I’m not completely sure it’s worth it. I get my money’s worth during draft time and I also use it for a lot of college recruiting info and some of the deeper MLB stuff for fantasy. I don’t really like The Magazine but it comes with the subscription to Insider so on the whole it’s a fairly justifiable $40. That said, I really love the NFL draft stuff. It destroys the free alternatives in quality and quantity.
Yeah, this is probably a pretty safe analysis. A few people have compared him to Javon Kearse. That’s pretty high praise, but really Kearse had an excellent start to his career and faded pretty quickly to mediocrity. The biggest red flag to me in addition to his middling production at the college level is that he did all that playing on the opposite side from another stud DE in George Selvie. In college, if you have 2 great DEs they both should be putting up monster numbers like Mario Williams and Manny Lawson did. It’s bizarre that Selvie is only rated with maybe a 5th round grade when his production was better than JPP.
I suppose what happens to Eric Berry will be instructive. The Safety position used to be a “never in the first round” position kinda like OG and OC. Things have changed with the proliferation of Tampa 2 zones and rise of the passing game, but if everyone is desperate for a OT and Berry, who many have as the best player in the entire draft, slides all the way to the 10th spot or so the rest of the Safeties will probably feel the effects. While Taylor Mays is that Combine monster and physical dynamo the two guys ahead of him at the position are considered nearly flawless prospects. You don’t see that too often at a position.
Man it’d be great if the Bears had a first rounder in this draft, all three of those guys would be incredible additions. Hopefully the depth at the position is equally good.
I think there are a ton of positions that are incredibly deep. The shallow ones seem to be CB, DE and OLB. Ben Tate is a RB I’d love to see the Bears add n the 3rd round, though they’ll almost certainly feel that drafting an OG or FS is more crucial.
I’m not sure if I like the changes to the draft this year, but I’ll reserve judgment until after I’ve tried it out. You’re right that it should encourage a lot of trades though.
This is small potatoes but Greg Olsen tweeted that he’s excited about the Martz system and doesn’t want to play anywhere else. Considering the broad speculation that he was unhappy and that he wouldn’t fit in the new scheme this is reassuring news. I like the guy and hope he keeps getting better, so I’m happy for this news.
I just discovered that the Browns signed Eric Ghuichec earlier this year as a backup C/OG. Browns fans better pray that Mack never goes down…Guy-check is terrible.
Martz often uses Tight Ends… for max-protect schemes. His SOP is two-receiver route combinations that take forever to develop.
In 49erland, there have been reports that scouts for the 49ers, from Singletary/Baalke on down, have been at workouts for high-profile QBs, such as Bradford, Clausen, and McCoy. I don’t know if they’re just there for shits and giggles, covering all their bases, or if Nate Davis is no longer considered our development QB. My best hope is that they’re gathering info to show Singletary that Tim Tebow isn’t anything more than a promising long-term development project.
I’m wondering if he and Cutler just quietly agreed to be good soldiers and wait until the management team in place finally implodes under it’s own incompetence. When Jerry and Lovie get shit canned Olsen and Cutler will be able to finally have hope.
Sam Farmer put together a new mock draft by having reporters in each teams home newspaper call the picks. It’s a really sound methodology, though it’s not entirely clear if the reporters are selecting the guys they think their teams should draft or the players they think they will draft.
Take a look, I don’t see too many choices that seem like longshots. Oakland reaching for Bruce Campbell is probably the biggest flaw but we all know that them making that pick would surprise exactly no one. There’d obviously be a major domino effect if the Raiders act slightly sane for once and take one of the better players listed later, but all in all it’s a solid article.
Yeah, that one looked like a bit of a stretch, but with Holmgren you just don’t know. He’s a QB guy and who knows what to make of those moves he made this offseason at the position. If Claussen is there he could be a steal since most draft boards I’ve seen have him rated 4th or 5th overall, but there is a vocal minority that thinks he’s a bust. Who knows where Holmgren rates him. The Browns could be a prime trade-up partner if Claussen reaches them.
Explain this Clausen dislike to me. I admit I only watched one of his games (against Michigan) and some clips, but I really don’t understand why people are so much against him as an NFL prospect. He’s had great production, he’s gotten better every year, he plays (quite well) in a Pro Style offense, and he’s accurate, with a good arm, and smarts. I hear the knock an his intangibles (he’s not a leader, blah blah blah), but he seems to have the respect of his teammates.
I just don’t get the Clausen hate. I’d love it if the Pack got him.
You could have said the same about Brady Quinn (minus the accuracy part). Clausen had one halfway decent season and everybody jumped back on his bandwagon.
So I guess if you’re a highly touted QB coming out of high school and put together one good college season, that’s enough.
That mock reminds me of how much I’m going to be fretting if Eric Berry is gone by #7. If he’s there - slam dunk, great, woot. If he’s not - who the hell is worthy of the #7 pick? Blah.
Safeties are an interesting animal. People compare Berry to Ed Reed, but who would they have compared Ed Reed to? Rod Woodson? Ronnie Lott? There just seems to be a cushion of years before the next amazing safety comes out and gets recognition.
Yes, I know Troy Polomalu exists. I don’t remember people saying that he was going to be the next amazing safety when he was coming out, just that he had a good head for the game and made plays, pretty much the same thing that’s said about every elite safety prospect.
As a 49ers fan, I’d be very happy with the Browns if they picked Clausen at #7. I’m worried the '9ers would pick him up at #17 if he fell that far. I’m impressed by Clausen, but I’m not convinced he’s special enough to disrupt our current QB corps by picking up in the first.
Like I said, it seems to be a very vocal minority. I don’t think there’s any systemic or widespread “Claussen hate”, most of the hardcore scouts seem to like him. It’s the media guys that seem to be spinning the hate.
As for why, well I think that’s pretty simple. First he’s a Notre Dame guy. People love to hate on ND. Second he’s a Charlie Weis guy and the bloom is off that rose. Most importantly every casual observer thinks he’s Brady Quinn 2.0 because of the previous two points. Lastly and perhaps most notably he has that Jay Cutler face that just is easy to hate. He looks the role of the villain, the snobby rich pussy that expects everything to be handed to him and complains when he doesn’t get his way. That’s not to say he is that kid, but he has that look.