Posts tagged Matt Waldman blog

Reads Listens Views 7/19/2013

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Geno Smith reminds me of Tony Romo. I see it, but I also see the other players on that spectrum of style. See below. Photo by Football Schedule.
Check out Scott Kacsmar’s article on Tony Romo. See below. Photo by Football Schedule.

Thank You

I’m fortunate to be at the intersection of two great football communities: fantasy football and draft evaluation. On the whole, the writers I interact with are knowledgeable, hard working, and humble. So it’s an honor when I see these members of my audience also participating in contests like the Jadeveon Clowney event this month.

If you haven’t purchased the 2013 RSP, remember that it also includes the post-draft. If you are new to the blog, here’s a little more about the RSP and some sample material. Remember, 10 percent of each purchase is donated to Darkness to Light to providing training to communities to prevent and address the epidemic of sexual abuse.

Views – Chad and Terrell Would Fit In Well

[youtube=http://youtu.be/0bomkgXeDkE]

Football Reads

Views – Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers (Awesome)

[ted id=1785]

Non-Football Reads

Listens – The Hippest Version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star You’ll Hear

[youtube=http://youtu.be/j2DEfTzb9zc]

These four have made a lot of great recording artists sound good in their time. You’d probably only know them if you were a student at the University of Miami. Glad I had that chance. The final movement is a lot of fun. You’re little kid will dig it.

Listens – The Saxophonist Who Kept Coltrane’s Interest Until Trane Died 

http://youtu.be/Ag1uKsbpKqA

The saxophonist is John Gilmore, who is best known for playing with Sun Ra. If you don’t know who Sun Ra is, you’ll either love or hate his music. This setting is a much more straight ahead gig with Art Blakey. Many people didn’t know Gilmore gigged with the Messengers. If you listen to Trane then you can hear the Gilmore influence in the solo.

Listens – On The Couch w/Bloom, Cosell, and Yours Truly

In This Episode: Sigmund Bloom, Matt Waldman, and Greg Cosell (NFL Films) discuss the NFL. Topics Include – the decline of the importance of the running back in the NFL, the limited sample size of read option quarterbacks, how Tom Brady will adjust to the loss of Aaron Hernandez, whats next for Sam Bradford, Jay Cutler, and Andy Dalton, differing opinions on LeVeon Bell, plus more!

Reads Listens Views 7/12/2013

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Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield they may not be (yet), but Liskiewitz's choice of the Seahawks corner tandem is a smart nod. Photo by Football Schedule.
Brandon Browner is my type of player. Photo by Football Schedule.

Thank You 

I got the idea for the Rookie Scouting Portfolio in 2003. I still have a journal filled with notes I took in longhand while watching Steven Jackson and Brandon Browner at Oregon State. I liked Browner for his physicality. The fact that he’s considered a relatively new contributor in the NFL is an amazing story that speaks a lot to his perseverance to take the hard road to get there.

I get it. A project like the RSP requires perseverance. Those who truly study film of draft prospects learn this in short order. You have to give up a lot to do what you love.

A lot of people don’t understand it. I’m living the dream to them. However, they’re dreaming if they think it’s like they imagine.

The cost of a living the dream is a high price tag of commitment to make something a career before it even has a glimmer of true hope to supply what people expect as the benefits. It’s long on work and short on free time, sleep, and it challenges your capacity for repetitive work.

It can take a physical and emotional toll. I’m not alone. This goes for guys like Josh Norris and Dane Brugler and West Bunting and Chad Reuter before them. I could go into detail, but it’s going to sound more and more like a woe as me tale and that’s not the intent.

I love what I do. I chose to do it. I’m paying the freight.

While I thank you for reading the blog and buying the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, the person who deserves the greatest thanks is my wife. She entered my life just after I had waded waste-deep into this commitment. She heard me tell her when we started dating that I’m about a quarter of the way into a career marathon that would mean a lifestyle where doing something as simple as spending free time together might require an organized appointment.

