well, you know he still has much untapped potential when he seems to be playing a lot on natural instincts (case in point: during BYU's bowl game he attempted a slide tackle (yes, soccer style) while in trail pursuit of a ball carrier, but then caught himself mid slide and pulled up. I got a chuckle out of it.
I'm not at all convinced that Ansah is a better pass rusher than Odrick. I've mentioned this before but I keyed on Ansah in two games and watched what I could on yutube. That hardly makes me an expert and my opinion is no better than anyone else's, but I was completely underwhelmed by Ansah's pass rush. His track speed and long stride seems to translate better to tracking RBs down the sideline than exploding toward the QB. He's a total step down or three from the other pass rushers mentioned, Mingo included. Ansah has very little burst, and if I'm going to settle for a power pash rusher, I'll take Odrick and save the pick. People can say what they will about Odrick, and he is not an ideal 4/3 DE. But that guy is quick for a man of his size, it's not like he's a lumbering 300 pounder. I'd rather compliment Odrick with a pass rushing OLB or a situational pass rusher with Odrick sliding into DT in those situations. Ansah is a good player, but we have a clear need for pass rushers, and for better or worse that's what I'm focused on at DE/OLB.
DeVonte Holloman (South Carolina) has done some things to intrigue me in his short time spent at linebacker.
LOL I just talked about the same play. Glad I wasn't the only one that noticed. He also seemed to try to monkey roll the offensive line on another play.
As I watch more and more of Sheldon Richardson of Missouri, I realize he's not only a desirable prospect, but he's so desirable that I'm not sure I see him making it to #12 overall. Fletcher Cox last year made a meteoric rise up the boards and went #12 overall. But last year where you had three quarterbacks going in the top 8 picks, not to mention extremely highly regarded wide receivers in Michael Floyd and Justin Blackmon, the best tailback to come out since Adrian Peterson, an elite level corner prospect, an elite level linebacker prospect, and an elite level tackle prospect...this year you don't have those things. There could be no quarterbacks taken in the top 12 picks this year, which would be a huge difference. There's no tailback prospect that grades as high as Richardson, no wide receivers as of yet that grade as high as Blackmon or Floyd. There IS an elite linebacker prospect, an elite tackle prospect, an elite defensive tackle prospect which there was not back in 2012, and an elite defensive end prospect which there also was not back in 2012...but the bottom line is this top 12 excluding Sheldon Richardson seems like as many as 4 or 5 players players short of what there was a year ago. My point is the more I look at Richardson the less I think he's likely to make it to #12. He's that good. I think he, Star Lotulelei, Manti Te'o, Bjoern Werner and Luke Joeckel will be gone by the time Miami selects. And seven other players will be gone as well. Frustrating.
yep, I hate that there might not be any QBs to push everyone down a few spots. By the time the draft rolls around you're probably right about Richardson not making it to us. ....... and yes to the "frustrating". Perhaps frustrating enough that we might not find a trade partner willing to move into our 12 spot. Gonna be a lot of fans mad if we end up taking an offensive lineman but we might not have better options come draft day. lol I'm just hoping the slew of teams ahead of us who are already strong at DT might think about passing on Richardson, if anything to at least give us better options.
Now that I've watched about 5 more games of Cordarrelle Patterson I've got a new mancrush so that makes the hurt of knowing Richardson won't make it to #12 a little less. Patterson probably will make it to our pick because he's so raw. But will they take him?
Nothing is ever 'settled' until it's actually set, which is why I go between Keenan Allen, Cordarrelle Patterson and Stedman Bailey as my top overall receiver. Hell once upon a time I was between Keenan Allen and Marquess Wilson for best receiver. I've considered for a little while now that Patterson was going to be the guy that is actually drafted first among wide receivers because that's kind of the feel I'm getting from him, but that didn't mean I actually had him as the best. I didn't. But yeah, I'm thinking based on the newest games I've seen of his that he might very well be the best after all. The pure play making ability with the ball in his hands is unreal. And he brings that agility to his routes to where it can be hard to cover him. He just lacks a lot of polish when it comes to hand technique dealing with physical coverage, or hand technique going up for the ball, etc. He's a little more physical than I thought but just raw and untaught. There is a LOT to his game that you simply can't teach though no matter how hard you try. Those cradle aspects of his game are going to allow him to make an impact IMMEDIATELY, and that is an important part of why I might consider him the best.
Absolutely he has some pass drop skills. I can't say he's definitely a better LB without having seen him play the spot a bit, but I can say he's a limited DE with zero edge rush quickness. Zero abilty to put a tackle under stress by running the arc. At DE he is a block-eater, a guy who mops up sacks that are forced towards him, a guy who makes tackles on the RB when he can get off a block. His ceiling at DE is to be average. His downside is to be below average. Meanwhile, his fluidity in space, his pass coverage (in zone anyways), his motor, his leaping ability make me curious what he could do as a linebacker. He has the size to take on blockers, and a year at DE has helped that. If I'm the Miami coach, Vernon moves behind Misi this year and rotates in there, and occasionally at DE as a backup if needed for depth. The following year, we see if he can replace Burnett, if he develops. (FYI, I also let Starks leave, move Odrick inside and draft Ezekial Ansah as a power-rush DE opposite Wake to give us our Justin Tuck. We would be well on the way to having a Giants-esque D-line.... the same line that continually beats Brady's Patriots.. our road to the division title)
You know, no matter how we shuffle things, this gets messy. Even if we let Starks leave so we can start odrick inside and draft a DE to start outside... then we STILL have a weak hole because Soliai cannot play nickel DT... which forces us to bring that new DE (Ansah, for example) inside to DT on passing downs and we AGAIN end up with Olvier ****ing Vernon as our edge rusher on passing downs. Well **** that. That's not an improvement. It appears that this team having been constructed as a 3-4, and still having Soliai, is a major problem. Yes it's great for run defense but it gives us no flexibility on our line and you see the domino effect it creates with poor pass rush. What if we traded Paul Soliai. Seriously. Traded him for a pick. We could then afford to keep Starks, who is a WAY better fit for this front to be honest... And then in the draft picked up a strongside DE. Our nickel front then becomes New DE (Ansah) - Odrick - Starks - Wake. Much better. Sure we give up a bit in run defense, but not THAT much if we change to a penetrating attack style of line play instead of soaking up double teams like it's still a 3-4. Odrick and Starks are strong and quick to penetrate interior gaps. Dansby, however, could struggle without Soliai. Soliai is an old cog that doesn't fit the new machine. More and more I feel like he HAS to be moved for us to construct a great defensive line. Trade Soliai. Keep Starks. Draft a power-rush DE. Use the extra pick to fill another hole.
Where do you see Nuk Hopkins and Terrance Williams fitting into the top WR ratings? I could imagine almost every single NFL team having a different rating on their top 5 WRs. There isn't any elite talent at WR in this draft, but there is a lot of solid, solid guys available and all should be rating very similarly.
