Category Reads Listens Views

Reads Listens Views 2/22/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

Friday Sleeper Tip: Cincinnati WR Kenbrell Thompkins

I’m wrapping up my film study for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio this month. I watch multiple games of almost every player I study and I try to document at least 2-3 of those views for the publication so my readers can have play-by-play notes that shows the work behind the analysis. Yesterday morning, I watched another game of University of Cincinnati runner George Winn and tight end Travis Kelce. It was Thompkins who caught my eye the most – as did his story.

Brown was a sleeper two years ago. His cousin Kenbrell Thompkins is one now. Photo by bmward_2000.
Brown was a sleeper two years ago. Kenbrell Thompkins is one now. How are they related? See below. Photo by bmward_2000.

Thompkins is the cousin of Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown and the brother Kendall, a University of Miami wideout. When Kenbrell saw Kendall earning opportunities to go to college, he decided to ditch his life headed down a path of crime for football. Sports Illustrated’s Michael McKnight does a fine job of reporting Thompkins’ transition from drug dealer to JUCO star, leader, and in my opinion, late-round or UDFA sleeper. 

I’m a fan of Thompkins because he’s not just a fine athlete with quickness, leaping ability, and fluid skill around the ball. The Bearcats receiver clearly works at his craft. I can see it with the way he runs routes. Just like Marvin Jones, he can hold a defender in suspense with his route running and plays bigger than his 190-pound frame indicates.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/fUUzOJBqITc]

The practice tape has a pre-Goodell-smackdown quality to it, but it demonstrates a lot of refinement with routes:

  • Sinking hips to generate hard, sudden breaks. 
  • Setting up breaks and releases with the chattering of feet and drumming of arms.
  • The ability to dip the shoulder under contact at the line of scrimmage.
  • Integration of feet and hands to gain a release.
  • Suddenness to double moves.
  • Flat breaks to prevent trailing coverage from undercutting the target.

When the ball arrives, Thompkins is fluid at turning to the ball in tight spaces between a defender and the boundary and extending his arms to catch the ball. This practice compilation shows a lot of what I’ve seen in games – and a little more, because the quarterback play hasn’t been stellar in Cincinnati this year.

Plus, whenever I watch a wide receiver focus on details most prospects don’t address – such as engaging defenders 10-15 yards away from the ball as a blocker with good technique until the whistle blows – it’s a good indication the prospect is serious about getting better and not just leaning on his athleticism. The 2013 class is a deep one, but talent-wise Thompkins is a guy I’d remember if you’re a fantasy owner in a deep league monitoring the summer waiver wire for buzz-worthy candidates. Opportunity is a different story.

RSP Contest Update

If you think of me when you see these three players - among others - you don't need me to say any more. If you don't, perhaps its time to starting downloading the RSP publication every April 1.
If you think of me when you see these three players – among others – you don’t need me to say any more. If you don’t, perhaps its time to starting downloading the RSP publication every April 1.

The Guess the Prospect Contest I announced this week is over. All five of the  2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio and 2012 Post-Draft Analysis for correct answers were given away as of this morning. The correct answers were:

  • Prospect No.1 – Ron Dayne
  • Prospect No.2 – Vincent Jackson
  • Prospect No.3 – Arian Foster
  • Prospect No.4 – Mark Sanchez
  • Prospect No.5 – Peter Warrick

Congratulations to Frank, Michael, “labradane,” Shanker, and Steve.

To many of you who bought the 2012 RSP, thank you for making it possible to give some of these past issues away to newcomers to the blog. Available for download every April 1 (no joke) for going on eight years, the RSP is an online .PDF publication devoted to the play-by-play study of NFL prospects at the offensive skill positions. The publication has a menu that bookmarks the document so you have two types of analysis. The first portion is a magazine-style, pre-draft analysis of 120-150 pages that includes position rankings, player comparisons, skill set analysis of each position, and sleepers.

The second portion is where I show all my work: between 700-800 pages of grading reports, play-by-play analysis of every player and game I watched, and a glossary that defines every criteria in my grading reports. My readers who want the bottom line love the first half of the book and appreciate the transparency of this section. My hardcore readers love the fact that they can dive as deep as they want into these raw play-by-play notes.

Included with the RSP (since 2012) is a post-draft document between 50-70 pages that comes out a week after the NFL Draft with updated post-draft rankings, tiers, team fit analysis, and fantasy cheat sheet with value analysis (Russell Wilson was calculated as the best value last year). Fantasy owners can’t get enough of it.