That’s a negative on the romance scale and she didn’t flinch.

She was willing to commit to me and this insane project. She’s flexible about when and how we spend time together. She has provided as many good ideas about what I do with the RSP as anyone. And she’s a beautiful soul who is direct, smart, funny, and one of the toughest people I know.

Thank you, Alicia – a big reason why more and more people are finally figuring out that the Rookie Scouting Portfolio is one of the best small investments of fantasy football/draftnik season is because you’ve persevered so I can continue to do the same.

Download the RSP not because of me getting sentimental, but because I believe in the next statement as much as anything in my life: You’ll immediately see that you got more than your money’s worth for the price you pay. In fact many of you will feel like you’re cheating me – about 2 in every 10 readers email me this sentiment.

Enough of that – time to share things that caught my eye on the Internet in recent weeks.

Listens

I want you to listen to the first 50 seconds of this video and see if you can remember how the melody sounds.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZ8s75iU6E&w=560&h=315]

Now listen to the way these two greats take the same song and make it a new one. The song below is the same basic harmony as the one above, but these guys turn a Cole Porter standard “What Is This Thing Called Love” into a more passionate, earthier, down n’ dirty “Hot House” . . .

[youtube=http://youtu.be/EKiyq1VoAZs ]

To this day, this is still the definition of bad assery at its finest and why great Hip-Hop has its roots in Bebop. I’m sure if I had only five songs to listen to for the rest of my life, this version of “Hot House” would make the list.

Views

About 15 years ago I volunteered as a hospice worker for an Anglican Priest who lived in a trailer about 25 miles from Athens. He was a Korean War veteran. The blast of an exploding shell while on an air craft carrier temporarily blinded him and bought him a ticket back to the states.

While at a military hospital in Texas a few women from the nearby Indian reservation would volunteer to help the injured veterans. One of the volunteers began reading this man’s letters daily. They fell in love and he proposed before he ever had the bandages lifted from his eyes.

They were married over 40 years. They moved to Georgia, bought a big house,  had two kids, and adopted 27 others during their lifetime. He managed a local hardware store and later an became the Anglican Priest he was when I met him. He had a large congregation and many people in the community came to him for advice.

His wife died after a long battle with cancer and when he was diagnosed a number of years later, he opted not to seek treatment. He had seven years of decent health before I met him. I cleaned for him, set up mouse traps for this small trailer he had moved to after the state government built a highway through his house, and made runs to pick up Kentucky Fried Chicken – his favorite.  Most of all I listened to him tell stories about his life.

What was most memorable about my time with this man was that he had 29 kids, a community he gave so much to, and he thanked me – a 28-year-old at the time – for allowing him to tell me things he would never feel comfortable telling any of them. The reason was he was always the listener and adviser.

That was his role and he felt that no one around him knew how to give him the support all human beings need. I suspect he didn’t know how to receive support – much less ask it from those who saw him as a provider for most of his adult life.  While this saddened me on some level, I was grateful that I could be there for another human being in this way.

So when I see the picture of this man in a hospital in his final days and the staff allowed him to spend time with his dog, it reminds me that bonds are not always predictable and it’s nice to see an organization recognize it – especially a place prone to bureaucratic entanglements like a hospital.

Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/xPAat-T1uhE]

If you don’t have a daughter, this will make you think long and hard about how you see women. It’s also telling of how much hard work goes into being a truly great actor – emotional work and openness that the average person wouldn’t dare tread. Hat Tip to Jared Plotts in the 216 (if it is still 216).

