I never even heard of this Watson character until Ronin mentioned him in a different thread. Menelik Watson strikes me at first glance as a straight up beast. Just flat out powerful, great hand punch and lean as evidenced by some of the video clips. But that of course doesn't tell the whole story, making my opinion and a buck or two worth a cup of coffee at your local diner. Anyway, apparently Watson is quite the basketball player, which tells me that there's a better than average chance that his eye/foot coordination and kick slide are going to be pretty solid, although my first look made me think good athlete, but I want to see more evidence of quick feet, I haven't seen nearly enough to have a solid opinion. It's claimed in his FSU bio that he can run a 4.7 40- that woudl be pretty remarkable at 6-6, 320. Also, he seems to have very quick reflexes, hand/eye coordination. http://www.seminoles.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/watson_menelik00.html Here's a story below linked to the FSU bio, tough background for this kid. I hope that he does well, sounds like he deserves a shot after all he's been through. I'll be pulling for him: As a teenager, Watson had excelled on the soccer field, developing quick feet and exceptional balance. But there was no future in soccer for him, and what he wanted more than anything was a chance at something better than the crime and poverty that surrounded him in Manchester. "He comes from a very tough background," said Rob Orellana, who stumbled upon Watson playing basketball during a 2006 tournament in Manchester and recruited him for his prep team in Spain. "Single mom, and one of the toughest neighborhoods in England." Watson's family had little, and several brothers had already run afoul of the law. At 6-foot-7 with a bushy beard and a gold tooth, Watson cut an imposing figure, and he might have been a more celebrated recruit among local criminals than by any serious basketball programs. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/fsu/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/MW12.pdf
I'm guessing the Staley Fisher comparisons are an initial reaction to them being out of the same school and conference, which does not produce a high number of top prospects. So we see Eric Fisher, Stud LT, Central Michigan, MAC, we immediately relate it to Joe Staley, Stud LT, Central Michigan, MAC...until one looks at Fisher a little more. He is a lot taller, has the frame to carry a lot more weight, like Whitworth does, and has more power to his game than Staley, who is more athletic than Fisher. Staley ran a 4.79 forty at his pro day in 2007. I don't expect Fisher will do it any better than 5.0 flat, and likely not that good.
Not sure if someone posted it yet: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d9wLf?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=miami-dolphins
Yeah that news is pretty well out there. Evidently the NFL sent around a memo to teams not to talk to Tyrann Mathieu at the Senior Bowl. So of course, 20 teams talked to him. LOL.
Wow. Tony Pauline says he's been told by scouts that the top 7 corners on most teams boards are Dee Milliner, Desmond Trufant, Xavier Rhodes, Johnthan Banks, Blidi Wreh-Wilson, Jamar Taylor and Darius Slay. Jordan Poyer not there. Scouts like him but question his speed (which I've alluded to in the past). Scouts think Leon McFadden's height (below 5'10") is a big issue, and they don't even talk much about Logan Ryan of Rutgers. Also says the Bills not as high on Ryan Nassib as people assume and in fact their scouts don't even have him as the best QB at the Senior Bowl. I personally have them taking Matt Barkley in the mock draft posted on the wall inside my head. Scouts told Pauline the players that helped themselves the most during the week were Lane Johnson, Ezekial Ansah (really??), Leon McFadden and Quinton Patton. On the other hand Chase Thomas and Braxton Cave really hurt themselves. T.J. McDonald is "a better version of Taylor Mays". Ouch? Datone Jones showed well at the Senior Bowl but still won't go high. Most have him as a 3rd round pick and think he'll have a hard time fitting a specific position. Scouts say Markus Wheaton and Marquise Goodwin were also big winners at receiver. Desmond Trufant is a lock as a 1st round pick. Will Davis is a 4th rounder, and Jamar Taylor is a 3rd rounder. Phillip Thomas is a 2nd rounder. Justin Pugh should be a 3rd round guard. Denard Robinson is a last day pick for most scouts.
It all comes down to results anyway, in the end. So whether or not this guy = that guy, so on and so forth, doesn't matter all that much. The 49ers back in the 90s had a short undersized left tackle, who's name escapes me right now, and while he wasn't the type where anyone would say they just gotta find a physical clone of him, he was very effective, and that is what matters. I'll think of his name as soon as I click reply, probably. Then again, maybe not. Miami's best LT between Webb and Long was Mark Dixon, a converted guard. Oh yeah, the 49ers OT was Derrick Deese.