The RSP is $19.95 and I donate 10 percent of each sale to Darkness to Light, a non-profit dedicated to training individuals and communities on the prevention of sexual abuse. Past years of publications (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 and I also donate 10 percent of each sale to D2L. You can prepay for the 2013 RSP now.

This Weekend

You can catch me talking NFL Combine and its fantasy football implications on Saturday night from 8:30 pm to 9:00 pm on Bob Harris and Mike Dempsey’s Football Diehards Show (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm). Always a good time with these two. Bob Harris (@footballdiehard) is a must-follow for fantasy football owners. He’s the first winner of the FSWA’s Fantasy Football Writer of the Year in 2005. Harris was “the talent” in the game before fantasy football emerged from the underground.

Football Reads

 

Views – Part I

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ade1LyPS1so]

Views – Part II

[youtube=http://youtu.be/O_FAt3a7EM0]

Non-Football Reads, Listens,  and Views – Part III

I don’t get much commentary about these links, but those who read them seem to look forward to this stuff – even when I post events from the real world that are all too real. These links below qualify. Stretching physically, mentally, and emotionally is not a comfortable process. These links will stretch you.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/25563376 w=500&h=281]

MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

  • Exclusive First Read: ‘Wave’ By Sonali Deraniyagala –  Economist Sonali Deraniyagala lost her husband, parents and two young sons in the terrifying Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Wave is her brutal but lyrically written account of the awful moment and the grief-crazed months after, as she learned to live with her almost unbearable losses — and allow herself to remember details of her previous life.
  • The Strong Silent Type: The Contradictions of Being an Introverted Man – I get it. Do you?
  • Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God – At the heart of the film is a small group of heroes – Terry Kohut, Gary Smith, Arthur Budzinksi and Bob Bolger. These courageous Deaf men set out to expose the priest who had abused them and sought to protect other children, making their voices heard. Gibney uses the voices of actors Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke, Jamey Sheridan and John Slattery to tell the stories of men abused by Murphy. However, it is the faces and expressions of the courageous Deaf men that illustrate the indelible effect Murphy continues to have on their lives.

Views – Part IV

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ryCwQYlQhco]

Reads Listens Views 2/15/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

If you see me when you see these three players (among others) you don’t need me to say any more. If you don’t, perhaps its time to starting downloading the RSP publication every April 1. Based on eight years of experience, you’ll thank me later. More about the RSP publication later. First, a ton of great Friday links.

On The Couch Podcast Thoughts: QBs-Combine-Your Mama

Who doesn't enjoy being On The Couch? Photo by spacemanor.
Who doesn’t enjoy being On The Couch? Photo by spacemanor.

This week’s On The Couch with Sigmund Bloom, Dane Brugler, and Lance Zierlein had some meaty stuff about the 2013 Draft. I recommend a listen. Here are some thoughts I had from the podcast now that I’m through with 90 percent of my film research for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio:

  • This year’s QB class – I couldn’t agree more with Zierlein about this group. There is no one in the top half of most rankings that I’d be standing on the table telling management to draft. I felt that way about Luck, Griffin, Tannehill, and Wilson last year. In a perfect world, these QBs should be drafted where Wilson was in 2012 and Wilson in the first round. There’s a chance a team makes the right call with one of these 2013 guys, but I’d honestly rather take a guard…yes, a guard…over most of the consensus top 3-4 signal callers and I can tell you that’s unlikely to happen in the real NFL world. However, there are some intriguing backup-caliber/developmental projects available between rounds 3 and on the curb on Sunday evening of Day 3, who I’d rather make a low-money investment. More on that in April. Meanwhile, if you’re a regular reader but just emerged from a cave in the past two weeks, you can read more about my take on drafting quarterbacks here. 
  • The Combine – I also have to give props to these guys for delineating where the Combine is helpful to folks who study players and where it isn’t. As writers/analysts like Josh Norris, Bloom, Brugler and I have been discussing off and on this week on Twitter, the combine puts a fine point on things. The debate seems to come among writers who are thinking the same thing but coming from two different directions to get there. There might be 20-30 guys I want to see very specific things about them at this event, that the limitations of scheme or opponents didn’t illustrate on tape. Considering I’ve studied multiple games for most of the 171 players I’ve watched, that’s a small but potentially important number.
  • Gun-to-The-Head/Put-It-On-My-Mama Picks – I enjoyed the picks Brugler and Zierlein mentioned as must-haves – especially Brugler’s of Cincinnati tight end Travis Kelce. The guy is an animal on the field and if you want a complete tight end capable of starting this year and thriving as productive cog as a receiver and blocker, Kelce is far and away my choice of a celebrated class. Give me Kelce – and I’ll disarm a bomb with a blindfold and a rusted-out, Swiss Army Knife. I also like the mention of cornerback Dee Milliner, who will be a pro’s pro.

