NFL Draft--Do agents matter?

[albionmoonlight]

Do you think that teams ever choose to draft a player based on the fact that the agent tends to avoid holdouts? Or not draft a player because the agent tends to holdout more than most?

I'm not wondering if teams will pick the #30 guy on their board at #5 because they like his agent. But if a team had to choose between, say, Roy Williams and Larry Fitzgerald and one of them had an agent that the team liked and one had an agent that the team hated, would that ever be the deciding factor?

[Bosco]

Ask Kellen Winslow after the draft.

[Franklinnoble]

I think it might factor into the decision if there's comparable talent available at the same position, but Eli Manning could have the biggest jackass agent in the world, and he'd still get taken #1.

[JAG]

It might be a factor if the team is trying to get terms to a deal during its 15 minutes and can't even get close to a framework. Also, I think if a team has some bad blood with an agent, it could influence their choice. The only case in point I can think of outside of the current Redskins - Winslow Jr. possible agent-related matter was when Jerry Jones was dealing with Emmitt Smith's first agent (Richard Howell I believe). He claimed he'd never draft or sign another of his agents because he was a pain in the ass (held Emmitt out of his first training camp and he missed two games in '93 as a result of contract disputes). After Emmitt dumped him and signed Deion's agent in '96 or so, he got a huge contract to finish off his Cowboys career with little muss and fuss from the agent's side.