Eric Ebron is eating Miami up. Kid looks so athletic and had an awesome RAC for a TD. Not even the 2nd half yet and he has 144 yards.
Kid got wheels. Not a bad blocker either (given it's college but this is a pretty talented cane front 7)
Nope, not bad, and that's what I was kind of worried about. I haven't seen any of his other games this year though, and I haven't seen him climb the ladder and catch a ball like Eifert did last year yet. He had a spectacular one-handed catch against GTech where he fooled a safety with a double move, wonder if he can make those contested.
He certainly looks good. His YAC numbers are going to be skewed like crazy at the end of the year with that 75 yard run. My concern still remains about his hands and has manifested itself in this game as well. He makes a few nice catches and then he drops that catch in traffic in the endzone. His drop rate was 13% when I charted him earlier in the season and with his 6 receptions and 1 drop on catchable receptions, it's about 14% in this game. It's easy to write it off as "he normally catches that" like announcers love to do, but I don't think that's the case with Ebron. We'll see. EDIT: I say that and then in the second half he makes a ridiculous one handed catch. Clearly has the ability to catch difficult balls. Makes you wonder if it's just a concentration issue. Also for those who hadn't seen, Jace Amaro said he would be coming back for his senior season (https://twitter.com/J_ACER22/status/390534255849111552), but TTU fans know from Crabtree that you can't trust what a player says when the NFL comes calling with a 1st/2nd round grade.
NU, I'm fairly sure that ball hit the ground on that one-handed catch. The crew didn't replay it because, by that time, they were already labeling it a Sportscenter top 10 nominee. Total dog and pony show. UNC wisely ran a quick run play.
Catches away from the body are usually easier than those that come in close, it takes more experience to know what to do with your hands in close quarters and when the ball is lasering towards your core, extending the hands and arms away from the body on catches will look esthetically pleasing and at the same time, be some of the easiest for these athletes to make.
My main concern with Eric Ebron is just that he doesn't really play like a tight end. He plays like a wide receiver. Some may view this as a good thing. I'm not so certain of that. It can be. It can also be a problem. For the time being I'm going to have Troy Niklas and Jace Amaro ahead of him.
Just watched Troy Niklas vs. Michigan. He was awful at blocking at the beginning of the game, just getting shrugged off, and it didn't look like he was committing. Then as the game went on it picked up, had a couple plays where he washed out the end or OLB and made room for the tailback. There was a 3rd and 1 where he did that and the back got a crucial first down. The two plays where he blocks on the perimeter against corners, on a WR bubble screen, he got blown by both times. He has sure hands, and does a good job at catching the ball away from his body, and he is really muscular. On his touchdown, he plows through a DB and wipes said DB's helmet off just by running his leg over the cage of the helmet. Later he swats the hands of a backer and gets up the seam for a nice catch. He also made a catch along the sideline, then subsequently plowed into a girl standing on the sideline. Wonder what happened to her, she got wiped out.
He reminds me so much of Rob Gronkowski in college. There's a lot more video earmarked in the following post if you care to watch it. The links should take you directly to the appropriate time index. If they don't, it's because there's an advertisement getting in the way. In that case just watch the advertisement, close the tab and then click the link again. http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...lphins-Draft&p=2172177&viewfull=1#post2172177 Essentially the three top tight ends (in my opinion) Troy Niklas, Jace Amaro and Eric Ebron run the complete gambit in terms of blocking prowess. Niklas has the ability to anchor and block like a real offensive tackle in pass pro, and he displays that ability regularly. You also don't have to look very hard or very far through a tape to find him erasing people in run blocking. He does it far more often than not. The bad plays are the anomaly. Sure there might be a bad snap here or there, or maybe even a shaky stretch. But you won't get far before his blocking makes you say, "whoa". Jace Amaro is going to put out bad blocking plays. If he were a linebacker he'd be the type to overpursue the ball carrier too often. But it's not an attitude or physical ability issue, it's more of an experience and coaching issue. You don't have to look very hard to find instances where shows you really, really good blocking ability. And he's got the size and strength to back it up. Eric Ebron is what I deemed a "magic eye" blocker. You have to stare at the picture for a loooong time, trying your damnedest to see the sailboat. You may even convince yourself you see it.