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

  • Welcome to Hell: Philadelphia Has a Serious Case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – If there is one article you read today, this month, or this year, Steve Volk’s piece that reveals how our cities have youth dealing with issues similar to our veterans and Rwandans is the one to read. It will take you about 20 minutes, but I implore you to do so.
  • King of the Hill Animation Help – I’m not a big fan of animated sitcoms. They have their moments, but I don’t get into them like my wife.  However thanks to her, I am a converted die-hard fan of King of the Hill. This is a good PowerPoint for wannabe animators who worked on the show. Entertaining if you’re a King of the Hill buff – and I’ve seen on Twitter than many of you are.
  • BBC broadcast of Sylvia Path reading her poem “Tulips”  – One of the most powerful voices in modern poetry reads one of her pieces. This is an edgy piece because of the juxtaposing imagery of passion and sterility. There’s a tone with her reading where I feel like I’m witnessing an animal that  is tense and warning you it’s about to strike if you don’t retreat. H/T to Doug Farrar – yes, that Doug Farrar – for tweeting this the other day.
  • The Sound of Color – Colorblind artist Neil Harbisson is an intrepid “eyeborg” wearer. That’s a device that converts color into audible frequencies, meaning that Harbisson gets to hear a symphony of color, instead of seeing a world only in grayscale.
  • The Man Who Predicted Google Glass Forecasts The Near Feature – Physicist and award-winning sci-fi writer David Brinn shares some compelling thoughts.
  • Banana Peels Into Plastic? – You betcha. H/T to Gary Davenport – a writer I need to feature more here for his fantasy football work.
  • Goodwill’s Salaries Called Into Question – I love Goodwill’s concept. The execution might need some work.

Views

From the sublime to hilarious toilet humor . . .

[youtube=http://youtu.be/NySWcNT8Oe4]

H/T to my old friend Joe Mendez, who is one of the more well-read guys I know but also one of the least pretentious. Miss hanging with you.

Reads Listens Views 6/14/13

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If you read the David Eggers book, then you know this picture. Photo by Screen Punk.
If you read the David Eggers book, then you know this picture. Photo by Screen Punk.

Another Friday, another Reads Listens Views. This week has its routine mix of football and non-football content. The real world content (as usual) is often so quietly disturbing that I know 99 percent of you won’t even read it. That’s okay, I share it for the handful that do because fortunately for me I don’t have to always blow sunshine up people’s hind parts.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/28DfvvfZLi0]

Some people hate covers. I’m not one of them. Sometimes you learn more about the quality of a song when someone other than the artist that introduced it to the public performs it. I couldn’t think of a better artist to cover a Sting tune than Stevie Wonder. Whether or not ballads with a bossa nova feel is your thing, I think you can appreciate the craftsmanship of the lyrics and music. On another note, if Sting is just a few years younger than my dad and looks like that, I’m getting back to doing yoga every day. Here’s Sting talking about his yoga experience just a few years after he started it.

I was planning to anyhow, but this was just another source of inspiration.

Of course musicians who make improvisation a high art form have no problem with playing covers . Here’s one of my recent favorites of one of some of the greatest modern performers at their individual instruments playing the Thelonius Monk Blues Straight, No Chaser.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/0uYDBVoUjPo]

Thank You

Normally, this is my weekly ritual to thank my readers for visiting the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog and/or buying the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication. Today, I want to thank a subset of my readers that do a lot of positive things for me – the blogging, web, and Twitter community. You have been a source of inspiration, camaraderie, and assistance since I started this blog two years ago.

Writers like Robert Miller, Doug Farrar, Chris Brown, the Dynasty League Football crew, Ryan Lownes, Josh Norris, Sigmund Bloom, Cecil Lammey, and a host of others have routinely sent people here. I don’t participate often in Twitter’s ‘Follow Friday’ ritual, but thanks to all of you who mention me in your lists. I’ll defer to Cian Fahey’s excellent list of people to follow on Twitter that even includes humorous and informative example tweets with each person he recommends (and by the way, Fahey caught me on a good day).