The Overview Effect: The idea that once human beings can view Earth from a perspective away from the planet, the long-term effect will be as powerful as any in history. If you check out anything on this blog today, this is the top item. Once again a good link from my friend Sara

[youtube=http://youtu.be/qBA1bPcehlw]

Football Reads

Thank You

If you think of me when you see these three players - among others - you don't need me to say any more. If you don't, perhaps its time to starting downloading the RSP publication every April 1.
If you think of me when you see these three players – among others – you don’t need me to say any more. If you don’t, perhaps its time to starting downloading the RSP publication every April 1.

Thanks to all of you who purchase the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication. Available for download every April 1 (no joke) for going on eight years, the RSP is an online .PDF publication devoted to the play-by-play study of NFL prospects at the offensive skill positions. The publication has a menu that bookmarks the document so you have two types of analysis. The first portion is a magazine-style, pre-draft analysis of 120-150 pages that includes position rankings, player comparisons, skill set analysis of each position, and sleepers.

The second portion is where I show all my work: between 700-800 pages of grading reports, play-by-play analysis of every player and game I watched, and a glossary that defines every criteria in my grading reports. My readers who want the bottom line love the first half of the book and appreciate the transparency of this section. My hardcore readers love the fact that they can dive as deep as they want into these raw play-by-play notes.

Included with the RSP (since 2012) is a post-draft document between 50-70 pages that comes out a week after the NFL Draft with updated post-draft rankings, tiers, team fit analysis, and fantasy cheat sheet with value analysis (Russell Wilson was calculated as the best value last year). Fantasy owners can’t get enough of it.

The RSP is $19.95 and I donate 10 percent of each sale to Darkness to Light, a non-profit dedicated to training individuals and communities on the prevention of sexual abuse. Past years of publications (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 and I also donate 10 percent of each sale to D2L. You can prepay for the 2013 RSP now.

Non-Football Reads

  • Why J Dilla May Be Jazz’s Latest Great Innovator – “He’s so important,” says jazz drummer Karriem Riggins, who collaborated extensively with Dilla and is himself a hip-hop producer. “Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams and Miles; he’s in the same category to me.” 
  • The Best and Worst of the 2013 Grammys – Obviously I’m no purveyor of pop culture, but when three of my favorite artists get 45 seconds to pay tribute to a giant it’s worth noting why I don’t keep up any more. But it really has less to do with me liking their music. Imagine a football awards ceremony spending four hours celebrating agents, Tim Tebow, and Goodell, and 45 seconds to Adrian Peterson, Peyton Manning, and Robert Griffin.
  • Authenticity is The New Bullshit – H/T to Sigmund Bloom. I’ll be reading this a number of times.

Listens

Views

Reads Listens Views 2/8/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Goofy picture. Good runner. Lache Sistrunk (Photo by Mike Davis).
Goofy picture. Good runner. Lache Sistrunk (Photo by Mike Davis).

Quick Take: Lache Seastrunk

One of my favorite runners in the NFL is Ahmad Bradshaw. He was never going to be a dominant player, but there’s no denying his combination of skill and heart. One of my favorite games I’ve ever watched of a running back was Bradshaw at Marshall versus an excellent Tennessee run defense. Bradshaw had to work incredibly hard to just reach the line of scrimmage on most runs and it was a telling performance of his NFL future.

Bradshaw’s footwork, pad level, quickness, and balance have been hallmarks of his game. If he didn’t have a chronic foot injury, his career would have been even better than what we saw in New York. This sounds a bit like a career epitaph for the back whom the Giants released this week. Who knows. Whether or not he continues to thrive, he earned the respect of anyone who truly watches football.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/bCL87fQxXK8]

A player who reminds me of Bradshaw after a first look is Baylor sophomore Lache Seastrunk. Quick feet, excellent burst, the skill to layer cuts and set up defenders in tight spaces, and moments of excellent pad level and fight after contact. Most of my readers probably know about him. If you’re a casual college fan, here’s an introduction.

