According to a report by the Palm Beach Post, Florida wide receiver Percy Harvin’s draft stock is falling dramatically.

First there was the reported score of 12 out of 50 on Harvin’s Wonderlic test in February, which measures quick thinking and basic problem solving. Then NFLDraftBible.com reported 10 days ago that Harvin and three other players tested positive for marijuana at February’s NFL Combine in Indianapolis, though no other outlet has confirmed the report.

Harvin scored 32 touchdowns in three seasons and was a major factor on two national championship teams. He can play running back or receiver, averaged 11 yards every time he touched the ball in 2008 (110 times), and, playing with a fractured bone in his foot, famously gained 170 yards with a touchdown in the 2009 national title game.

Still, Pro Football Weekly recently polled NFL executives about the riskiest picks in this coming draft and Harvin was selected as the unanimous winner because of “coachability, a posse of hangers-on, his lack of respect for authority and drug usage.”

The reports never will be publicly confirmed by the NFL, but fair or not, the rumors are out there. Combine them with Harvin’s frequent run-ins with authorities as a high school star in the Virginia Beach area, which resulted in him being removed from high school sports altogether, and suddenly Harvin has gone from a top-10 pick to maybe slipping to the second round.

It’s hard to blame teams these days for taking a pass on a prospect that supposedly has off field baggage. The Falcons spent millions of dollars and sunk the hopes of their franchise into Michael Vick, only to watch him wind up in prison for federal dog fighting charges. Teams don’t want to be burned down the road because a player can’t stay out of trouble off the field, or stay away from their troublemaking friends.

Then again, as the article points out, guys like Dan Marino, Randy Moss and Warren Sapp also sacred off some teams and they obviously turned out to be pretty good. And it’s unfair to assume Harvin is a bad egg based on a couple of these reports, most notably the one by the unreliable NFLDraftBible.com.

The 2008 NFL season is now in the books. Well, unless you love football so much that you actually watch and care about the Pro Bowl tomorrow. You know how I would care about it? If I was in Hawaii. But that’s just me. Anyway, as some of the game’s great quarterbacks padded their career stats, let’s take a look at the active Top 10 in passing yards:

1. Brett Favre, New York Jets (65,127)—Sure, he led the NFL in interceptions this past season with 22, but Favre threw for 3472 yards and 22 touchdowns. Will this number stand, or will Favre add to it? I think I speak for every sportswriter out there when I say I’m tired of reading about and writing about Favre’s impending retirement.

2. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts (45,628)—With 20,000 yards to catch Favre, it will take Manning, who has averaged over 4000 yards per season for 11 years, another five seasons to get there. Manning is only 32, so I’d bet on that. Well, unless Favre retires and unretires a few more times.

3. Kerry Collins, Tennessee Titans (37,393)—It’s hard to believe Collins is only 36 years old, and leading the Titans to the best record in the NFL in 2008 sparked a fire under him. And that fire will continue to burn in Nashville despite how Vince Young feels about it.

4. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia Eagles (29,320)—McNabb is 82-45-1 as a starter over 10 seasons in Philly. Wait, can NFL games end in ties? Anyway, McNabb has thrown 194 touchdowns with just 90 interceptions. But the guy has no rings, and was so nervous in his lone Super Bowl appearance that he vomited in the huddle. I don’t get it.

5. Brad Johnson, Dallas Cowboys (29,054)—Johnson stopped putting up meaningful numbers a few seasons ago, and he looked awful for those three games he started in place of Tony Romo this year. Let’s just say we shouldn’t expect ol’ Brad to reach 30,000 passing yards for his career.

6. Kurt Warner, Arizona Cardinals (28,591)—Okay, so he didn’t win his second Super Bowl ring, but Warner still has an amazingly accurate arm at 37. He said he won’t tease us all with retirement talk ala Favre, but my feeling is he’s not anywhere close to being done.

7. Trent Green, St. Louis Rams (28,475)—Green has started the equivalent of one season’s games over the past three, and he’s taken some brutal hits that have left given him multiple concussions. If I was Green, and I know I’m not, I would hang it up now.

