Blackmon looking good. He’s gone by pick 7 at the latest IMO.
Luck looks freaking amazing.
The Illini’s Whiney Mercilus declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft.
And there goes the best name in college sports, soon to become the best name in the NFL.
I can guarantee that won’t happen.
I’ve seen like 5 mocks where the Browns take Richardson #4. Why in the fucking fuck? RBs are a dime a dozen, the Browns already have adequate ones - and there’s a decent chance Hillis stays. Is Richardson some LT-like transcendental talent that can carry an offense all by himself? Because that’s the only way it could even start to be considered.
If Luck thinks he would have to play behind Peyton then I predict he would pull a John Elway and declare he won’t sign with the Colts (of course there is the super razor slim chance Luck could not declare for the draft). Also something that Peyton’s brother pulled off with the Chargers. Luck coming in and not starting right away is pretty ridiculous, IMO, so I would think the Colts will let Peyton go and draft Luck. Of course this is just my gut, but my gut is pretty big!
What are the best draft analysis/mock draft/player evaluation sites in the opinion of the board? I’m discounting ESPN Insider (as I don’t pay for it - and have no intention of doing so) and I’ve had a look at NFL.com’s player evaluations thus far. What else is there out there that’s any good (I have run into SenorBeef’s issue a few times on some of the other sites I have looked at - i.e. why the fucking fuck would team x take player y there when they’re already set at the position? - leading me to think my Google Fu is steering me wrong).
Those who know Luck say it would be extremely uncharacteristic for him to pull something to manipulate where he would go in the draft. Remember he redshirted his first year at Stanford. I would be surprised if he expressed anything negative about sitting his first year.
The problem is that he wouldn’t be sitting just one year but more like 3 if Peyton is healthy enough to play. I don’t know why folks think it would be uncharacteristic, he is a smart guy and I personally would not think any less of him if he expressed his desire not to sit for three years.
Point him in the direction of Aaron Rodgers. I think the best thing that could have happened to Rodgers was sitting for awhile. If you ask him, he’d admit he wasn’t the best prepared when he first came into the league, and that he learned a ton those first years (through no help of Favre).
I just don’t think the comparison is apt. Luck is FAR FAR more ready to be an NFL quarterback than Rodgers was. The Rodgers situation was pretty unique and asking Luck to sit for three years is pretty ridiculous, especially when rookies such as Bradford, Stafford, Newton, Dalton, even Ryan have all come out and played right away with some success. If it was just one year that probably wouldn’t be a problem, but three years?
What are you looking for here? Because you’re asking for quite a bit. Actually, scratch that, I’ll just tell you what I have for you.
If you want mock drafts, The Huddle Report grades every single major NFL mock draft and keeps score so you can tell who has done the best job historically. So hopefully from that list you can find a few favorites to follow. Hint: Rick Gosselin has pretty much dominated the grades as of late, but I think his work requires a subscription to DMN.
No, this is great, thanks very much. Simple search terms on google don’t pull up some of these guys, so at least I have got some better things to whack into a search engine and get some better analysis than I have seen thus far.
Thanks again.
I’ve heard those comparisons. Some people think Richardson is truly a transcendent talent. AP/LT/Faulk level good. Personally I think that’s crazy talk, but that’s what people are saying. I think McShay is one of those people who’ve said that, and with ESPN being everywhere most Mocks are probably following his lead. We’ll see what happens when the Combine gets closer.
I guess. I haven’t heard Richardson pimping from a few of the amateur draft gurus I know (some of whom are actually pretty knowledgable, moreso than a lot of professionals). The only way I can see taking Richardson is if the Browns have a free agency bonanza and sign Flynn and Bowe or something. There’s not really anyone on defense I like that high - Claiborne is supposed to be the real deal, and two top-10 corners is an option I suppose, but Cleveland’s secondary is already pretty strong. So that’s the only situation I could maybe see going Richardson, but that’s an unlikely scenario.
So hey, I read that Manning’s 28m roster bonus is due on March 8, but trading season doesn’t open until March 13. Why is everyone saying Manning will be traded then? Wouldn’t they already have to pay him the big money by then? It seems to me like he’s going to have to be cut, if anything. What am I missing?
