Figurs? :rolleyes:
If he’s Williamson minus being a complete and total headcase he might be OK. Truth be told I’d be even more excited if the Bears got Britt with their 2nd pick instead of Heyward-Bey with their first but Britt probably won’t last that long.
Well, Andre Smith managed to *show up *for his pro day. From what I have heard from the various scouting sites the consensus seems to be that he did really well on position drills and bombed the workout drills. Guess he could not bother to prep for the second most important job interview of his career, either. How does this affect his stock?
Is he still the #3 OT or will Oher overtake him? He has the skills, but if I were a GM the character he is showing would definately make me shy away from anything above about a #16 pick contract. This is a guy who comes across to me as a player who will sit out off-seasons and take a few games a season to get up to speed. If Oher, Britton and Beatty do well at their pro days he could be hurting even more. Beatty probably cannot overtake him, but Oher can and Britton might.
ESPN has posted an updated Mock Draft for both McShay and Kiper.
I edited out much of the commentary to keep it fair use since this is an ESPN Insider article but you can see that Kiper and McShay both still have Andre Smith as the 3rd OT coming off the board no later than the 13th pick. I think that’s insane personally, I would bet good money that he drops much further than that and that both Oher and Britton go before he does.
Some interesting stuff in those Mocks though. They seem to be dovetailing on some of their projections. Both have Stafford going first, which I doubt, I think Curry ends up going first. As a Bears fan I hope I’m wrong, I don’t want to face Curry twice a year, I have no worries about Stafford.
McShay has Maclin leapfrogging Crabtree which just doesn’t make any sense at all, though with the Raiders anything is possible.
They agree on Tyson Jackson going to the Broncos at 12, Heyward-Bey going to the Bears at 18 and Josh Freeman going to the Bucs at 19. All logical picks that I would bet play out exactly that way. The Bears might wait until their 2nd rounder to take a WR and the Bucs might look to trade back and still land Freeman near the end of the first round, but this is probably the most likely scenario for both teams.
Kiper has Donald Brown leapfrogging ahead of Beanie Wells which I agree with. Kenny Britt and Michael Johnson are much, much higher on Kiper’s board than McShay’s. Since both are guys I covet for the Bears in the 2nd round I hope McShay is correct. The Bears are particularly interested in Johnson to help their pass rush, if they draft him I hope it’s in some combo of Heyward-Bey/Johnson or Johnson/Britt.
The Lions have a horrible history with QBs. I do not want another one. We have a couple left and we can wait a year. I feel sorry for the beating they have to take.
Wide receivers are not hard to pick up. The really good ones are nuts and put the team through all kinds of problems.
The Lions should build a line. We have been without one for years. Our Oline has been a career destroyer. QBs have paid a terrible price here. We now have a 300 lber at QB that might survive a year. That gives us a window to build at other spots that are easier to fill.
The Bucs will not draft a quarterback in the first round. They might sign or trade for a veteran, or draft a guy in the later rounds… but Freeman isn’t worth a first-round pick, and we don’t need a rookie quarterback anyway.
First-round possibilities are DE, (under) DT, OT, WR and CB, in that order.
I agree that #19 is too high for him, maybe somewhere in the #30-40 range would be better. The pundits seem to love the Morris-Freeman connection. I know the Bucs wanted Cutler but what veteran are they going to get? QBs are hella scarce and it seems like they dumped Gruden for his inability to find a QB after signing mediocre aging FAs year after year. If Morris thinks Josh Johnson is a bust he almost has to get a guy to develop soon.
I will be one sad panda if they take Stafford at number 1. I know I’ve said this, but I need to keep repeating it. It’s my mantra.
I don’t understand why they’re all up in the Morris-Freeman connection area; Morris was K-State’s defensive coordinator, and only for one year. He probably didn’t say more than a dozen words to Freeman in any given week.
I highly doubt he’s passed any judgment on Johnson yet. He hasn’t taken a regular season snap yet, and word is he looks good in practice.
The team will go into the season with Luke McCown as the starter, and I’m fine with that. He hasn’t had much opportunity for the last few years but he was absolutely spectacular when allowed to play.
As the DB Coach he probably had Johnson running scout team against the starters every single practice last season. He might know him better than anyone. It’ll be interesting to see what the dynamic with him and McCown is in preseason.
McCown ran the scout team offense nearly all the time last season. Johnson only played scout team QB before the Raiders, Broncos and Chiefs games.
Supposedly the Bears were scouting Nebraska QB Joe Ganz today. I know almost nothing about him. Did anyone watch him play? Does he have late round potential? His numbers in 08 look pretty nice but the Big 12 had, shall we say, interesting season defensively.
In other news John Tait officially retired today. Freeing up cap room for the Bears and officially ending any chance of luring him back, or more practically using that possibility as negotiating leverage with St. Clair.
Projected 2009 compensatory picks here, by “AdamJT13.” Looks like New England will be the biggest winner, projected here to receive extra picks in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th rounds (for Asante Samuel, Donte Stallworth, and Randall Gay, respectively).
If nothing else, it’s an interesting read for its insights into the secret formula used by the NFL to award compensatory picks.
