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POMPEI'S BRANCH REPORT IS RIGHT?

A league source tells us that Dan Pompei's recent report regarding the presence of stress fractures in the lowerlegs of defensive tackle Alan Branch is on the money.

"Pompei is right," said the source. "There is no doubt he is right. I don't know where he got his info but he is dead right. That's all I can say."

A source with knowledge of Branch's condition disputed Pompei's report on Thursday, calling the problem shin splints, at worst.

The problem, as we understand it, is that different doctors view the medical evidence differently. In this case, there's an issue as to whether there's a "blackline" in an MRI of Branch's legs and, if so, whether it is proof of astress fracture.

Some teams/doctors believe it does. Others don't.

from pft

I found this on another message board, I wonder if this will make Branch fall even further?

I found this too:

this is what Scott Wright has to say

There are rumors circulating that Alan Branch has stress fractures inhis legs but I have made some calls and from everything I can gatherthey don't appear to be true. Branch does have shin splints, like a lotof big guys do, and everyone has known about that for a while and theyactually hindered him in his pre-draft training and at his Pro Dayworkout. However, Branch checked out fine medically at the ScoutingCombine and was not asked back for a re-check, as he would have been ifthere was an issue. So why is this stuff making the rounds right now?

With the draft so close this is probably a classic case ofmisinformation being put out there by a team hoping that he will fallto them in round one. The bottom line is that Branch's stock is fallinga bit and it looks like the earliest he may go is Houston at #10 or St.Louis at #13 but his drop is not due to fractured legs. Personally, I'mkeeping him as my #1 defensive tackle (ahead of Amobi Okoye) becausethe simple fact is you don't find guys that big and athletic very often.