Thank You

First, thank you all for the birthday wishes on Wednesday. It’s incredibly humble to get the kind of outpouring I received on Twitter. If you’re a new follower as a result, I’d like to thank you for checking out what I do. Each Friday at the RSP blog, I post a variety of things to read, listen, and view about football and anything else that I find insightful, funny, or entertaining.

It’s also the time I like to thank my readers who purchase the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication. Available for download every April 1 (no joke) for going on eight years, the RSP is an online .PDF publication devoted to the play-by-play study of NFL prospects at the offensive skill positions. The publication has a menu that bookmarks the document so you have two types of analysis. The first portion is a magazine-style, pre-draft analysis of 120-150 pages that includes position rankings, player comparisons, skill set analysis of each position, and sleepers.

The second portion is where I show all my work: between 700-800 pages of grading reports, play-by-play analysis of every player and game I watched, and a glossary that defines every criteria in my grading reports. My readers who want the bottom line love the first half of the book and appreciate the transparency of this section. My hardcore readers love the fact that they can dive as deep as they want into these raw play-by-play notes.

Included with the RSP (since 2012) is a post-draft document between 50-70 pages that comes out a week after the NFL Draft with updated post-draft rankings, tiers, team fit analysis, and fantasy cheat sheet with value analysis (Russell Wilson was calculated as the best value last year). Fantasy owners can’t get enough of it.

The RSP is $19.95 and I donate 10 percent of each sale to Darkness to Light, a non-profit dedicated to training individuals and communities on the prevention of sexual abuse. Past years of publications (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 and I also donate 10 percent of each sale to D2L. You can prepay for the 2013 RSP now.

Listens

Robert Henson, the bassist I used to play with in high school, is now a professional musician who tours with Corey Smith, has a group called Telegram, and performs around the southeast with every kind of idiom imaginable, ranging from pit orchestras to folk to jazz.  Here’s Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” with a heavy dose of Texas BBQ at the Velvet Note, new venue in Atlanta with world class acoustics. Funny and well done.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/hUVQR4Yww1o]

Views

Rightfully so, we’re in awe of Adrian Peterson’s second-half run of production while recovering from an ACL injury and a sports hernia. However, I think perhaps we ought to turn to our spouses and feel that same sense of awe when we think of them giving birth to our children. Here are two guys from Holland opting to experience what contractions feel like. Funny and partially insightful. I say partially because my friend Sarah who posted this video on her Facebook page titled, “Labor. It’s not for the feint of heart,” followed up with this comment:

“The really funny thing is that they STILL have no idea what it’s like because

  1. They knew they could bow out at any time and didn’t have to see it to completion and
  2. They missed the whole push-a-living-being-out-your-vagina part.

BUT, a valiant endeavor, nonetheless.”

[youtube=http://youtu.be/A44oEcmDn1c]

Perhaps football’s Wolverine will give this a try for a charitable cause – once he recovers from that hernia.

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

Reads Listens Views 2/1/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Here's a Super Bowl moment embedded in the hype worth remembering. Photo by Mark Humphrey.
Here’s a Super Bowl moment embedded in the hype worth remembering. Photo by Mark Humphrey.

Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (10 hours of pre-game over analysis of things like Ray Lewis’s pre-game dance, a hangnail on Joe Flacco’s non-throwing pinkie finger). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Have a drink). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Inject a quart of nacho cheese.) Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Look forward to commercials as a break from hyper-analysis of the metaphorical nature of the image in Colin Kaepernick’s tattoo near his inside left bicep). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Based on endorsements all former players and coaches must be overweight and flaccid.) Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Wait! It’s Fred Flintstone eating Applebees with the bachelor!) Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Need more beer to calm myself from the frenzy of hyper screen cuts, hyper analysis, hyper Tweeting, hyper orgy of consumption.) Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Lost my Valentine’s Day budget on ridiculous prop bets).

Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Hoping Beyonce’s skirt malfunctions since you know Valentine’s Day will be a fiasco after losing ridiculous prop bet.) Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (I can’t see the game because all my friends who don’t know shit about football are over here with takes that I think would get me fired – but in all likelihood a bigger gig if I wrote 500-word columns and Tweet-bombed readers into oblivion 18 hours a day). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (I could only write 500 word columns once a week if I Tweet-bombed people 18 hours a day – hmmm, but twice the readers? Super!)  Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Based on the state of water cooler journalism, perhaps it doesn’t matter). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Patrick Willis just ripped Anquan Boldin’s arm off). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Did a baby day trader just try to make it rain from his bassinet – ooooh, that’s cuter than road kill). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Boldin is probable to return in the next series). Super Bowl. Super Bowl Super Bowl. Super Bowl (Injury lawyers have Boldin on their 2018 calendar to speed dial him). Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl (I hear gunshots. Is Canada invading? No honey, that’s just our neighbors having target practice in their backyard. In our subdivision? That, or they are ending an argument. Or was that the sound of Saints player with a rifle pointed at Roger Goodell? Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl.

What? It’s Super Bowl – I’m drunk, over-stimulated,  lost my money, lost any chance at scoring on Valentine’s Day, and my team lost the game.

Enjoy your Super Bowl Weekend.

Listens-Duane Allman+Wes Montgomery+Ravi Shankar = Derek Trucks

[youtube=http://youtu.be/N65cP52NC8s]

Fitting equation from a listener commenting on this video on YouTube. I first heard of Trucks when I was 17 and visiting Savannah for concert I’d be performing with a bunch of other high school musicians. I was on River Street with my buddies and there was a sign near the outdoor stage noting that the Derek Trucks band would be playing there. My eventual college roommate raved about this little kid-guitarist back then.  In hindsight he was quite a talent scout. So you know, he became a future CEO of a major record label.  Amazing who you meet in life.

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

By Fikret Onal

Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SP4MgE6EmJE]

“Bandit” wants to train with the big boys. Innocence and persistence at its finest.

Thanks

Made it this far?

Its always good to get new followers at the blog and on Twitter and there are a lot of new readers. If you’re new to the RSP blog here are some links that I think will help you learn what you’ll get here:

  • 2013 NFL  Draft Analysis – This link as a running collection of analysis I’ve written – including Sr. Bowl coverage.
  • 2012 NFL Draft Analysis – Just like above, but for 2012.
  • What is the RSP? – New to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio? I have an annual publication that is available for download April 1 and available for prepayment now. This is why folks come here.
  • 2013 RSP Players – Players I’ve studied for the April publication – a running list.

Every Friday, I post links to football and non-football reads as well as links to photos, music, and videos that catch my eye while I’m surfing. This week will have a more decided Sr. Bowl theme. If you’re new, I suggest you follow the blog and either signup for email notifications for content or add to your RSS Feed. And thanks to my loyal readers for the views, the feedback, and those who demanded I offer a prepayment option for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio.

As Martha Stewart says, “Peace-out, Homey.”

Reads Listens Views 1/25/2013: Sr. Bowl

0 Comments read Matt Waldman, Reads Listens Views
My best three skill players at the Senior Bowl? Markus Wheaton, Quinton Patton, and Tyler Wilson would have earned my votes. Photo by John Martinez Pavliga.
My best three skill players at the Senior Bowl? Markus Wheaton, Quinton Patton, and Tyler Wilson would have earned my votes. Photo by John Martinez Pavliga.

Thanks

Its always good to get new followers at the blog and on Twitter and there are a lot of new readers, thanks to the Senior Bowl coverage here, at Football Outsiders, and the New York Times. Special thanks to Jene Bramel and Cecil Lammey for their work this week, as well as the various folks I follow on Twitter who also sent readers our way. If you’re new to the RSP blog here are some links that I think will help you learn what you’ll get here:

  • 2013 NFL  Draft Analysis – This link as a running collection of analysis I’ve written – including Sr. Bowl coverage.
  • 2013 NFL Draft Analysis – Just like above, but for 2012.
  • What is the RSP? – New to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio? I have an annual publication that is available for download April 1 and available for prepayment now. This is why folks come here.

Every Friday, I post links to football and non-football reads as well as links to photos, music, and videos that catch my eye while I’m surfing. This week will have a more decided Sr. Bowl theme. If you’re new, I suggest you follow the blog and either signup for email notifications for content or add to your RSS Feed. And thanks to my loyal readers for the views, the feedback, and those who demanded I offer a prepayment option for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio. 

