NFL - Random Opinions

I don't know - I could see that being the case if the GM was presumed to be competent. But so often, they're just not. I mean, we've had to suffer through our share, in Chicago. BWW's right - guys like Angelo and Emery (more the latter than former) were guaranteed to pick guys that were well off the beaten path.

My wager is one of two things, with these kinds of GM's:

- They've got a hunch, think it's going to make them look like geniuses, and they run with it. Maybe they get nervous someone else is gonna steal their guy, because he's such a diamond in the rough, and they grab him before it gets too late in the draft. That guy has been on their board since the start - and whenever they pick him was part of the plan all along. Genius!

- They've got regional scouts on their staff that are going crazy over the same "diamond in the rough". Maybe the scouts get paid via some incentive, maybe the scouts are just bad, who knows? But the GM takes a scout's word for it, and thinks they're all going to come out looking like geniuses.

I've always wanted to be an NFL GM. I also recognize how easily a few bad decisions can get you fired from being an NFL GM. So it is a wonder when some of these guys make decisions that have you scratching your head from the get-go.

 

So adding "Interesting...." makes this question rhetorical and makes my rebuttal question valid... You're welcome.

You outsmarted yourself in the original post.

 

Actually, it just means I find it interesting. Or maybe find you interesting....something I imagine you aren't used to people doing.

Possibly....but in all fairness the only person capable of outsmarting me is myself. When others can't present a challenge I have to take things into my own hands.

 

I'd make it about half a season before getting fired.

 

This topic has been a good read. Here's my random opinion . . .

The combine itself has been a boon to the professional GM's and scouts. It puts the leading draft candidates all in one place at the same time and allows for the dissecting of these candidates for all of those things already discussed. But, it is "by invite only". That's where the pro days come in. Granted, for a player that was invited and attended the combine, a pro day may be somewhat redundant.

The down side to pro days is that, in some cases, they're scripted to highlight a player's strengths. Plus, if a team has multiple players on their radar, these pro days may be on the same day on opposite sides of the country so the scouting staff members attending a pro day may be a factor in any anomalies observed.

I don't think anyone so far has stated that either the combine or pro days aren't necessary. The initial point of discussion was are they worthy of being televised. The simple answer is: if they generate enough viewership to increase advertising rates - then yes they're worthy.

 

Mayock often said one of the best pro days he ever witnessed was that of Jamarcus Russell. How’d that one turn out?

So that is the down side to those. Heavily scripted. The upside for scouts/GMs is to get certain numbers, maybe from guys who were too hurt at the combine to run or jump.

Upside for players, especially in this day of heavy training, is if there’s a particular drill that they ran poorly at the combine, they can train an extra couple weeks and re-run it at their proday. Which again is why scouts should focus 85-95% of their grade on the tape. Everything after that is highly synthetic.

 

HOLY SHIT BWW. I could've posted your post word for word for myself. i play poker. i watch the world series of poker and through my cable company, they televise a lot of smaller poker events, cash game events and Poker After Dark events too that feature all the big players. i am amazed at their reading ability and sometimes their folds. im more impressed at the cash games, they have stacks of chips in front of them and bricks of bound $100 bills in bricks of probably $10,000 a brick sitting in front of them. some players have multiple bricks in front of them. i got my life savings in my bank account and 401k and these guys got bricks of $10,000 in front of them! jeez.

Last year's WSOP featured a young kid in 7th or 8th place at the Final Table. He was winning small pots and doing ok. They the chip leader who was ahead by such a large margin the announcers were basically giving him the title with a lot of players left. Then boom. The chip leader lost back to back hands and went from first to third and that opened up the door to the remaining players and even the field a lot because that's how big of a lead he had. The kid i think won one of these hands from the leader and he slowly crept up the leaderboard. finally he was top 3 and behind and the #2 guy knocked off the #1 guy. finally after a record amount of hands and a 8-9 hr 1 vs 1 session the kid won the WSOP ! It was amazing to see him come from so far back to win when it's almost impossible to do so.

 

i think scouting is a huge issue in pro sports. the scouts have one job to do. in basketball, how did Michael Jordan of all people believe Kwame Brown was really the #1 pick overall ? What scout fooled him into taking him? Or Steve Emtman? Tony Mandarich? Alexander Diagle in hockey? How could the scouts and scouting reports be so wrong ? so off ? and this isn't 1965 and using pencil and paper to scout. you have all this technology now and BWW's game film on your phone and computers to see a player vs XYZ on Nov 1, 2018. You have video angles out of the ass of everything a player does. How are they so off ? That to me is a huge issue in the sports world. The scouts have no accountability! I'm not talking a 5th rd kid out of SMU. I'm talking first round busts.

 

Okay i was wrong watching poker is not the most boring thing in the world. Listening to people talk about watching poker is.

 

Catfish, 100 $100s is 10,000 dollars. A brick of 100s is usually 10 of those which would equal $100,000 dollars. I used to work at the Federal Reserve Bank in NJ and San Antonio Tx. I also did vacation coverage at many of the other 34 Federal Reserve Banks. But anyways a brick is normally comprised of 1000 bank notes which the hundred denomination would be $100,000.
That’s why I find it ridiculously stupid when they show movies and say someone is carrying so many millions in a briefcase. You couldn’t fit ten bricks in a briefcase but that doesn’t stop Hollywood from carrying a few million in one.

 

wow $100,000 cash and multiple bricks of it. my cheap poor ass wouldn't be allowed near a table ! haha. yeah gid good point about hollywood movies. in the movie Brewster Millions, they show them carrying $1 million dollars in a massive square suitcase. one guy could barely carry it. no way more than $1 mil is fitting !

 

Steve Emtman won the Outland Trophy (best interior lineman), Lombardi Award (best player regardless of position), and was 4th in Heisman voting.

 

Tony Mandarich was a beast in college. He looked like he was roided up in college and then quit using when he got his fat rookie contract. People like him are why we now have a rookie salary cap.

 

I'm not faulting GM's for taking a guy who washes out in the pro's because he didn't have his head in the game, even though his college performance indicated he'd do well. There are plenty of those. It's the thing that GM's are still working hardest to nail down, because it's so difficult to get a handle on.

However, when you take a guy that didn't show a whole lot in college, and he fails because he's just not cutting it on-field (regardless of where his head is), it falls on you. You took a guy who was mediocre in college, and hoped he'd somehow get markedly better in the pro's. You messed up. Some GM's do this liberally.

 

...Which goes back to the initial point about the Combine being over-hyped. Sometimes GMs/scouts/player personnel get wrapped up in the athletic appearance of a prospect, and ignore the fact he "looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane."

 

That is GMs/scouts/player personnel doing their job poorly.. Again, the hype you talk about is the only part they televise. Look at all the interviews and you might get a little insight into the players also. It isn't just the underwear Olympics that gives you information.

 

It's possible for the hype to be both the televised part that's increased in recent years and the hype that scouts and GMs put into it by over valuing the things players do at the combine. There have been some scouts and executives who have commented on this in the past....as well as former players.

As said before....it's very possible for the combine to be overrated and overhyped while being extremely useful at the same time. It's not an either/or type of thing.

 

Jake Locker, 55% passer in college somehow equals worth a first round trade-up apparently.

Good point

 

On this point though, every now and then they take the risk and get lucky. Dontari Poe comes to mind. Small school prospect, numbers weren’t impressive. Blew up the combine. I was calling them idiots when they took him at 11. Actually became a pretty good pro.

But he’s likely the exception