8. Jon Kitna, Detroit Lions (27,293)—Kitna has had some bad luck. He played on some bad Bengals teams and then signed with the Lions in 2006. And though Kitna went down with an injury after four games this past season, he still was part of the first 0-16 team in NFL history.

9. Tom Brady, New England Patriots (26,446)—Here’s the irony. Brady had 76 passing yards before a brutal knee injury ended his season in Week 1. If he had played 16 games, there’s a very good chance he’d be as high as fourth on this list today.

10. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints (26,258)—Brees came within 15 yards of Dan Marino’s single season record of 5084 passing yards, but he still made fantasy owners happy, and still climbed onto this list as a result.

Source: Pro Football Reference

- With their 31-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions wound up on the wrong side of history in 2008, finishing the season 0-16. No team in the NFL history has ever finished 0-16, but the good news for Lion fans is that owner William Clay Ford Sr. doesn’t plan on changing a thing about the organization. Yikes.

- I feel bad for Drew Brees. He needed just 16 more passing yards in the Saints’ 33-31 loss to the Panthers on Sunday to eclipse Dan Marino’s record for most passing yards in a single-season. I’m a little surprised that with Carolina’s defenders playing so far back, that Brees didn’t just zing one over the middle for 10 or 12 yards and let one of his receivers pick up the rest of the yardage. But I admire Brees for slinging it down field in an attempt to try and win the game. (I think that’s what he was doing?)

- In a nightmare situation for the Steelers in their 31-0 win over the hapless Cleveland Browns on Sunday, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was carted off the field after suffering a concussion late in the second quarter. Big Ben’s head slammed hard against the turf after he was crushed by two Brown defenders and it took the trainers nearly 15 minutes to attend to him. It’s unclear at this point the status of his health, although the Steelers do have a bye week before they host a playoff game.

- I didn’t see much of the Ravens’ 27-7 win over the Jaguars, but I do know that Baltimore is one scary looking playoff team. Their defense will allow them to compete with anyone and Joe Flacco might be playing better than any rookie in the league – including Matt Ryan.

- Peyton Manning went 7 for 7 for 95 yards and a touchdown in his final tune up before the playoffs. Whoever wins the AFC West between the Chargers and Broncos Sunday night should savor the moment because it’s going to be short-lived considering they’ll have to play Indy next weekend.

- I can’t believe how far the Bears’ defense has fallen since Chicago’s appearance in the Super Bowl two years ago. I mean, the Texans did whatever they wanted to the Bears and Chicago’s secondary made Matt Schaub look like Joe Theismann.

- According to the St. Petersburg Times, Buccaneers’ running back Cadillac Williams appears to have suffered a torn left patellar tendon in Tampa’s 31-24 loss to the Raiders. I don’t want to speculate before more information is released, but it’s a shame that such a promising career might be cut short.

Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that we are watching the greatest rookie quarterback to ever play in the NFL in the Falcons’ Matt Ryan.

Tom Brady threw three passes his rookie season; Brett Favre threw four. Bart Starr and Joe Montana each started one game as rookies. Troy Aikman had to be benched midway through, having gone 0-11 as a starter. Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions his first season. John Elway completed 47.5 percent of his rookie passes, Terry Bradshaw 38.1 percent.

Joe Namath was 3-5-1 as a lavishly salaried — he was making $400,000 — rookie. Fran Tarkenton was 2-8 as a first-year starter; Johnny Unitas was 4-3, Bob Griese 3-7. Ben Roethlisberger was 13-0 as a rookie quarterback on a loaded Pittsburgh team but didn’t start until Week 3. Sammy Baugh made All-Pro as a rookie but threw six more interceptions than touchdown passes. Bob Waterfield was league MVP as a rookie but started only four games. (Doubtless he got bonus points for being married to Jane Russell.)

Dan Marino is considered the gold standard of rookie quarterbacks, but his first start only came in Week 6, and he joined a team that had reached the Super Bowl the previous season. And now we consider Matt Ryan, who has started from Day 1 for a dilapidated team the Sporting News pegged to finish 1-15, who stands now as the chief reason the refurbished Falcons are 7-4.