Football Reads

  • Daniel Jeremiah’s Quick Hits on the Sr. Bowl: The former Eagles and Browns scout liked Desmond Trufant, who we saw talk a good game and get beat on occasion by the better receivers at practice. However, CBS analyst Rob Rang is in Huskies country and he shared with us that he reserved judgment on Trufant this year because the Washington defense lacked a pass rush and forced the corner into unrealistic coverage situations deep. Rang likes what he saw of Trufant in practice and like Jeremiah is more confident. Bramel had some questions about Trufant’s hips, but also saw good things even if his analysis was a more critical. I also think the take that scouts were “intoxicated” by Marquise Goodwin’s speed is a dead-on assessment. Read into it a little more and I think intoxicated or hypnotized is a good word for a player who I think fits along the stylistic spectrum of Jacoby Ford, but hasn’t improved his ability to work off the jam and maintain good form and function as a route runner on a consistent basis since studying him last year. Here are my two takes of Goodwin (Part I and Part II)
  • Russ Lande’s Risers: I disagree with the Chris Harper assessment, especially as one being on top of the action every day he was out there. I’d characterize his performance as a mixed bag. However, I do agree with the rest of the skill player assessments – especially Vance McDonald.
  • Doug Farrar’s Take on E.J. Manuel – I think Doug makes some good arguments as to why Manuel not only has the highest upside of the quarterbacks here, but also a higher floor than many anticipate. Tyler Wilson is still my favorite QB in this class, but I saw enough from Manuel on film to buy into Farrar’s take.
  • Ryan Riddle’s Five NFL Draft Prospects Most Likely to Be Overdrafted – I dislike slideshows, but this one is worth it.

Listens & Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/eU7liIhY_m8]

More to Live For – This documentary profiles one of my favorite musicians, multi-Grammy winner Michael Brecker – who appeared on over 800 albums in his lifetime. Brecker died from a disease that required a matching blood marrow donor. The film highlights Brecker, a music executive, and Nigerian athlete who all had more to live for but blood marrow donations are still needed the way we give blood.

Non-Football Reads

 

Reads Listens Views 1/18/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

Life of Pi

This week on Reads Listens Views: Lance Zierlein with a round of “Microwave Scouting”; Ryan Riddle tells you what it was like to participate in a college all-star game; Andy Benoit previews the conference championships; three books I read this month that I think most of you will enjoy; experimental Latin music; and the 2013 RSP is available for pre-payment.

Prepayment for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio is Available

If you’re one of my readers who, over the years, has convinced me to offer prepayment (thank you), now’s the time. The 2013 RSP is available for $19.95 and will be available for download April (as usual). If you’ve purchased the RSP in the past, you can prepay at this link. You also get the post-draft add-on a week after the draft that includes tiered fantasy rankings, average dynasty draft spot data, team fit analysis, sleepers, UDFAs to watch, and dynasty drafting tips. It’s a second magazine-sized publication that is included with the purchase of the pre-draft publication. Past issues (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 apiece and the RSP donates 10 percent of every sale to Darkness to Light to train communities to recognize and prevent the dynamics of sexual abuse.

Senior Bowl

Once again, I’ll be at the Senior Bowl with Jene Bramel and Cecil Lammey. We’ll be covering practices and media night for the New York Times Fifth Down and Lammey’s ESPN affiliate as well as providing analysis and interviews here at the RSP blog. Stay tuned.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/jW4lDSx1GbQ]

Reads

Non-Football Reads

Here are three books I’ve read this month and I’d bet most of you will enjoy at least two of them.

  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, but the book was so good I might read it again before taking in Ang Lee’s vision of this story about an Indian Boy who is stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. The story is far less fantastical than it appears. However it is fantastic on every level.
  • The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter – This is essentially what I hope to hear doesn’t happen to Chris Brown or Chase Stuart in 15 years when mid-life crisis hits. This novel is a lot of fun and will make you laugh out loud.
  • Killing Johnny Fry by Walter Mosely – Walter Mosely is one of my favorite writers. This is a much different story than his mystery novels – it’s a ‘sexistential novel.’ Not for everyone, but a good read nonetheless.

Listens

Views

 

 

 

Reads Listens Views 1/11/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Combine this lunch at Saucy Q with the New York Times Fifth Down Blog Practice Reports and you almost have the complete Senior Bowl experience at home. Photo by Cecil Lammey.
Combine this lunch at Saucy Q with the New York Times Fifth Down Blog Practice Reports and you almost have the complete Senior Bowl experience at home. Photo by Cecil Lammey.