From what I've read Ansah didn't do himself any favors this week: Wednesday afternoon South practice Arguably the biggest story at the South practices this week has been the disappointing play of BYU DE Ziggy Ansah. Ansah, the Ghanian native who came to the US as a track athlete and couldn’t even get his pads on when he switched to football just three years ago, arrived in Mobile as a possible top 15-20 pick based on athletic ability alone, but has to have NFL teams wondering where he really fits on their board. Ansah has shown some flashes of that athletic ability; today, for example, he went high in the air to block a pass in the 11-on-11 portion of the workout. However, the next time he gets off a block in Mobile will be his first this week. In fact, he hasn’t even been close to getting off blocks. In the one-on-one drills, for example, all he’s done is put his hands and hat into the mid-section of the blocker and pushed. http://www.gbnreport.com/seniorbowlreport.htm I'd like to have Ansah go head to head with Menelik Watson and see what happens.
The difference is that Tony Pauline is talking to scouts and you're pulling reports from web journalists. The scouts could be lying to Tony, but they could also just be more accurate.
I am wondering though, what would scouts have to gain by giving Pauline any sort of accurate information? Especially from January through the draft, the prime misinformation months of the year in football. Think about it, if you were a college scout employed full time by the Miami Dolphins, and Pauline approached you, attempting to pick your brain for tidbits of inside info, would you feel compelled to be honest with him?
It's a very strange dynamic. There are reasons to be truthful and there are reasons to lie. Some guys just don't have it in them to lie.
I actually know BW Webb from college. He is a good guy and incredibly talented. I made a post about him earlier this year in the 2013 draft thread - I will pull it up in a second. The last CB drafted from our school was Derek Cox; I think Webb can be better than him. Edit: post 59 from this thread: http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...raft-Thread/page3&highlight=2013+draft+thread I have no idea what this guy's draft stock is like, but I figure I'll toss his name out here. BW Webb, CB, William & Mary. Honestly, the only reason I know him is because he played at my alma mater... but you could tell watching him that he really seemed to overmatch opposing receivers. Granted, he played mostly against CAA opponents, but also has played against UVA (twice), UNC, and Maryland. Dude had 2 or 3 INTs and a TD in his first gave against UVA. Anyways, I hear that he has been receiving some buzz from friends on the football team. Here is some info on him: http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings...2013&genpos=CB http://www.tribeathletics.com/ViewAr...CLID=205073472 Some videos on him: http://www.tribeathletics.com/club/s...B_OEM_ID=25100
I think that the guy who wrote that, Paul Guillemette, is reporting first hand from Mobile: "And with a little time to digest this week's procedings in Mobile GBN editor Colin Lindsay and Pigskin Paul Guillemette, our man on the ground in Mobile, have put their collective observations together with this summary of some of the hilites and lowlites from this week's Senior Bowl practices." http://www.gbnreport.com/index.htm
they are not going to have a job for very long if they are giving out info they are not suppose to give out
Scouts are doing a good job planting seeds this year, I see. Having seven players rated the same on most teams is not even feasible when you consider scheme.
I'm aware. I know Paul personally. He and I chat each other up every year at Shrine practices and to this day every Friday he tosses me a #FF like clockwork. I'm just saying that when you read observations from Paul, from myself, from Eric Galko, Dane Brugler, Josh Norris, etc...you're reading web journalists' observations. That's not what Tony Pauline is doing. He's sharing what actual NFL scouts are telling him. So they could be lying to him, or they could just be telling the truth which would mean that the scouts are seeing something the web journalists (such as myself) are not. And that wouldn't be the first or fifty-seven hundredth time.
I don't know that teams have the policies you think they have. I don't know that they mind quotes given anonymously. Hell I know for a fact that General Managers, the highest of the high, give those same survey results every single year to some journalists, and they're not lying. They're 100% telling the truth. As long as it's not, "The scout for the Jaguars told me they have Cornellius Carridine graded far higher than everyone else and will target him at #33 overall."
