#42 ILB Stephone Anthony for Clemson is thinking about declaring and is worth keeping an eye on tonight. Definitely got some potential and could be a nice value pick. Was the #2 LB prospect of 2011.
The Eddie Lackey talk reminds me...before the season I highlighted players that I thought would be interesting based on their stats alone (Here's the list). Some were more obvious than others (Clowney), but let's see how the stats did in picking out players. Better than expected: Tre Mason - Had him as one of the most elusive backs in CFB Eddie Lackey - He had tons of tackles near or behind the LOS Brandin Cooks - Highlighted his YAC and good hands Darqueze Dennard - Had a low burn rate, looks like he's going to be a top 3 CB in this draft Ibrahiem Campbell - Didn't get beat often, had 4 INTs this year Anthony McClung - My deep sleeper prediction. He could be a decent slot receiver in the NFL, but not touted highly. Increased his production from 500 to ~1000 yards this season. About as expected: Victor Hampton - Had 3 INTs on the year, entering the draft early - honestly haven't seen much of him this year Chris Borland - Nice ILB at college level, but many aren't too high on him Chris Young - Was playing a hybrid LB/S role for ASU, but moved exclusively to LB this year. Had 113 tackles on the year, really need to get into the tape to see how he did. Ka'Deem Carey - Pretty productive in 2012, so this wasn't exactly a bold prediction for 2013 Jordan Richards - Safety for Stanford, had 3 INTs, also one called back during the Rose Bowl Jalen Saunders - Had a down year due to QB play, but still had good YAC this year in line with 2012 Teddy Bridgewater - My love, even before the season, knows no bounds Disappointing: Will Sutton - Extremely productive in 2012, less so in 2013 Morgan Breslin - Injury problems, but had 4.5 sacks in 5 games Fitzgerald Toussaint - Pretty disappointing year with a 3.5 YPC in Michigan's offense Antone Exum - Injured for all but 3 games Erick Dargan - Plays backup safety for Oregon, thought he'd get more playing time and see his numbers/ INTs go up. They didn't. Tevin Reese - Overshadowed by Antwan Goodley Out of everyone listed on there - I'd definitely be interested in Tre Mason, Lackey, Cooks, Dennard, and Hampton. I need to evaluate more on how Chris Young, Jordan Richards, Victor Hampton did this season.
BTW, Ansah was the rookie sack leader with 8 [in 14 games b/c of injury].... and had 2 nullified by a poor penalty and a dumb one.
Yeah, he did well. Regardless of the dumb shot put interception that Taj Boyd just threw, if I needed a QB I'd be looking awfully hard at him in rd 2, could be a steal imo. All the other QBS getting the pub this year.
Watkins should be gone by 19, and I know we spent a lot on WRs this past offseason, but if he somehow makes it to us I hope we consider him strongly. I think it'd be an easy sell too, since we have 3 WRs coming back from season ending knee injuries (Hartline, Gibson, and Binns).
Beasley received a 2nd round grade from the committee so he might return to gain more weight and play for a shot at a top 10 pick.
Man if either Sammy Watkins or Mike Evans are there at 19 and the Dolphins pick one, I'd be thrilled beyond belief. Screens to Sammy, jump balls to Evans. Yes please.
Sammy is worth trading up for if he gets out of the top 10 IMO since he'll be the type of player that will give you everything for the next 10 years. I'd incorporate a future pick to free up our 2nd rounder for Oline though if possible.
He would look so perfect in the Jets defense that it's tough for me to see them not coming out of the draft with him.
And while we're at it, let's have Russell Wilson be the quarterback, and the defensive ends can be Robert Quinn and Jadaveon Clowney, and the running back Adrian Peterson, then we can grab Jace Amaro to play tight end and C.J. Mosley at inside linebacker, Aaron Donald would be one of the defense tackles of course and I guess we can have Ndamukong Suh be the other one...
Starting true freshman Jayron Kearse at safety over the injured Travis Blanks is really hurting the Tigers.
Mmmm. That maybe true. Haven't looked at him past the football field. He was absolutely dynamic last season.
