Everybody relax. Manti Te’o will play in the NFL, might even be a star. It is extremely likely he will be picked by a team today. The fact that he wasn’t drafted in the first round Thursday just means he now has more wood for the fire.

Since our newspaper is still denied access to him because his father, Brian, didn’t like the way we covered Manti’s last college game, let me refer you to a quote from after that game.

“I just use it as fuel, I just use it as fuel to be better.”

That’s what Manti said after his Notre Dame Fighting Irish were blown out by Alabama for the BCS national championship with Te’o being overmatched during a poor first half in which the outcome was decided.

His quote applies now, just as much. Te’o can prove his doubters wrong.

Whatever team he ends up on, I want to see him succeed, and I believe he will. He can have a career like Shane Victorino has had in baseball; he can be an all-star and help his team win championships, and he can inspire Hawaii kids.

You don’t have to be a first-round pick for that to happen.

Te’o was a great college football player, and that is indisputable. But not all great college football players are chosen among the first 32. Some don’t even get drafted at all, some never play a down in the NFL. You can win every college award there is and it won’t matter when it’s draft time.

People also seemed to forget what position Te’o plays, or don’t understand the significance. He’s a linebacker. An inside linebacker. Inside linebackers who are 6 feet 1, 241 pounds and aren’t fast by NFL standards do not generally get picked in the first round, even if you average 100 tackles a season. It doesn’t matter if you cut your 40 time to 4.71 or 4.69. That’s still not very fast in the NFL.

Boston College’s Luke Kuechly ran 4.5 at the combine and is two inches taller, and that’s why he was picked ninth last year.

If you go strictly by measurables, Te’o does fit as a starting NFL linebacker. When the hype was at its greatest last fall (yes, I’m raising my hand as among the guilty parties), it was the intangibles that put him over the top as a prospect, and made him thought of as a first-round guy … a guy that was always in the right place on the field and off, and a young man who could handle personal tragedy with grace and still lead his team to a big win.

When it was revealed that this was not exactly the case — and soon after the Alabama game — Te’o fans said it shouldn’t matter. But it did to the NFL, if he ever was indeed truly considered a first-round pick by the decision-makers.

If he were two inches taller and two-tenths of a second faster in the 40? Well, then the party on the North Shore would have ended on a happier note Thursday. He’d be a first-rounder by the physical measurables, and at least one team wouldn’t have cared if he had a girlfriend who never existed.

Before all this, Mel Kiper said Te’o should be the No. 1 pick in the entire draft. It’s taken him the longest to climb back off that branch to reality, so when he kept talking about Te’o as a first-rounder Thursday I didn’t put much stock in it.

Jon Gruden, though, he’s a former coach who has real credibility and a sharp eye for talent, and he sees Te’o as a legit player. He has spent significant time with him and seemed as disappointed as many of us in Hawaii were when the Vikings didn’t use their third first-round pick to grab him.

Gruden’s endorsement tells me Te’o has a real chance for NFL stardom, despite the fairly average physical gifts for the highest level.

I’m glad Manti spent Thursday with his family instead of stewing in the green room in New York with Geno Smith.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.