You may be right, IDK the inner workings of how NFL teams run their scouting departments. I can tell you this though, information is power and if I had a scout running his mouth or giving information to anyone that wasnt part of my overall strategy (misinformation and such) I would fire him ON THE SPOT. Having said that I am sure some nuggets of truth are thrown out here and there otherwise noone would ever believe any misinformation that is floated out there... AND I am really more interested in your thoughts of Darius Slay then I am discussing misinformation…
Re-watched all of the North practices back to back to back to try and see how the guys developed. What's difficult about it is that everyone got in their licks and everyone also had moments of shame. Obviously Eric Fisher looked good but I thought he was a little bit overstated. Daniel Jeremiah said that Datone Jones started the week more of a 5th round guy according to the scouts he talked to, and obviously he helped himself, but he also got some good rushes in on Eric Fisher. Generally speaking Fisher was better in the one-on-ones than he was in the team portions. In the one-on-ones he only got beat by Datone Jones once or twice, and beat by Alex Okafor maybe three times. Everyone else was not a problem for him. But in the team stuff I thought more people were getting a piece of him including Michael Buchanon, whom I generally have disliked since 2011 and feel no regret about disliking after seeing his Senior Bowl showing. The Eric Fisher of the interior offensive line was Brian Winters. I thought he got a little dead legs as the week went on, which is a theme I saw from other players, and yet was interestingly bucked by some others. On Tuesday, Winters looked like another David DeCastro. He looked that good. He's nasty, he's powerful, and best of all what I was looking to see was how he would get out on pulls since the only tape I've seen of him at Kent State was as a tackle where he didn't do that as much. He was great. What I like best about him isn't his nastiness, but rather his angle consciousness and attention to details. He looked really good on the pull, got out to the perimeter and made solid contact with players much quicker than him, and generally speaking he was stoning people on the interior on Monday and Tuesday. The exception was Wednesday. Which brings me to Brandon Williams of Missouri Southern. This is a totally off-radar small school guy that came in and on Wednesday faced the best guard at the Senior Bowl and whipped him. A lot. And he didn't do it with power at 6'2" and 340 lbs. He did it with hands and shiftiness. That was interesting to me because at a time when a lot of guys that were out there on Monday and Tuesday were starting to show some lack of energy, he just got better. At that size he should've been right there among the guys that got a little tired. Getting stronger tells me that some of his issues on Monday and Tuesday were more about getting his feet wet coming from the program he came from and trying to go against the best of the best. But once he got his feet wet he was making plays in one-on-ones and he was also disrupting the backfield in team. That was interesting to me because some guys I felt like weren't carrying their one-on-one success out into drills. Justin Pugh is not a left tackle at the next level but before I put him inside at guard I would try him at right tackle. I really liked him this week. David Quessenberry looked really good on the interior but did not necessary get a chance to show the range of skills he would need to play the interior in the NFL, because he kept popping over to right tackle where I felt he was more questionable (resisting a Questionberry joke here). He was one of the guys that was beat most often when he popped over to tackle from guard but on the inside I really only saw him get beat once by a spin move off the snap. Seemed like an experience thing. I didn't really think Rick Wagner had a great showing during the week to be honest. He was just slow, not making good contact with his hands, wasn't mirroring very well. Obviously Braxton Cave hurt himself as he wasn't all that good. Joe Madsen actually looked pretty good and would be a guy that maybe you go back on the tape and see how he looked because generally he won his matchups and just looked really disciplined and really got after it. Hugh Thornton (who has an absolutely tragic background, read up on it sometime) had his ups and downs during the week, mostly down when facing Kawann Short on Monday and Tuesday, but then he's another one that got his revenge on Wednesday as tired legs started to set in. Kawann Short REALLY slowed down on Wednesday, considerably. He dropped off the map. Thornton was getting the better of him, as were most other guys facing him. But prior to that practice he was practically unstoppable on Monday and Tuesday, showing great hand quickness and explosion. Jordan Hill looked like JAG. So did Sylvester Williams to be honest. Margus Hunt was really not good in any of the three days although he's another one that got better on Wednesday than he was on Monday. Others were getting a little tired at a time when he was starting to get a little more decisive. The receivers pretty much all had their moments, even Denard Robinson. With the injury he's going through it's not a surprise he didn't look good catching the ball. But by the end what really stood out to me was his quickness and ability to get open on the routes. He was fast and loose and could get open against anyone. Aaron Mellette just continues to look so smooth and balanced that at times you think it's slow. But then you see a Blidi Wreh-Wilson having trouble closing and you wonder, is he really slow? I thought Mellette looked like a Green Bay type of receiver. I wonder how his after-catch abilities are going to evolve at the next level because that's what is missing in order for him to become a compelling receiver at his size, with his balance, smooth speed and ability to finish catches. Sometimes he's dealing with physical coverage and he's so smooth through it (though not necessarily fast) that it's almost like the physical coverage isn't happening. If his RAC develops from a strength standpoint you could see him becoming almost like a James Jones type of receiver. Chris Harper did not look as smooth but he did look as physical as I was hoping to see out of him. He