Why wouldn’t Manning and whoever is going to be the GM (Has anyone been named yet?) just renegotiate Manning’s roster bonus down to something a little more realistic? There’s no way the Colts are going to be able to give Manning 28 million, and I’d think he’d know that. I mean, Wayne, Garcon, Gonzalez, Saturday, and Diem all become FAs in 2012. They’ll need money for some of those guys, I’d think. They could pay him, say, 1/2 to a 1/3 of that, with the idea that he’d play for Indy a year or two and re-build his trade value. (Especially since I think that Luck would die in 2012 if you threw him out there behind that line as it currently is.)
Or Manning can get cut now, and wave goodbye to any more Indy money, and hope that some team won’t feel that he’s a whiter version of Yao Ming. He has two vertebra fused in his neck and upper back; would you feel happy about bringing him in and giving him lots of guaranteed money?
Is he first round talent? Some of the stuff about him I read seems to indicate a good majority of his sacks were the result of the heavily aggressive defense the Illini were running, and not his still/athleticism as a pass rusher. You’re my Illini expert, so should he be drafted in the first round?
I do love the name though.
He’s projected as a middle of the 2nd round prospect. This years production has elevated him possible to the back of the 1st round pick if there’s a shortage of Ends. Some people may see him as able to stand up as a 3-4 OLB too, which could boost his value.
He’s more of a try hard guy than a elite physical talent, and the Illini have some pretty impressive interior DTs and a good scheme to help him out. There weren’t a ton of occasions where he came blistering off the edge to destroy a play and he doesn’t have the long arms that scouts love. That said, if he puts up an awesome combine, which Illini players have a habit of doing, he could get well into the 1st round.
I think a team who takes him in the 1st expecting him to be the next Simeon Rice will be badly disappointed. I think a team who takes him in the middle of the second and expects him to be a 4 down DE/OLB with a lot of run responsibility will be thrilled. Plays with a strong base and tackles exceptionally well and plays disciplined. Pair him opposite an elite DE and you could be very happy with what you get.
Right now I think the ideal scenario would be him going to Minnesota at the top of the 2nd or 3rd round and lining up opposite Jared Allen. He could also be paired with former team mate Corey Liuget in San Diego depending on the system they end up running next year.
Well, we might be edging closer to some clarity on at least one topic.
The more I learn the more I’m falling in man love with RG3. I’m also leaning towards the Browns not taking him. Why? Because they’re an incompetant bunch of fucking idiots. RG3 wouldn’t be an ideal fit for their bullshit offensive scheme that’s 20 years out of date.
More than half the Cleveland fanbase doesn’t want a new QB anyway. There’s some sort of psychological abuse syndrome type thing going on - they’ve suffered through bad QB long enough that they somehow think it can’t get better. So they’ve got a fixation with trying to draft hall of fame talent at every other position and then dragging a scrub QB kicking and screaming into wins. Like, their goal from the outset is to have bad quarterbacking and overcome it, despite, you know, suffering nothing but failure for a decade due to that very issue.
What’s especially frustrating is that they think this makes them smart. Casual football fans, you see, care about the glory positions like QB and WR. Real football fans care about line play. Except then they take this to such a ridiculous extreme that they think only line play is important - that QBs are interchangable and unimportant, and simply the result of the talent around them. If you swapped Colt McCoy and Aaron Rodgers, McCoy would be the MVP and Rodgers would be throwing for 2500 yards and 12 TDs a year. “Casual fans that don’t really know anything about football only focus in the glory positions. Smarter and savvier fans look at line play. Therefore if I ONLY care about line play, and discard everything else as unimportant, I must be super savvy and smart!”
I don’t know why I continue to keep up with browns news and other fans, it just gets me worked up over how fucking stupid everyone is from management through to the fanbase.
If RG3 is available at #4 and the Browns pass up on him, there’s a good chance I’m just going to check out next season. I didn’t even really get into football until about 10 years ago - I’ve known nothing but comically inept failure. If they decide to build around McCoy like the fanbase wants, it’s going to be at least what, another 3 or 4 years until the team looks even half competant? That’s a big shit sandwich to swallow after ten years of almost entirely shit sandwiches.