NFL - Random Opinions

I never said it was. I stated earlier that it can be a useful tool in helping to separate candidates you have graded closely based on on-field performance.

 

Agreed - there's always going to be an exception. Maybe a coach had a hard-on for a guy and didn't use him enough. Maybe a player wasn't in the right system. Maybe he was slow developing. Maybe he was immature and didn't apply himself enough.

Who knows?[/QUOTE]

 

Locker was tough to gauge. Lot of starting experience in a major conference, very good arm, mobile, great intangibles. But his 54% completion percentage and not exactly eye-popping numbers were worrisome. I actually liked him coming out, thought he could develop into a solid NFL starter.

 

Really good piece about the Combine on ESPN today.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...se-dull-dread-here-really-happens-nfl-combine

Line from the article: "It doesn't matter that most football decision makers say they don't really get anything useful from those drills. As long as the combine exists, no matter what coaches and scouts say in private, the combine will matter."

To those football decision-makers, the important aspects of the Combine are the interviews with the players, and - most importantly - the medical evaluation.

 

This sentence makes no sense...

 

Yeah, that lede probably needs a re-write...

 

lol

I have a difficult time with buying into any of their 'source' material these days.

 

You're far more in-tune with that than I am - what have been some recent issues with their source pieces?

 

SO WHAT? Brady Quinn won the Maxwell and was 3rd in the Heisman ? I'm a huge ND fan since 1987 and I could've told you a year before the draft he would be a bust. Just like Jimmy Clausen. Some guys just don't have it. Some are overhyped. Some are just BUSTS.

Look at Brian Bosworth. Baddest man in college football. What happened? He took a ton of steroids and then went into the NFL playing against bigger, stronger and older grown men - not college kids and then got ran over by Bo Jackson. Now on that play anyone would've got ran over by Bo Jackson as he had all the momentum in his favor. My point is even the GREATEST COLLEGE players ever suck in the NFL!

 

They tend to make sweeping generalizations that they claim to have insider knowledge on. Then weeks later (sometimes hours later if your Schefter) it gets proven to be unequivocally false.

There was an article published this past summer that had a pretty long and damning review on ESPN and their 'sources'. It specifically referred to when they were looking to layoff a large portion of their staff and suddenly everyone within the building had new or reliable sources with the kind of information that would promote job security. It went as far as to say when Disney bought them out that writers and investigators were told to 'run with rumor' if it could get airtime. As ESPN struggles financially after imploding a successful business model the 'journalism' gets more and more like something that belongs on TMZ sports.

I'll look for the link to that^^. I stumbled across it when I was discussing something about deflate-gate with a member.

As for the specific piece you posted - I have never spoken to someone that has been a part of scouting that has said the combine drills are not an important piece of evaluation. Some coaches still hand time the 40 (Tom Coughlin sat in the stands, timed players and watched drills, taking notes while unemployed before the Giants hired him) and entire front office contingents hang in the luxury boxes and take in the on-field work.

This feels like an article wrote for people that already believe that to be the case. After reading it, it's obvious that the guy has an issue with the whole process and is reaching out for clicks from people that will agree with him.


TMZ sports... smh

 

You questioned why Emtman could possibly have been the #1 pick in the draft. I gave you a few reasons why. But I guess we should blame talent evaluators for not seeing his injury-plagued future.

With your innate ability to spot busts a mile away, it's shocking that you're not employed by an NFL front office.

 

my point is i just think the scouting in the 4 main sports is very suspect. not just the NFL, where the busts are highly scrutinized, but all 4 sports. MLB and NBA have a ton of busts mainly in the top 10. Back to the NFL - JaMarcus Russell? How the hell did the Raiders think he was going to be the QB to change their franchise around and take #1 overall ? Who scouted him? What did he do so awe inspiring in college of the combine to take #1 overall? He had a great bowl game in a blowout over ND. What the hell else did he do that was so incredible? He had a very solid final year, but not so outrageous to go #1. Again, who scouted him?

