU was one of the best teams in the nation last year. Dawson’s senior campaign led most to giving him an early-second round grade as he appeared to be the perfect “Will” linebacker.

Nevertheless, Dawson entered Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine and put together one of the most disappointing performances in recent history, which couple with some character issues has led to Dawson’s draft stock to free fall.

To get a feel as to how poor Dawson was at the combine, take a look at his spider graph in comparison with other outside linebackers since 1999 via MockDraftable.com.

If you’re not familiar with spider graphs, this was graph points to Dawson’s performance as boarding on pathetic. He scored at or below the 35th percentile in every single measurable (and that was bench press, which has little correlation to what linebackers do on the field).

If you were to judge Dawson based off just his combine performance, you would think he was a player who lacked the physical skill set to make even the most routine of plays on the football field and someone who probably shouldn’t be drafted. However, Dawson had a message for those that were hypercritical of his combine performance.

“I’m an awesome football player,” Dawson wrote in a tweet. “The best/most productive linebacker in this draft. Not a track star.”

Even though Dawson’s tweet reeks of bravado and arrogance, he isn’t wrong. Dawson routinely made huge plays that required more than average athleticism to make. Like this play, for example:

The fact of the matter is that even though Dawson isn’t a great athlete, he has the requisite skill set to make up for his athletic deficiencies.

Dawson’s best trait is his instincts and his ability to key on the offense and diagnose the play quickly. This allows Dawson to play fast and not take the false steps that should slow down most linebackers. At a position where instincts are so important, those are two essential traits that Dawson has.

Now, it would be foolish to say that the only reason that Dawson’s stock is in free fall at the moment was about a poor combine. He also has his fair share of character concerns. One AFC West scout was very critical of Dawson’s character issues:

“He’s an early round player without any question, but you don’t have to dig around very deep or very long to realize that his personal character is going to be a major issue for some teams,” he said. “My grade will be two rounds later than just the talent grade. It has to be factored in.”

In a league that value character more than ever, this is not a good sign. To Dawson’s credit, even though he doesn’t believe he has character concerns, he does admit that he is a bit of a knucklehead.

“When I see stuff like my team doesn’t like me, that’s hurtful. I guarantee if you call Coach P right now, the only thing he’d say is I’m a knucklehead. But he would also say that everybody should coach a guy like Paul Dawson — a dude who has a lot of potential, who has the drive, who has the capability to go far and is very eager,” Dawson said. “He’s the type of coach that’s going to get in your face, cuss you out, just to see how you’re going to react. I finally figured that out my junior year. I’d be a smartass, but he liked that.”

How will NFL teams react to the above statement? It is hard to tell, some may believe he is deflecting, while others may be that he is admitting his faults. The reality is that either way, Dawson won’t get away with being a knucklehead in the NFL. He is going to have to mature and learn how to conduct himself as a professional because if he doesn’t, he’s going to quickly find himself on the bench, and eventually looking for a job.

If tape is king, Dawson is gone in the second or third round with no problems; however, the fact of the matter is that the NFL Scouting Combine matters and his character concerns are real, which could lead to Dawson falling all the way to the sixth or seventh round.

Like many things in life, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, but either way one thing is evident, the process hasn’t been kind to Dawson and his bank account is going to suffer greatly for it.