Over the last few weeks, someone’s been trying to smear South Carolina receiver Alshon Jeffery, claiming the former Freshman All-American ate his way out of the first round of April’s NFL draft.

One of the first to tweet about Jeffery’s alleged weight issue was somebody named Joe Everett, who tweets from @RookieDraft. On Feb. 13, Everett claimed to have a “source” who said Jeffery had ballooned up to “249+” pounds. Sadly, everyone took this Everett fellow at his word.

Over the next 10 days, many more “draft insiders” claiming to have “sources” echoed Jeffery’s alleged weight gain. Mayock fell for it. McShay fell for it. After those two credible voices mentioned Jeffery’s rumored weight issues, we fell for it and dropped Jeffery out of the first round.

Everyone got played.

Alshon Jeffery weighed in at the NFL combine Friday: 6-foot-3, 216 pounds. On measurements, that puts the former SEC star somewhere in the vicinity of former Alabama star Julio Jones (6-2, 220) and former Georgia star AJ Green (6-4, 220). Jeffery’s 40-time might be a deciding factor on how how he gets drafted. Jones ran a 4.39 and was drafted 6th; Green ran a 4.48 and went 4th.

Previously: NFL Mock Draft 5.0: Pre-Combine Version Featuring Falling Alshon Jeffery
Previously: 2012 NFL Mock Draft 4.0