Why are they getting a compensatory pick for Stallworth? I thought you only got them for players you drafted yourself who leave via free agency.
Nope, that’s not the case. I’ve certainly never heard that, at least.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do for Brendon Ayanbadejo. That site has him projected as a 7th round compensatory pick, but as a Pro Bowl special teams specialist his numbers don’t really fit with normal formula. You’d think that a Pro Bowler would warrant more than a 7th rounder, even if he is a special teamer. The fact that a special teamer was signed as a RFA for $1.5M is pretty unique in itself.
Some interesting stuff going on regarding the draft in the last couple weeks.
Bears give up #18, #84, and next years’ first rounder, but get #140. Oh, and Jay Cutler.
Word has it BJ Raji, Vontae Davis, and Percy Harvin all tested positive for marijuana at the combine. In addition, there are reports that USC linebackers Cushing and Matthews tested positive for steroids. Whether that will effect their draft positions, who knows. Personally, I was hoping the Pack would target Raji at 9, but I’m now wondering if that is wise.
Both Stafford and Sanchez supposedly had very good pro days and individual workouts, and are both now looking like top 10 picks. This may make for some interesting trades to move up.
We’ve passed the 8 million mark on number of mock NFL drafts done. And all of them are going to be wrong. All of them.
I’ve fine tuned a list of “My Guys” in the draft who I think will be good value at the Packers picks:
First Round:
Aaron Curry/Justin Smith/Eugene Monroe (They’ll all be gone I’m sure). And Raji until failing the drug test.
Second Round
Clint Sintim, DE/OLB, Virginia
Larry English, DE/OLB, Northern Illinois
Tyson Jackson, DE, LSU
Third Round
Jarron Gilbert, DE, San Diego State.
Jamon Meredith, OT, South Carolina
Brian Robiskie, WR, THE Ohio State University
Fourth Round
Myron Pryor, NT, Kentucky
Alex Magee, DT/DE, Purdue
Mitch King, DT/DE, Iowa
David Veikune, DE, Hawaii
Andre Brown, RB, North Carolina State
Later Round Sleepers
Sebastian Vollmer, OT, Houston
Marlon Lucky, RB, Nebraska
Roy Miller, DT, Texas
Victor Butler, OLB, Oregon State
Quan Cosby, WR, Texas
Tyronne Green, OG, Auburn
Kraig Urbik, OG, Wisconsin
Not many of these guys will fall to the Packers, but I like their potential to succeed in the NFL. As you can see, I think (unless Sintim or English fall to the second round), the Pack can wait on a pass rush specialist OLB (a guy like Victor Butler will fit the bill very well) and a 3-4 DE until the later rounds. Which makes me wary of picking someone like Everette Brown or Brian Orakpo at #9. I also don’t like the depth in the defensive secondary in the draft, so I wouldn’t mind Malcom Jenkins in the first round.
I think that the way this draft may work out, the Packers may trade down from #9 depending on who is still available. I’m fine with that as long as there is some good compensation. And, of course, some good picks.
Aaron Maybin, DE/OLB, Penn State
Josh Freeman, QB, Kansas State
Sean Smith, DB, Utah
Jeremy Maclin, WR, Missouri
Derrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Maryland
T minus 22 days and counting.
I don’t think you’ll see Robiskie fall to the third round.
I am crossing every available body part in the hope that the Buccaneers will not draft Josh Freeman. I didn’t like him much when I looked at his numbers and record. I like him even less after hearing a couple of interviews. Guy’s a complete moron.
That’s one of the things I always go through during the draft. I always look at it from a Packer’s perspective, so much of who I like is based on where they become good value for the Pack. This year, the Pack are at 9, so all those guys who would be good value at the middle or end of a round, I have to hope fall to the next round. Robiskie, to me, is a solid pick late in the second, but is clearly not worth the Packers pick at the top of the second, so I have to hope he falls to the third round. But, in reality, I think he’s clearly a mid to late second round pick.
The same goes for guys like Sintim, Jackson, Meredith, and Gilbert. I have them all being good picks in a late round, but a reach early in that same round. So I have to hope they fall a round. So, if they’re picked late in the round before I have them listed, that’s a good pick for that team. But I really want them to fall to the Packers.
Someone will take a chance on him. Now that the Bucs no longer have a shot at Cutler (I saw Kiper say that the Bucs could have him for a first and a later pick), they may take that chance. But, for your sake, I hope they don’t.
I was pretty steamed at the team for not taking the plunge on Cutler after 33 years of poor-to-mediocre quarterback play. Still, I have high hopes for Luke McCown, and Cutler seemed to become less of a no-brainer as the trade saga went on.
Now he’s looking like a total whiny bitch- he actually had the temerity to suggest that “this wasn’t him”, and that he “didn’t want to be traded” yesterday. I don’t know that I want that guy on my team even if he throws for 4500 yards again.
Does anyone have a perspective on OG Herman Johnson, LSU? I have seen him in the combine and I know the guy is a beast size-wise, but can he actually play? Looking at his drills in the combine I would call him a safe third or early fourth-round pick, but was he an important part of the strenghth of LSU’s line?