Passing
SEASON TEAM
2004-2006 LSU

CMP ATT CMP% YDS AVG TD INT LNG SACK RTG
73 144 50.7 1,053 7.3 9 4 42 13 127.2
188 311 60.5 2,443 7.9 15 9 50 21 136.6
232 342 67.8 3,129 9.1 28 8 58 16 167.0

 

good one axe. i see your showing your childish immaturity with a line that has been used over and over. instead of question why i don't work for an NFL team, question how did these "pro" scouts get their jobs ? Fine Emtman had injuries like a lot of players. Maybe the bust label was unfair as he was hurt. How about someone who wasn't hurt like a Boz or Brady Quinn, or Robert Gallery or Jimmy Clausen? Bust out the ass. In other sports, I could name 25 off the top of my head and none were injured. So stop worrying about Emtman and injuries. My point is scouts hit and miss a lot when it's their job to get it right. if i was as wrong as a pro scout in my job, i would be fired. i can't afford to make that many mistakes on the job. somehow they do and they are scouting for billion dollar franchises. with all the technology and tools of today to scout a player - they shouldn't be wrong as much as they are.

And if you go on the baseball thread, i predicted the downfall of ex-Phillies player Domonic Brown 4 years in advance before everyone else saw he was a bust. i called it yesterday with Kyler Murray. I think he will be a huge bust.

 

You're not telling me anything new - EVERYONE knows there are busts. But Emtman didn't pan out because he blew out one knee in his rookie year, his other knee the following year, and had a herniated disc in his neck the year after that. You tell me who could have known that.

Russell looks bad for two reasons: 1) he flamed out soooo spectacularly, and 2) Calvin Johnson and Joe Thomas were the two picks immediately after. But let's be honest here. It's a QB-driven league, and Russell was a once-in-a-decade physical specimen (6'6 - 260, could run, had a rocket for an arm). He last season was his best, played well in the Sugar Bowl, and - going to MY point about there being too much emphasis on drills - he lit up the Combine. That was pretty much what sealed the deal for him going #1.

 

Talk about immaturity, Cat - you ranted about Emtman, I countered your position with actual facts, and you came back with "so what?" and proceeded to rant about other players, with your only mention of Emtman was to say "stop worrying about Emtman and injuries." Who's worried about it...?

I can see once again you're having problems with someone who doesn't agree with you.

 

like i said i was wrong to hang a bust tag on Emtman due to injuries. others like gallary, quinn, etc are not.

 

"ranted about emtman?" i used him with other players in my initial post. that's it. no rant there. you came back with a lot of things axe. the injuries being the most correct. and i didn't say "so what" about your facts axe. i said "so what" because you posted he won all these awards. i countered you with Brady Quinn who won awards as well to show you awards aren't everything.

i have a problem with you picking out things like "ranting about emtman" as not true and then twisting my words around about "so what" when you didn't answer my point about quinn winning awards as well and he was a bust and wasn't injured. get it right axe or don't quote my post. and i said i was wrong to hang the bust tag on emtman. not one word about that. so again my point is you post what you want to post and not everything else to "counter" me.

 

Thanks, Tim - good info.

 

"insider knowledge?" good point Tim. I had to get off of Twitter bc Jon Heyman and numerous other sports writers had Bryce Harper signing with at least 5 teams and close to signing with all of them before finally signing with the Phillies. it was like they were just posting any crap they felt like and not with actually facts. this isn't me posting on Twitter, these are paid sports writers and journalist. They all took a hit for their fake and false reports and many people doubted their reliability and credibility of posting anything factual again ! Know what Tim is posting is a little different, but don't make shit up! post the facts, not guesses and assumptions.

 

"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."

Sorry, sounds like a bit of a rant to me.

I didn't post about Brady Quinn because I wasn't talking about Brady Quinn - my issue was your take with Emtman. I thought it was a bad example. Thank you for admitting you were wrong.

I'm backing out of this portion of the convo...and future football discussions with you. I should have stuck by my guns when I said that last time.