Ryan has been unbelievable, but I think we should wait until the end of the year before making claims that he’s the best rookie quarterback ever. What Big Ben did his rookie year was pretty astonishing, although Bradley’s point about him playing on an already stacked Steelers team is just. Still, Ryan still has five games left and if he leads the Falcons to the playoffs, then maybe we can talk about him being the greatest ever.

That said, he is absolutely remarkable. Pundits figured the Falcons would win no more than two or three games not only because Ryan is a rookie, but also because the roster is devoid of overall talent. But with a little help from Michael Turner, John Abraham and Roddy White, Ryan has done some amazing things as a rookie. His poise, confidence and demeanor have been incredibly impressive and he looks like he has a bright future ahead of him.

With Week 1 of the NFL season looming, nine teams will start a quarterback with less than a full season under center.

Teams are giving young quarterbacks less and less time to develop their skills. The NFL’s win-now environment has put pressure on inexperienced quarterbacks to play well immediately, with a short and steep learning curve to develop into a good starter. Large signing bonuses have caused owners to demand that their coaching staffs play the youngsters as soon as possible.

The Minnesota Vikings are a potential Super Bowl contender, but their success will hinge on the quarterback play of Tarvaris Jackson, who has a total of 14 career starts in the NFL. The chances of him making a leap in production are slim – few young quarterbacks play consistently well week in and week out.

One quarterback that will be under the league’s microscope this season is Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers held a clipboard for three seasons as the backup to Brett Favre. And after continuous reps in the offseason program, endless time in film sessions with the coaching staff, and simply watching one of the best to ever play the quarterback position, it is time for Rodgers to take the field. Save for Favre’s offseason antics, this is the right way for a young QB to develop.

The opposite can be said for Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, as management wants the future to begin as soon as possible. After the circus that was the 2007 season, starting with the Michael Vick arrest and culminating with Bobby Petrino’s midnight exit, the Falcons needed a new face of the franchise on the field as soon as possible. But Ryan’s entire professional career consists of training camp and two weeks of mini-camp, which means we are likely to see miscommunication and missed assignments from the QB position.

It’s not often that young quarterbacks play Super Bowl-caliber ball. Dan Marino has the distinction of leading his team to a Super Bowl berth with the fewest starts (26) at the quarterback position, and Ben Roethlisberger is the youngest quarterback to actually win a Super Bowl (at the age of 23). But they are the exceptions and not the rule.

Typically, a young quarterback is no longer allowed to develop, and if success isn’t immediate, he will be written off as a disappointment.

ESPN.com did a cool feature recently when they asked SportsNation to select an all-time player for each NFL team. Some players were obvious choices for teams, including Brett Favre for the Packers and Barry Sanders for the Lions, but there were some question picks, as well.

The site added links to video of each player, as well as a chance to debate each choice.

Here were some of the more obvious selections:

49ers: Joe Montana, QB
Packers: Brett Favre, QB
Lions: Barry Sanders, RB
Browns: Jim Brown, RB
Dolphins: Dan Marino, QB
Patriots: Tom Brady, QB
Broncos: John Elway, QB
Chargers: LaDainian Tomlinson, RB
Colts: Peyton Manning, QB

And some of the more questionable choices:

Ravens: Matt Stover, K
Saints: Bobby Hebert, QB

As a colleague pointed out, it’s hard to argue with any of these picks because they were chosen by fans. But Matt Stover over Ray Lewis? Bobby Hebert over Archie Manning?

Lewis has been the face of Baltimore’s franchise for almost a decade and Stover is a kicker (albeit a very good kicker) for Jonathan Ogden’s sake. And I know Hebert was a fan favorite that led the team to the playoffs in 1988, but if Manning had a better team around him, he might have led the Saints to their first ever Super Bowl. I thought Pat Swilling would have gotten more love, too. (Swilling only got 2.4% of votes.)

Cool feature, though.