I used to kind of like his work when he was with the now defunct Pro Football Weekly, but Nolan has produced this year the most bizarre and off the wall player profile I've seen in a while. http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/aaron-donald?id=2543485 He rates Donald as a 4th-5th rounder. WTF???? OVERVIEW 2013: First-team All-American and first-team All-ACC selection. Was Outland Trophy, Chuck Bednarik AWard and Bronko Nagurski Award winner. 2012: First-team All-Big East selection. Led team with 5.5 sacks and 18.5 tackles for loss. 2011: Second-team All-Big East after playing in all 13 games and making five starts. 2010: Played in all 13 games. Led the team with 11 sacks. ANALYSIS STRENGTHS Quick off the snap. Natural leverage. Gets under pads and into gaps. Good foot athlete -- redirects well and can work the edges and loop and stunt. Flexible enough to zone drop in short area. Plays with awareness and consistently locates the ball. Closes hard and fast. Keeps working to the ball. Disruptive penetrating ability. Outstanding career production -- 63 TFL and 27.5 sacks the last three seasons. Tough and competitive. Team captain with terrific personal and football character. WEAKNESSES Marginal height and frame is nearly maxed out. Hands are more active than strong -- could play with more pop and power. Overpowered in the run game and ground up by double teams. Gets snared and controlled by bigger, longer blockers. Not a two-gap player. Has some tweener traits -- lacks ideal length and bend to play outside. DRAFT PROJECTION Rounds 4-5 BOTTOM LINE Short, scrappy, instinctive, highly productive defensive lineman who does not look the part, but inspires confidence he can be an exception to the rule. Is the type you root for and has the quickness, athleticism and motor to earn a spot as a rotational three-technique in a fast-flowing 4-3 scheme. -Nolan Nawrocki
Well, I'd be on board w/ taking him in the 4th or 5th round. Sadly I have no pithy follow up comment.
I don't know what Nolan is smoking this year. In his Charles Sims' writeup it says "Ran exclusively out of the pistol/shotgun formation" That's just false. If you watch any game of Sims you'll see him getting touches out of a singleback formation. I don't know if he just neglected to actually watch any of Sims' tape or watched five runs and gave up. It doesn't make me feel super confident in his evaluations if he's blatantly getting simple details wrong.
Could it be that Nolan writes the scouting profile, and someone else gives them a rating and round grades?
This is common at big outfits such as NFL.com. That doesn't excuse Nawrocki's gaffe with Charles Sims though.
Strange article. What do you all think our FA adds mean for our draft targets? Is a DT in play at all in the first two rounds now that we have a pretty nice 3-man rotation?
Personally I don't think we are looking for one, but Donald seems exceptional so hope he would be in play if he falls a little.
We really do not have a read on Hickey, since this draft will be his first with final say. He may have said once he is into taking the BPA regardless of position, so who knows which way he'll go. I'd have to think AD would be given consideration for sure if somehow he makes it to 19.
Man if he's there at 19........it would have to be someone special to pass on Donald. If he makes it to double digits........ I was thinking about it last night. Makes no sense.