New RSP Blog Menus

I’m always looking for ways to improve content navigation on this site. Yesterday, I added an NFL Draft menu that features links to all player analysis I featured on this blog, Football Outsiders, and the New York Times Fifth Down. These pieces are on individual pages according to the year I published them: 2011, 2012, and (thus far) 2013. Players are listed by position and alphabetized. Hopefully this makes your life easier.

Prepayment for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio is Available

If you’re one of my readers who, over the years, has convinced me to offer prepayment (thank you), now’s the time. The 2013 RSP is available for $19.95 and will be available for download April (as usual). You also get the post-draft add-on a week after the draft that includes tiered fantasy rankings, average dynasty draft spot data, team fit analysis, sleepers, UDFAs to watch, and dynasty drafting tips. It’s a second magazine-sized publication that is included with the purchase of the pre-draft publication. Past issues (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 apiece and the RSP donates 10 percent of every sale to Darkness to Light to train communities to recognize and prevent the dynamics of sexual abuse.

Senior Bowl

Once again, I’ll be at the Senior Bowl with Jene Bramel and Cecil Lammey. We’ll be covering practices and media night for the New York Times Fifth Down and Lammey’s ESPN affiliate as well as providing analysis and interviews here. Stay tuned.

Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/fLqxDYTbxhk]

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

Listens

[youtube=http://youtu.be/n6ioqgxaA-E]

 

 

 

Reads Listens Views 1/4/2013

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Has the RSP been your MVP (Most Valuable Publication)? The 2013 edition, like Adrian Peterson, is on schedule (Photo by Langzi).
Has the RSP been your MVP (Most Valuable Publication)? The 2013 edition, like Adrian Peterson, is on schedule  to deliver the goods (Photo by Langzi).

Now Accepting Prepayment for the 2013 RSP

I’m spending the weekend with a bunch of Footballguys  watching the playoffs and talking shop. Meanwhile here’s some welcome news for those of you who have asked me when you can prepay for the 2013 RSP. The answer is now: If you wish to prepay for the April 1 download of the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, you can do so at www.mattwaldman.com. I have already evaluated 130 skill players for the 2013 edition and just like last year, included with the purchase of the RSP will be access to download the wildly popular, Post-Draft Add-On. I publish this updated analysis after the NFL Draft and it includes updated positional rankings, tiered fantasy rankings, ceiling scores, and a ton of post-draft analysis that comes as part of the 2013 RSP purchase. With 10 percent of each sale going to Darkness to Light, it’s a must-have for draftniks, football fans, and fantasy owners.

New RSP Blog Series – The Boiler Room

Photo by Sebastian Niedlich
Photo by Sebastian Niedlich

[People] don’t like to break a player down, look at his particulars. That involves details. Most people get bored with details. Because in order to look at the details, you have to love what you’re doing, and you have to be highly motivated. I loved playing football. I relished the details.

– Jim Brown

One of the challenges involved with player analysis is to be succinct with delivering the goods. As the author of an annual tome, I’m often a spectacular failure in this respect. Even so, I will often study a prospect and see a play unfold that does a great job of encapsulating that player’s skills. When I witness these moments, I imagine that if I were part of the production team at a major network putting together highlights for a draft show or I was working for an NFL organization creating cut-ups for a personnel director, I try to imagine if this highlight will boil down this prospect to his essentials.

That’s the thinking behind The Boiler Room – analysis of what makes a player worth drafting by boiling down as much as I can into a single play. Unlike the No-Huddle Series, The Boiler Room is focused on prospects I expect to be drafted, and often before the fourth round. My first subject of the series will be 2013 Rose Bowl MVP Stepfan Taylor. Read it Monday morning.

Views – Kenny Garret, Kenny Kirkland, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Robert Hurst Blowing the Roof Off

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFM9tIKZGjk&feature=share&list=PLX1Nx57UJgZkH87bmhCgXsp0QxzlCVPXZ]

Listens

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

  • The Lives They Lived  – A good series that featured those who died in 2012 by focusing on how they lived.
  • Living Apart: Fair Housing In America – There were three pillars created to desegregate America. Perhaps the most important is the one that is least enforced.
  • Segregation Study – See how things of changed (Atlanta) or how they basically stayed the same (Cleveland).