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio look around. There’s a lot of work that I believe you’ll find worth the read. Here are a few suggestions:

If you’re one of the many who have bought the 2013 RSP and it was your first time, I appreciate all the great feedback about your experience reading it. If you haven’t downloaded the RSP yet, you can click these links to learn about it and the post-draft add-on. If you’re not aware, the RSP donates 10 percent of each purchase to Darkness to Light, a non-profit whose mission is to train individuals and communities on sexual abuse prevention and how to address the tragedy when it happens. I have many reasons for believing in this cause, but the Penn State scandal is a perfect illustration that a significant part of the problem are everyday people like us who make mistakes with how to handle it when it happens.

This week is going to be heavy on the ‘listens’ and ‘views’ part of this Friday ritual.

Football

  • I rarely get to post something that Joe Bryant writes, because he’s usually too busy running a business called Footballguys.com. However, I enjoyed his post about Bill Belichick’s handling of the post-Tebow press conference. And I agree, it isn’t that hard.
  • If you follow Bryant or Chris Brown then you probably saw this tackling drill, but I want to talk about it a little more. It doesn’t require me to tell you that it’s safe, teaches good form with the hips, knees head, and arms. If someone can invent or modify a ball that can change direction, it could be even better.
  • Beyond hats, I’m not big fan of consumer football apparel. I have a couple of jerseys and I never wear them. However, this is a good marketing concept by the NFLPA. Hopefully, they’ll put their money where their mouth is when it’s time to back up the good vibe.

Non-Football

  • This Guy Reinvented the Wheel – I don’t know many skateboarders, but this concept has wide-ranging applications beyond the hobby. Fascinating use a cube shape to create a better wheel.
  • This site Invisible People is a great project where a movie director interviews the homeless in the Seattle area. Here is a very short video profile of Mark, a man probably close to my age who suffered a nervous breakdown after his wife and daughter died and when he was released from a psychiatric hospital he had lost everything. The director always asks the people he profiles to share three wishes. Most of them can barely think of more than one and often the wish is rarely about themselves.
  • If you’ve made it this far then you realize that my non-football links are rather depressing. This is why I love having a blog. I can’t share this stuff elsewhere without someone telling me to spout more sunshine. They can blow that sunshine where the sun don’t shine because this is real shit that we ignore all too often. This story on our prison system is a necessary read. For a less graphic, but even scarier true account of what happens when an innocent man winds up in prison – and it’s chilling as hell – read Dave Eggers’ book Zeitoun.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/8OEjYquyjcg]

Blackfish looks like a quality whistle-blower story about a common sense issue that the movie ‘King Kong’ addressed nearly 100 years ago. I loved going to Seaworld when I was growing up and seeing Shamu was a thrill. It was also a bad idea.

Inspirational

[youtube=http://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448]

Read Listens Views 6/7/2013

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I've built a Hot Tub Time Machine for Palmer, but Bruce Arians might have done me better. Photo by Keith Allison.
I’ve built a Hot Tub Time Machine for Palmer, but Bruce Arians might have done me better. Check out my thoughts on the Cardinals offense in 2013 at Footballguys Photo by Keith Allison.

Views

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VQm5gNo-5Vo]

A Message From Chet Gresham: Fake Football Writing Contest

Hello all you fake football writers and aspiring writers! Welcome to our 2013 writing contest. We’ll have prizes, guest judges, and a whole lot of fake football ideas being thrown around in a nice and orderly fashion. First off, let me thank our sponsors DraftDay and FantasyPros. Both great sites that I use more than the average obsessed fake footballer. Second off, you may ask, what’s in this for me!?  Details here.

Thanks

I’f you’re new to the blog, I make it a habit to post a mix of content on Friday and thank my readers for hanging around.

I don’t know when he broached this idea but Ryan Riddle conducted an informal survey of his Twitter followers, asking them to name “the best football sites out there.” Riddle didn’t specify what type of content – fantasy, stats, scouting, news, or strategy – he just wanted what first came to mind. Each person gave their top three sites in order.

Riddle released a list of 71 sites this week and the list is a strong group. I didn’t know about the survey so I didn’t vote. However I was glad there were folks who voted for sites like Coach Huey and Blitzology – two lesser known sites to the general public, but excellent resources for a lot of writers contributing content to sites higher on the list.