It was a great game but I expected the outcome. Michigan St exposed Ohio States weak secondary and I knew Watkins was going to have a field day against a Robyless secondary. Not sure if Roby makes much of an impact I think he stops Boyd's 1st TD but other than that doesn't do much. Also Braxton Miller is a liability at QB. The offense is so limited because of his accuracy issues because of that the offense is very vanilla and Clemson did a fantastic job against Hyde. Hyde had that great run but once again wasn't used much after than even when Miller was getting slaughtered. Really wanted to see Kenny G in after Boyd's careless INT with 1:40 left in the game. It was a great game, Clemson came to play.
Read and React. Reads extremely well, pass vs run, and blocking scheme. This is evident by the correct pursuit of RBs, decisions to rush the QB, and navigate the gaps in offensive blocking. Reacts very well, quickly and correctly, whether he is chasing or dropping into coverage or sliding into zone. Weakness: inability to explode through blocks. This man does his job really really well in the middle, but due to physical limitations cannot be a dominant force. Solid depth player if upside is not an issue. 6-7th rd.
At 1pm you can watch Vandy LT Wesley Johnson, who shut down Jadaveon Clowney in pass rush so bad that South Carolina actually moved Clowney to the other side of the line for the entire 3rd quarter, which they usually do not ever do during games. At 2pm you can watch one of my favorites LT Billy Turner in the FCS Championship. As a bonus, look at Towson RB Terrance West and NDSU QB Brock Jensen.
One thing that I like about Collins is that if for whatever reason he didn't work out at RT I'd be very comfortable putting him right in at OG. Power player, aggressive.
I'd take that as a consolation prize. He reminds me of Jahri Evans. I'd even be ok with drafting Collins specifically as a guard if we happen to take a tackle with the first pick. Could probably plug and play him early on like Carl Nicks did successfully transitioning from tackle to guard. Albert - La'el Collins - Pouncey - Jamon Meredith - Taylor Lewan ....... That'd be a group we could keep together for 4 years and provide a chance for the line to finally gel for once. That'd be solid in both phases of the game. There'd be enough athleticism to execute ZBS principles but also enough nasty to run behind in short yardage. Too bad we didn't grab Terron Armstead in the 3rd last year when we had the chance. We'd have no need to fork out a big contract to Branden Albert.
Yeah, just to be clear I think that Collins will make it at RT. I would have preferred Bakhtiari over Armstead.
Yeah that's how I interpreted it. ....but if we sign Albert in FA and go tackle in the first round, would you spend a 2nd on Collins to play guard?
Here's how I look at it: OL is a mess. Dion Jordan should be at OLB, cap issues aside Ellerbe and Wheeler should be out the door. We need a pass rushing DE to take Jordan's DE spot. I'd like to get a WR, if a really good one/great value is sitting there in rds 1-2 I'd certainly be interested. So as to Collins, it depends on who's there. I'm looking at rds 3-5 as maybe the sweet spot for OL. It all depends on whats happens, but we need OTs, Guard is questionable at best with John Jerry and Sam Brenner. So to specifically answer your question, if we got Albert in FA and a great OT in rd 1 I'd be interested in Collins, maybe play him at OG to start. Who are the backup Tackles? Yeatman blew his knee out. Nate garner? We need quality and depth at the position. In your scenario do you take Collins over say a Kelvin Benjamin or Odell Bekham? I don't know. What if Christian Jones is available, or maybe Kyle Van Noy? Questions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZHwyqN-rrU But given the state of the OL, if we could get a quality player like Collins in rd 2 even with Albert and a 1st rd OT pick on board, I think that I would be fine with that. Starting Guard or quality OT depth, and we desperately need both.
The guy I hope declares but probably wont is Jay Ajayi. He's fantastic and heavily underrated, plus he has a nice NFL body at 5'11, 220. I'd be tempted to put him near the top of RB prospects this class. [video=youtube;Jb5NtwZ1iHI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb5NtwZ1iHI[/video] [video=youtube;keKVPogB2Dw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keKVPogB2Dw[/video]
I'm curious what your thoughts are on Martavis Bryant declaring? I've watched about 3 games of his so far, but I feel like he's a plus version of L'Damian Washington in this class. Good deep threat for a tall guy, solid but not spectacular after the catch, a bigger body/frame and tougher than Washington. But I figured you'd know better than me.