Reads Listens Views 12/21/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

One of the books I'm reading. I just finished "The Reader," and "Eye-Tracking the News." About to start "Don't Make Me Think."
One of the books I’m reading. I just finished “The Reader,” and “Eye-Tracking the News.” About to start “Don’t Make Me Think.”

My weekly list of links, tunes, and reads (football and otherwise), in addition to a thank you for supporting this blog and the annual Rookie Scouting Portfolio Publication. This includes a new ‘No-Huddle Series’ piece, Some serious saxophone playing, a good mock draft from Russ Lande, a piece from Sports on Earth, and Omer Avital. Check it.

Listens – Best Stop-Time Solo Ever

[youtube=http://youtu.be/S88-MqAVk3w]

Sonny Rollins, Kennedy Honors Recipient

Thank You

Things at the RSP are about to ramp up. I am already ahead of schedule with my game study and I hope that my holiday break will get me in position to have attained 75-80 percent of my player goal for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio. This means I’ll continue to provide in-depth, play-by-play analysis and essays about prospects on the blog – including Senior Bowl coverage both here and at the New York Times Fifth Down. 

If you haven’t read the 2012 RSP, you ought to check it out. The pre-draft and post-draft publications are a package set and the feedback this year was tremendous. I will be doing the same with the 2013 publication, making the pre-draft available for download (as always) on April 1 and the post-draft publication available one week after the NFL Draft. The option to prepay – as you’ve requested – will be available the same time as last year – more on that in January.

This promotion of my work ahead comes with a thank you to those of you who read and support the blog as well as my publication. I have fantastic readers. I wish I could spend more time corresponding with those of you who take the time to send me quality stuff on a regular basis. It is something I value even if I can’t always respond in kind with equal time and effort.

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

Views

Lyle Lovett Tiny Desk Concert

Omer Avital In Concert

Reads Listens Views 12/14/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Arian Foster was a victim of sabotage by his alma mater's athletic program. Was Marquess Wilson? Doesn't look like it, but read more about the dynamics of whistle-blowing in Saturday's Futures. Photo by Will Rackley.
Arian Foster was a victim of sabotage by his Alma Mater’s athletic program. Was Marquess Wilson? Doesn’t look like it, but read more about the dynamics of whistle-blowing in Saturday’s Futures. Photo by Will Rackley.

Listens

[youtube=http://youtu.be/5yqhO4saX6g]

Thank You

Fantasy football is slowing down and draftnik season is heating up. I’ll be here and at Football Outsider’s providing analysis of the 2013 prospects as I compile my research for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which will be available for download April 1. If you’ve never seen the RSP publication, 2006-2012 versions are available for download here. If you are a faithful reader of the publication and this blog, thank you for your support. I have already conducted play-by-play analysis of over 100 skill position prospects for the 2013 publication. As I did last year, I will be donating 10 percent of every sale to Darkness to Light to help them combat sexual abuse through community training and awareness projects.

Football Reads

  • Chris Brown’s Q&A With Bruce Feldman – This was from May, but pretty interesting stuff Brown had to say about Texas A&M’s entry to the SEC.
  • Goodbye, Columbus – I wrote about former Washington State WR Marquess Wilson for this weekend’s Futures. I link to this Sports Illustrated piece by Austin Murphy about former Vikings and Buckeyes RB Robert Smith and his conflict with the Ohio State athletic program that ultimately caused him to quit the team but later rejoin. It’s one of several stories that indicate why athletic programs aren’t always trustworthy.
  • Bo Jackson is still a draw – A review of the 30 for 30 film on the Paul Bunyon of the 20th Century. The best human athlete I ever saw, no contest.

Non-Football Reads

  • The World In 2030: Asia Rises, The West Declines –  The National Intelligence Council, comprising the 17 U.S. government intelligence agencies, prepares this report.
  • Tribune Watchdog: Playing with Fire The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised.
  • The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control) Jeffery Goldberg asks, “How do we reduce gun crime and Aurora-style mass shootings when Americans already own nearly 300 million firearms? Maybe by allowing more people to carry them.”

Views

This is surreal footage of driving in Russia. It’s perhaps the craziest collection of incidents I have ever seen.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AXz4P6EpX3s]

Life-affirming.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/7IfmCMTjABk]

Funny and true.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/GbycvPwr1Wg]