I expected to see  Football Outsiders and Footballguys place high on the list and readers didn’t disappoint – rating them 3rd and 7th among all sites, respectively. I was delighted to see that this site you’re reading placed 24th overall – tied with ESPN, X and O Lab, Draft Calc, and Cat Scratch Reader – and even earned a first-place vote.

I didn’t expect to see the RSP blog on the list, so it was a pleasant surprise to be in the top-third of a list as esteemed as this one. Thank you all for following my blog, sharing what you like, and buying the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication.

If you haven’t bought the RSP before, I can say with pride that you’ll get as much out of it as I put into it – and I put everything I can into it. My readers will tell you they love it. If you’re on the fence, I am confident that you’ll realize this is one of those cases where there’s little hype to what I’m saying here. Plus, I donate 10 percent of each sale to Darkness to Light, a non-profit whose mission is to prevent and combat sexual abuse through community training and awareness.

Download the RSP now and know that with your purchase, you also get access to the 2013 Post-Draft publication that comes with it. At the very least, follow this blog click on the link on the left to follow and you’ll receive email updates when I post new articles that give you a taste of the analysis and detail put into the RSP publication. Then consider supporting the site (and do yourself a favor at the same time) by downloading the publication.

Football Reads

If the name Cian Fahey sounds familiar to you but can’t place it, setting in for some nice reads from the football writer who has been a part of two RSP Writers Projects and has most helpful providing updated spreadsheets tot the writers so we didn’t have too many duplicate draft picks. What I admire about Fahey as a football writer is that he isn’t afraid to take a stance that might earn him criticism, but it’s not something he does for the sake of attracting eyeballs to his work. You can follow Cian on Twitter at @Cianaf. 

Moreover, I recommend checking out his blog Pre-Snap Reads. Here are a few pieces I enjoyed reading this week:

Bonus Football Read

  • George, Visger, The Damage Zone – Patrick Hruby’s profile on Visger is a heartbreaking read, but he mainlines the truth about pro football players and the complex relationship they have with the sport. 

Non-Football Reads

  • Animal Behaviorist: We’ll Soon Have Devices That Let Us Talk to Our Pets – My wife once told me when were dating that my (now deceased) cat Mookie was a sweet guy and very smart, but warned me that if he ever started talking she was leaving and not coming back. I think this also goes for my cat Zookie, who she once told to “get a job” after shooing him off the new couch and two days later when I saw him sitting next to her, she explained that he “got a job” (he brought her a bird) so she had no choice but to indulge him. Still, if a device becomes readily available I doubt it will ever be allowed in our house. Plus, I’m pretty sure Zookie curses and speaks in slang neither of us would understand.
  • When The Beautiful Game Turns Ugly – A must-read by Wright Thompson. It’s not a comforting story, but it’s a great one because as much as the world has changed the elements that generate hate remain in place and easy to exploit.
  • Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building – When you read a piece about an icon like Jordan and almost feel sorry for him because of his difficulty turning off the competitive switch as well as gaining insight to what makes him far more human now than what we were allowed to see in the `80s and `90s,  you know Thompson did a fine job.
  • Six Key Foods to Help Regulate Sleep – Former GM Ted Sundquist has a football site. I’m sure there’s other fine material to mine, but this piece about food and regulating sleep patterns by guest writer Christine Jones caught my eye first.

Views

I didn’t hear about this controversy regarding the Cheerios commercial this week (I was too busy reading about hatred and stupidity in Italy) to notice that we had our own example of parts of our country not quite ready to look at the world as a collection of human beings as individuals.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/kYofm5d5Xdw]

Great commercial and good for you, General Mills for standing behind it.

Listen-View

[youtube=http://youtu.be/KNa3gZfQfH0]

If you’re not used to the constant pause-rewind of football tape this could leave you jittery, but the chance to listen to Alex Gibbs talk about zone blocking is good stuff. H/T Chris Brown.