Good looking RB. On top of every other problem and mistake Ireland let Reggie Bush walk right out the door- how did that go? One of our few explosive players, besides Wallace of course. No matter how you cut it the OL is a mess, and Ireland s*** the bed when it comes to the LB position. I think that Mike Gillesie has some talent- there are just so many other positional needs that for me, this year, I wouldn't be terribly concerned with the RB position. It's hard to judge our RBs anyway when the OL can't run block worth a squat.
With all the playmakers atop this draft at WR & TE, it's massively disappointing we'll probably have to focus on Oline. We could easily trade back and add either Ebron or Amaro at TE... Cooks, Beckam, or Benjamin at WR... and use the trade back pick to finish it off with Mason or Seastrunk at RB. We could always go with Albert at LT, Meredith as a less expensive option at guard, and try and get Clabo on another 1 year stopgap deal now that he's playing at an acceptable level in this system..... or McKinney on another 1 year deal and slide him over to RT. Plus, Misi IMO should be viewed as trade bait for either an extra 3rd/4th rounder or for a starter at DT or Oline. We need an excuse to get Jordan at full time OLB duty, and having Misi no longer under contract would be a quick answer.
Easily has the talent to be a top 50 pick, similar type player to Stephen Hill. Is supposedly faster than Sammy Watkins once he reaches top gear and can use his size to go over defenders similar to Alshon Jeffery, although not quite as physical in doing so. Unfortunately he's been an underachiever relying too much on talent who the coaching staff has had their hands full trying to get motivated. He doesn't like college life- having to attend classes, study for tests, and so forth when he knows it's just a formality to reach the NFL. That basically sums up his lazy, immature mindset. Plus he has a kid. He wants the money. He doesn't care that he's not yet ready; he doesn't care that he's been told how important his rookie contract is considering most players never get more than that first one. He doesn't care that it's in his best long-term financial interest to return for his senior year to polish up his craft and gain some more weight to make himself more NFL ready upon entering it and less likely to get cut or practice-squadded. He wants his reward and paycheck now. So I'd take him off my draft board b/c I'd have no confidence in him giving 100% once he receives his payday. He reminds me of ex Clemson running back Jamie Harper who had 2nd round talent and an undraftable brain/mentality. Maybe he becomes a different player in the NFL with his undesired college life now behind him, but there are too many other decent players this draft for me to take that type of risk on Bryant.
How would our offense look running triple TE formations with Clay, Ebron, and Amaro or Niklas? Use Clay as the Hback/FB, Ebron in the slot replacing Gibson, and Amaro/Niklas on the field instead of Hartline. Man with an innovative OC you could do all kinds of fun stuff with that personnel with Wallace threatening vertically and the athletic Tannehill at QB. There'd be plenty of snaps to go around if you keep those 4 plus Hartline as the primary 5 guys.
And one more guy who impressed me I spent part of my Saturday afternoon watching North Dakota State play Towson in the FCS championship game and was very impressed by North Dakota State's tackle, William Turner. Turner isn't known by a lot of people, but he's a good player with long arms and good size at 6-5, 310 pounds. I think that he'll be around a fourth-round pick and has a chance to be a third-rounder if he impresses at the NFL Scouting Combine. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap20...s-kony-ealy-help-draft-stocks-in-friday-bowls
Gil is a little bit behind. He's only just now getting to know Billy Turner and has seen one game. All he knows is that he's impressive and that he plays at the FCS level and that is what makes him give a robotic 3rd-4th round estimation. On the other hand the scouts have been eyeballing Turner since the K-State game (1st game of the year) and Tony Pauline had it from them that Turner is "top 75, at worst". They could be wrong. Lots of time between now and the draft. But I'd go with that versus Gil Brandt's snap judgment off one game when he finally got round to looking at him.