I think he might be my top overall tight end, Niklas. He's a bad man. Very, very hard to defend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=smCwwgmeYjA#t=46 That's a very good player (Dion Bailey) that Niklas abused for that touchdown in a straight up man to man physical situation. Bailey is a safety/linebacker hybrid player. This is that over the shoulder catch you're talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=smCwwgmeYjA#t=79
Colt Lyerla arrested for snorting cocaine, reducing his diminishing draft stock even further. http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1823063-former-oregon-football-player-colt-lyerla-arrested Dumb ****
Bye bye future. Cocaine is a whole different animal from mary jane, especially in the eyes of draft scouts.
If you already believed the rumors about him, and I don't think it's any coincidence that the term "Coke Lyerla" had been trending on twitter waaaay before this arrest happened, then this could actually be a positive. As things stand he was already all but off the board completely for me, pending more news of whether these rumors have legs or not. And given the recent circumstances leaving the program and all that, it seemed pretty likely they had legs. Now if you think about it, this has a chance to be rock-bottom for him. Guys can turn their lives around enough to play NFL football. It does happen. Some guys were doing what Coke Lyerla was doing WHILE they were playing professional football...at elite levels. Thing is, there's a lot of time now. I think he's got two years of eligibility. If he goes to rehab, cleans up, keeps his nose clean for two years, plays football and is a model citizen...he'll get that shot in the NFL after all. In other words, his coke habit was a lot more dangerous to his NFL future while it remained a somewhat-secret. An arrest might have been the best thing for him.
I agree with the above. IMO, if you compare normal players to those who faced a significant crisis [regardless if it was self-created], the crisis group has a higher percentage of players going on to become high effort guys in the NFL and difference makers in the community and on the team. The trick is accurately assessing their passion for the game and then discerning inherent behavioral problems from immature, naive acting kids simply caught up in the moment of life as college football players/gods who fail to think before they act. Not to mention, not all kids are raised the same, so some might require more mistake-making than others in order to find their way. That's why I didn't have qualms about drafting Dez, Mike Williams, Mathieu, and currently feel ok about Michael Dyer but grew heavily apprehensive of Da'Rick Rogers.
You forgot to mention players that have been through a crisis and come through it. Just screwing up doesn't get you any more likely to succeed.
I didn't mention "coming through the crisis" b/c for the most part we won't discover whether or not this happened until they're in the NFL, so what we're doing is trying to assess/speculate whom we feel will pull through the crisis and turn the experience into a positive. ...and typical run-of-the-mill players who haven't been through a crisis aren't more likely to become higher effort players, better teammates, and stronger contributors in the community just b/c they remained trouble free. He could still be a lazy mother***** just looking to get paid while coasting by. I didn't say screwing-up makes the player more likely to succeed; I'm saying the percentage of players who go on to try and make a bigger difference rather than coasting by is higher among players who faced a serious crisis than ones who didn't, so the reward factor can be higher for hitting on a crisis player even though there's obviously still a bust factor involved. Take all the "crisis players" and the massive pool of "non crisis players" and assess the percentage of each who become passionate high-effort players/teammates in the NFL and I bet the crisis players is higher.
I disagree with that pretty strongly. I think the stories we're NOT hearing about amongst dropouts, screwups, quitters, etc...just totally overwhelm the small number of thsoe that went through that stuff and then made it. I think going through adversity and then demonstrating a significant ability to come out the other side of it can be an indicator. Cam Newton being a good example.
I personally wouldn't include the dropouts & quitters in with the players who faced crisis or adversity group. Are you underestimating the number of NON crisis-enduring players who refuse to give 100% to their trade, their team, and their health/playing shape like the Vontae Davis's and John Jerry's of the NFL? Probably each team has a handful of these guys who never allow themselves to live up to potential. How many normal players don't make it in the league just b/c their effort and work ethic suck? Then compare that to guys like Wake, Dez, Mike Williams, Janoris Jenkins, Mike Williams, and the list of players like Russell Wilson who faced the adversity of constantly being told they couldn't make it. Like I said, it's not about expecting every crisis player to become a high effort contributor in the NFL; you still have to identify if the crisis is due to behavioral problems that might lead to further issues, plus whether or not the player has enough passion & love for the game to to not want it taken away from him, even if it means modifying his behavior [ala Tyrann Mathieu].
Apparently Lyerla will be going right to the draft. Not sure if this is old news or not. He should have gone back for another year, somewhere.
Screams a Patriot pick. Though with the whole Hernandez sitch, you gotta wonder if they take that gamble.