Coming Soon

  • More 2014 prospect articles
  • More 2013 camp watch pieces
  • A study on quarterbacks with dynasty leagues in mind at Footballguys

Reads Listens Views 4/11/2013

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No one's path is a straight line - no matter how they spin their story. Photo by Sierrian.
No one’s path is a straight line – no matter how they spin their story. Photo by Sierrian.

Views

Many people think I’m living the dream. I’m often asked how I got into doing what I do. There are a lot more details to this story that you probably wouldn’t believe and I’m not ready to tell. This isn’t Barbara Walters.

The best place to begin is that I came to the realization nine years ago that I was as far away from what I wanted my life to be like as I could get.

I had a reasonably successful career that served me well for many years, but I got into it because like many people in life, I had knots to untie. Some of those knots took a while figure out.  One of them was arriving at the realization that if I could work my ass off and do a good job for other people in something that I didn’t care for, what if I focused on something that mattered to me?

Writing was part of that realization. My first football columns weren’t for anyone in particular. I wrote them as an exercise of self-encouragement – an active, conscious step in the direction I wanted to go and having faith that the Universe would respond in kind.

It did. The first three columns at the bottom of this page where written before I even thought to freelance for a site. In fact, The Gut Check was the column name before it even had a home for me to write it.

Although the opportunity came to me more than I actively looked for it, I took that first step and embraced the equal and opposite force. It hasn’t been easy. It isn’t happening fast enough. And like everyone else, I have bad days, but my life is a lot different now – and the road ahead is worth the adventure.

This isn’t the living the dream lifestyle some believe, but it’s my conscious choice. It’s my passion. And I now understand those who first inspired me in some part of life meant when they said, Don’t go this path unless you can’t do anything else. 

Technically, I could do something else if I had to. But I think I’d be a shell of who I am for a while if forced – possibly until I keeled over. So while I take pride in something like the testimonial you’ll see below, I want to express my appreciation to you for helping to support where I’m heading by reading what I write.

While I’d do it even if no one read what I write – it’s that important to me. To say I have an audience is a special thing.

I’m sharing this because if one of you reading this is out there trying to figure out how to change the direction of your life, I think it’s important to hear someone say that you can do it. Understand that once you make one major change several other changes you didn’t anticipate often accompany it. Be prepared for a marathon rather than a sprint. And be willing to reassess what is important to you often so you don’t gain the world and lose your soul.

Thank You

A 261-page online publication that provides 1029 pages of play-by-play notes from my evaluation database and 10 percent of your purchase is donated to fight sexual abuse.
A 261-page online publication that provides 1029 pages of play-by-play notes from my evaluation database and 10 percent of your purchase is donated to fight sexual abuse.

“BTW – Best pre-draft scouting report on every conceivable guy [at the skills positions] is by @MattWaldman. Very good read – mattwaldman.com”

–Chris Brown, author of Smartfootball.com and Grantland contributor

I learn something every time I read Chris Brown’s work. So when  guy who teaches me things feels good enough about it to share what I do, I’m proud of it.

The Rookie Scouting Portfolio alone isn’t going to help you win your fantasy league. It’s not going to have perfect rankings. And it doesn’t have pretty pictures (yet). However, it makes a winning difference for fantasy football owners in dynasty and re-draft leagues for the past eight yards. It gives you quality information that backs up my assessments. And readers tell me every year that they heard about the RSP, but until they downloaded one they really didn’t know about the RSP.

If you want a comprehensive pre-draft and post-draft guide for one price that gives you rankings, overrated and underrated players, skill breakdowns and ratings for each position, player comparisons, and play-by-play analysis, then look no further.

For those of you who have bought the RSP or buy it every year – thank you.  As I just mentioned, your support makes a tremendous difference my life because it gives me more time to focus on something I love – writing about this game.

