I’m not saying I’ve decided he’s a quitter and thus he will never succeed in the NFL. But I do think going away when things aren’t going your way is a sign of character. This one incident wouldn’t put me off him (I still think he’s worth a mid second round pick), but if there were any other questions about his character or resilience (which there are) this would certainly add to him.
And it looks like his agent and advisors think like I do, because apparently he’s now decided to stick around for the second round of the draft.
For instance, Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells despise dealing with the media. You can see how much that hurt them.
They committed to being there on opening night. I don’t think they committed to anything else and I see no indication the NFL has some kind of problem with them not being there. The last time this happened, the NFL actually arranged to get the player (Brady Quinn) out of the freaking green room because they didn’t want him to be embarrassed any further.
If Geno didn’t show up at all because he didn’t want the media, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. That’s up to him. But he showed up when he thought things were going his way, and when he didn’t, he left.
He’s apparently coming back, so it’s all kinda moot.
It’s just another piece of the puzzle. These NFL prospects don’t come with “can handle pressure”, “never changes his mind”, “reacts like a child if things don’t go his way” come stamped on their forehead. NFL teams spend a great deal of time and money trying to decide on not just the physical skills, but also the mental makeup of their potential players. And in deciding what kind of intangibles a guy has, those teams interview his coaches and friends, interview the guy, go through disciplinary actions, and a whole host of other information, including how the guy comports himself in the media and how he reacts to things not going his way. Which was something his agents, and himself, likely realized after the fact, so he’s coming back.
That sounds nice, but I think if your job depended on drafting well you would be much more careful and you’d be using university/legal trouble as just one element among many in evaluating a prospect. I’m not going to download that paper right now, but I do wonder if the author used any finer gradations in his analysis. It’s one thing to say “trouble” had no overall effect, but does he determine if (say) spousal abuse and robbery had an effect while smoking pot or breaking minor team rules didn’t?
In very vague terms, yes. But if Mingo was double teamed a lot, or given defensive assignments by his coaches that effectively nullified him on plays, that says nothing about Mingo.
Not to mention that none of these front 7 guys that got drafted yesterday tore it up in college. Jarvis Jones stuffed the stat sheet for two seasons, yet he went in the middle of the 1st round, and everyone agreed beforehand that that’s where he belonged, so how important is a gaudy sack total anyway? At least half of them come against cupcakes.
I liked the Mingo pick. It says we’re going to be coming after your quarterback. He’s strong and athletic, and he was a key part of a good college defense. Good enough for me.
Feels like Kam Wimbley 2.0 to me. Not totally useless but won’t live up to #6. The Browns say they had a trade down offer on the table but picked Mingo anyway. I have to wonder who else was going after him - seems like the Browns could’ve traded down into the mid teens and still snagged him.
I was totally right about this. I kept an eye on the guy and at 18 he jumped up and started panning around. Moments later, 49ers radio play-by-play voice Ted Robinson popped up on stage to announce the trade. The NFL Network cut to a shot of our party and I was in the shot :D. I got on TV!
I went over to Draft Breakdown to watch some more tape on Eric Reid. Plenty good, some bad. I’m cautiously optimistic. I think he’ll be a coverage upgrade over Goldson, but he doesn’t rocket into runners as skillfully as Goldson did.
I think Dee Milliner, Star Lotulelei, Shariff Floyd, and Kenny Vaccaro would have made better choices. Guard simply isn’t that big a priority while guys who can cover, guys who can either rush the passer or eat up blocks, and safeties are more important.
That is only if you have the cap room to sign them. STL had $256,000 in remainng cap room and restructured Chris Long to free up $4.5 mil. The 49ers are in the same boat. They had 15 picks and would not have the cap space to sign all 15, ergo they need to either drop some or trade them lower so that the per pick cap cost is smaller. The talking heads were even discussing this situation when SF made its trade.
The other option is to cut veterans to make room for unproven rookies and eating up more cap space later with dead money. If you have people in place that you are happy with, shedding picks to save from having to sign players you don’t have money for does make sense.
You were the devilishly handsome, very well built, and intelligent one who was performing an emergency tracheotomy with one hand and giving your dinner to a homeless child with the other, weren’t you?