seemed to do a lot better in team portions than he did in one-on-ones, though is performance in the latter improved as the week went on. Marquise Goodwin looked rough at times dealing with the physicality of the corners (who were flat out holding and interfering most of the time), but the thing that impresses me is just how badly you need to beat him that way to prevent his quickness and speed from taking over and still creating separation. I continues to be impressed with him on a pure speed basis. It's not a Mike Wallace situation but it could be a Jacoby Ford situation. I remember some of the criticisms about Ford (whom I liked a great deal) were very eerily similar to criticisms I'm seeing written about Goodwin by some draft people. The thing that really bothered me about Markus Wheaton was that he wasn't finishing plays. I think he was more caught up in the spirit of competition getting open on the route and wasn't really looking back for the ball or adjusting to it that well or showing physicality at the end of the play. But what he was doing, is defeating jams with his hands and feet like a veteran NFL speedster. He has a chance to be another DeSean Jackson, easily. I still fail to see why people are so enamored with Aaron Dobson. He was another guy that I felt like didn't finish very well. Not overly fast or quick, decent body control but not special balance, not special hands..."decent" in all areas but not really "good" in any. I doubt he's a RAC guy. The difference I see between Dobson and Mellette is that at least Mellette is exceptionally smooth and balanced. The corners were kind of upsetting in how much they were holding and interfering with the receivers. I love the competitive spirit but it just wasn't clean and so what you lose for an example would be the ability to see a guy challenged deep on an out and up, because during the out part he got beat a little bit, shoved the receiver, and so the receiver didn't have a chance to separate during the up portion. You lose an evaluation opportunity on both players in a situation like that. I didn't really like Jordan Poyer during any of the practices. I thought he got beat quite a bit and couldn't really finish plays with the ball in the air. I thought Desmond Trufant competed well and moved well, he was physical and quick and able to recover, but he was also getting beat. Blidi Wreh-Wilson got beat a lot. Will Davis got beat like a drum constantly and I have to think his stock is down after this week. He wasn't prepared for the week. Jamar Taylor took turns between brilliant and terrible. Dwayne Gratz shouldn't have even been out there. At safety I continued to like Duke Williams who got brought up from the Shrine roster. The way he competes is just excellent and he's got the quickness to cover one on one. He got beat some in the one on ones but as a safety you're expecting that. Phillip Thomas you have to question if he's in a man coverage situation with a receiver deep. I don't know if he's got the speed for it. T.J. McDonald did a good job in coverage dominating with his size and physicality instead of with quickness or speed. Jonathan Cyprien was good but I don't know that I saw the ability that has some of my fellow draftniks talking about him being the best safety in the Draft. We'll see about that. Some of these guys are going to have to wait until the game and the ability to go full speed before they really make an impression, and I think that's where you could start to see what the noise is about on a Jonathan Cyprien. Travis Johnson got brought up from the Shrine roster to the Senior Bowl for a reason. He was by a good margin the quickest outside pass rusher at the Shrine game. What was great at the Shrine practices was seeing him as a linebacker and seeing that (unlike John Simon, who to me looked lost), this guy took to it like a fish in water. I was very impressed. Some minor things he'll need to work on as he gets more instinctive at the position, but overall even in coverage he was pretty good. He was good against the run. When you got him in BLITZ drills is where you saw some more interesting stuff out of him, the quickness and the pass rush instincts he have combined to make for a pretty good blitzer. As a true pass rusher with his hand in the ground, the thing he most often runs into problems with is getting smacked to the ground because he's only 6'2". He couldn't get the edge around Eric Fisher, who I think overplays the outside rush at times. But on tape Johnson has an array of moves to get to the passer and we didn't see many opportunities for him to show that in the televised practices. Overall though my intrigue level was spiked with him as a pass rusher and even run defender from an end spot last week, and that intrigue level only climbed higher this week seeing him take so easily to the linebacker game. This is a good player, like a Shea McClellin, and I would expect him to rise considerably from where he currently is on most ratings services. He's somewhere between a Shea McClellin and a Koa Misi but I'm intrigued with his pure pass rush more than I was with really either player. The linebackers I generally reserve judgment on until I see them at full speed during the games. I will say that I liked what I saw from Khaseem Greene. The tight ends really didn't impress me at all, between Ryan Otten (whom I've never been as big a fan of as others) to Jack Doyle, to Nick Kasa. Some of the guys I saw last week at Shrine practice are more interesting than them, IMO. But one guy I was continually VERY impressed with is the Harvard guy, Kyle Juszczik. This is a nice find for the Senior Bowl people in terms of finding a less heralded player that can come out in this setting and actually compete. You know he's going to be a really smart guy coming out of Harvard obviously but I love how he competed and took to coaching on his blocking, far better than anyone I saw at the Shrine practices. What was really interesting is that early in the week and later in the week you saw some glimpses on the televised footage of him catching passes against linebackers, and he did genuinely well there. He was beating guys, and not just John Simon who was a disaster in coverage. He caught over 50 balls for something like 800 yards and 8 touchdowns for Harvard this year. He knows what he's about in the passing game. I'd really love to take a look at him as a true fullback.
