Just in time for the climax of 2011 NFL Mock Draft season the BUST-O-METER has returned to Mocking the Draft, profiling as its 15th-bustiest player recent consensus-number-one Nick Fairley. Fairley's bust-worthiness, according to the article, comes from his limited track record as a community college transfer; MTD's Jon Dove thinks that one year is about as good a bit of draft evidence as one year can get, but as a general rule it's fair to wonder how his number-one plaudits will go up if Fairley turns out to have peaked at 22.
Last year's BUST-O-METER—the capital letters seem to offer it the right amount of foreboding—correctly picked Jimmy Clausen as someone who might not be franchise quarterback material, just a year ahead of the Carolina Panthers' attempts to replace him with a franchise quarterback. Its number-one pick was New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who had a solid rookie season in 2010 out of the 15th overall spot.
So Nick Fairley needn't worry about being smitten by the NFL Mock Draft Gods, but the unrelated Small Sample Size Gods are never shy about asking for new object lessons; maybe that has something to do with his recent and unprompted slide down certain mock draft boards.