Weston Richburg showing off his great feet earlier by quickly pulling around the left side and then sealing off the block for a nice gain.
Very impressed by what I saw of his power and quick feet on film, good call. For a Center, his quicks just kind of jump out at you, similar but not quite what I remember from D Fegurson for UVA and the Jets, a guy who just has amazing feet for a LT.
and Caraun Reid blows up Cyril Richardson.... and then the right guard the following play for back to back sacks. Attaboy!! Then my other boy DaQuan Jones makes a great play pushing his way into the backfield for the TFL.
you know what, I would've loved to have seen Richburg get some looks at guard today. I believe they've routinely done it in the past with other top center prospects. Se la vie. Wish I had DVR to re-watch this game tonight. Hopefully NFLN doesn't do another bang up job by short changing us on the replays like last year IIRC.
Pleasantly surprised by the Olinemen, they got slammed all week, they did well. Did Hageman even play, Coleman? DTs were the big disapointment, other than low based dudes, Donald, Sutton, Reid. LBers and Dbs were awesome, lots of really good players.
I was a big Alex Mack fan when he was coming out of Cal, and as per your earlier comments, can you imagine him at Center and Pouncey/Richburg pulling at Guard? I'm more of a fan of pure power than second level stuff but man, that would be good. Btw another Center from the Mack draft is doing pretty darned well, Max Unger. iirc Boomer and some others were big fans of his.
Awesome prospect IMO and would grab him in a heartbeat if we're in dire need to draft Soliai's replacement. I say enjoy away, Pete.
I would drool over that... from both holes. Best of both worlds IMO- a mauling center you can run behind for the tough yards and control the ominous nose tackles of the league and two guards who can fly around the field creating chunk yardage opportunities through the 2nd level but still hold their own in head up matchups. 3 tacticians in the middle working together. Throw in Anthony Collins and the mauler Morgan Moses [or Taylor Lewan if we luck out] at bookends. Not sure what would fall off first if this happened, my hand or my pecker.
and by the way, he's not my first choice [since I've had a man crush on Richburg for a while] but Brandon Thomas has been underrated all year. He did a damn good job against Clowney the final game of the year and has been consistently good throughout his career. Back to back 1st Team ACC and well deserving of it. Nothing overly pretty about his game but he gets the job done week after week.
Watched the practices but not the game yet... Upset about the lack of NFLN coverage this week though. Just one hour and half of it seemed to have interviews and sideline reports. They should have showed the one on ones for an hour, taped would have been fine. Just show the individual battles, that's all that matters this week. I thought Zack Martin looked really good at left tackle. A lot is going to be made of him being "only" 6 foot 4.. and his arm length being 32.25 inches. Well he's perfect for us and what we want out of a lineman. Matt Light (Patriots LT) was only 6 foot 4 and also had arms under 33 inches.
Some general thoughts: 1. There is a possibility that this draft becomes ridiculous with teams looking for big corners and ignoring guys with talent because they're smaller. But in the game itself I didn't think it a coincidence that Nevin Lawson and Chris Davis made great plays. That said, I think Stanley Jean-Baptiste is a tall corner prospect that deserves the attention. But there are weaknesses. Sean Smith type weaknesses. 2. Billy Turner got beat pretty bad by Michael Sam on one particular pass rush, giving up the sack. But the thing to note about Turner for the rest of the game is that when he wasn't getting beaten on that play, he was doing an outstanding job of creating and maintaining pocket space for the quarterback, as well as using his mobility and upper body strength to create lanes in the running game. He told a friend of mine this week that he prefers guard at the next level. I don't see it. I think he's got a bright future at a more highly paid tackle position and I'm not even close to ruling out left tackle. Once you TEACH this guy so that he doesn't get snookered on individual plays like the one Sam got on him, his potential is tremendous. 3. Crockett Gilmore is a nice tight end prospect. Great body, fluid movement, catches the football with his hands outside of his frame. Because of his height he is a classic seam threat. But I doubt he can be used in the versatile ways that create so many problems for defenses. Even so, his being such a classic seam threat itself creates problems for defenses. Between Niklas, Ebron, Amaro, Fiedorowicz, Seferian-Jenkins and Gilmore, this is a nice tight end class. 4. Everyone is raving about Chris Borland and he did well during the game but I've never been all that impressed with his tape. It's weird. I like Eddie Lackey more. And it's not like I'm Lackey's cousin or something like that. I just like him more. 5. Jimmy Garoppolo was IMO the best QB at the Senior Bowl.
Good point about the corners. Could very well happen considering what Seattle is doing to create a new mold. It is odd b/c I really like Borland on tape. Gilmore is a guy I wanted to keep tabs on during the Shrine Game b/c I thought he was intriguing on film. Thought he might be a TE getting overlooked at the time. Agree about Turner. Just needs to be coached up, and then it's "look out NLF". He's the guy we draft in late 2 or early 3 and sign a one year transitional tackle to ease him in. Richburg could very well start from day one. He might just be my highest ranked interior lineman. That one practice throw by Garapolo still stands out in my mind. The one where he's looking to his right, scans to the middle and opens up his hips in a flash to accurately sticks the throw down the seam in the endzone. Beautiful how well everything was in sync. Still won't be budged off my Caraun Reid wagon. lol.
This Sam player might be a good role-player down the road. He owned Richardson in the UGA-Tenn game this year.
Incidentally Michael Sam did play against Tennessee and JaWuan James the right tackle for Tennessee made him look borderline undraftable. James did that to Dee Ford as well.