Man, did Poyer break early on that deep under throw or what. Ball was probably only in the air 5 yards and Jordan's already adjusting to it, meanwhile Coby Hamilton continues his route further a hair further and has to become the defender.
Ansah proving his doubters wrong. "Ansah is a handful off the edge, man." -Mike Mayock (1 minute ago)
He's applying a lot of pressure, and has batted down a ball (IE: as good as a sack but w/o the loss of yards).
He's not really beating anyone in pass rush including that batted ball. Wagner was one of the worst OLs all week on either squad, and he's having a little trouble with Ansah's straight up bull rush. But even Wagner hasn't been totally beaten by it yet. Meanwhile not sure Ansah has come close to beating anyone else, including the Harvard fullback Juszczik who stoned Ansah early in the game.
He and Alford were probably the best corners this week from a pure performance standpoint. Trufant is a good player and was good this week, but he got more hype than it seemed he was worth on the televised footage.
he's had at least 2 quality pressures, and he would've had a sack if his counterpart on the other side didn't beat him to the QB. Add in the back side pursuit/tackle, batted pass, and stopping Robinson for a loss on the screen. He's a dynamic defensive playmaker. It's the Senior Bowl, so I won't treat him as though he's facing terrible competition, and the plays he's made in just one half have been more than impressive, especially at his experience level. I don't know how many more plays you can expect him to make to be considered "impressive". Not a defensive player out-playing him at moment in my eyes, and I'd argue he's the first half MVP.
Datone is having a pretty good game. Just put Jordan Mills on skates there for that sack. Thought Mills was definitely susceptible to being rushed by anyone good this week. Wagner having a poor game. Margus Hunt actually did damage against Terron Armstead on that sack, impressive. But overall a bad week for Hunt and not a good game either despite the good rep on that one snap. Zeke Ansah is showing his natural gifts right now. He could be a special player down the road but you have to build him from the ground-up and I'm not sure I want to do that for a 1st round price tag. He stops his feet and doesn't use them as a weapon in his pass rush. Everything is about his hands and his strength, and then he converts that into athleticism only in motor situations. You need more than that. Ansah was off the map as far as his performance this week. He's not a technique player at all so he sucks in practice and relies on his superior athletic ability to end up making flash plays during games, which he's doing today mainly because he's going up a lot against one of the worst OLs from the week Rick Wagner. Cornelius Washington came out of nowhere for me when I was reviewing the week of televised footage this morning, and he was the 2nd best defensive end performer on the televised tape, behind only Okafor who was less explosive than Washington but a better overall player, more well-rounded. People are going to disagree with me. They will say Datone Jones was the best. He really wasn't. Not as a defensive end. I think some of his wins in the pit came against guards. And Eric Fisher is a little bit overrated this week. Lane Johnson is the best offensive tackle in Mobile today, not Eric Fisher. I feel bad for the receivers. They're not getting a chance to shine like they should. The quarterbacks are looking as overrated as I feared. Mike Glennon is just flat terrible and I have no idea what anyone sees in him. Big arm. Big whoop. I like big arms on quarterbacks as much as anyone but that's all he has. This whole QB class with one exception is benefiting from lowered expectations and acclimation. People are adjusting their standards for the overall talent. The same things that were commonly used to absolutely ROAST quarterbacks from 2011 and 2012, are being completely glossed over this year IMO. The exception in my opinion is Matt Barkley, who has been at the top of the pecking order so long that the inclination to tear him down has taken over.