If you’re new to the RSP blog, I write this type of post most Friday’s. It’s my chance to link to other fantastic football and non-football content. Most of all it’s a chance to thank you for reading the blog or downloading the 2013 RSP.  Remember, you also get the post-draft update the week after the draft and 10 percent of each sale goes to Darkness to Light, a non-profit that combats and prevents sexual abuse in communities.

If you haven’t bought the RSP before, do yourself a favor. Once you do, you’ll understand why it is becoming a Rite of Football Spring for those who want the goods on skill position players entering the NFL draft.

Views (RSP Demonstration)

The fish is Russell Wilson in the third round of last year’s dynasty drafts, the two with the poles are your competition. What comes next is you with the 2012 RSP . . . (audio NSFW)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcuYjDR2tSg&start=35rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Sometimes a visual helps . . .

Listens – MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Starring Football Outsider Aaron Schatz

[youtube=http://youtu.be/wxv3HGV6gok]

Fascinating panel. Worth a listen and coming back to as you have time.

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

  • A great comic about Mantis Shrimp – They have super powers compared to the rest of the living beings on this planet. 
  • Izakayas – I want to go to one, drink saki and beer, and talk football and life with many of you.
  • Serenity Amidst a Sea of Haze – If you need to some mind travel as a substitute for the real deal, this blog will help.
  • The Beauty of Letter Press – I make a lot of my living writing for print and the Internet. Some of my Web brethren take a dismissive tone with the state of print publishing. I say respect and honor what came before you.

Listens

[youtube=http://youtu.be/uOo8QoJEE6I]

Beautiful and sad music. Life is sometimes this way. Nothing wrong with embracing that on occasion.

Win a 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio: New Hints

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Goats by Malingering

Update: Contest is Over.

  • 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.

 

Apparently the identity of the prospects I listed for Wednesday’s “Win a 2012 RSP Contest” are still hidden among the herd of Giovanni Carmazzi’s goats.

I set out to create a difficult contest and based on the first day of responses, I succeeded a little too well. It’s time to make it a little easier since no one guessed a single player correctly thus far. I am adding a new hint for each scouting report listed as “Hint No.2” under each report. If no one guesses correctly with these, I’ll add a third hint for each and so on.

Check out the contest details and questions at this link. Note: Since Hint No.2 I’ve given away 4 of 5 free 2012 RSPs. One left!

 

 

 

 

Reads Listens Views 2/8/2013

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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

Football Reads

Non-Football Reads

Skill Players to Monitor in August: Reads Listens Views 7/27/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

The Template for Modern Quarterbacking

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Four Skill Players to Monitor In August

Arizona WR Juron Criner is a “Trust Me” player. See below (trust me).

One of the things we discuss regularly on the Thursday night Audible podcast is the importance of following the reports that the media files on players. These stories provide a brick-by-brick foundation about these players. Although these reports aren’t infallible, learning to filter truth from perception can have value. Below are players I’m monitoring this off season. Continue reading →

Quick Breakdown on Supplmental RB Ed Wesley, TCU

0 Comments read Players, Running Back
TCU may miss RB Ed Wesley’s contributions to its three-man rotation, but he has a lot to learn before an NFL will feel the same way. Photo by Joe Duty.

I watched Ed Wesley this time last week, presuming he would be playing another year. A few days later, he applied for the NFL’s supplemental draft. Wesley was a rising senior at Texas Christian and in a committee situation with fellow runners Waymon James and Matthew Tucker. He’s a 5’9″, 200-pound runner with potential to develop into a better player at his position. In this final game versus Louisiana Tech, I saw more areas he needed to work on than areas where he shined.

As most of you following this blog know, all of my conclusions are based on play-by-play analysis. I may decide to give some play-by-play break down of Wesley before the draft, but in case I don’t here is a short summary of what I saw from the Horned Frogs runner. Continue reading →

The Guardian NFL Writer Cian Fahey’s RSP Writers Project Team

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“Revis, you’ve been traded to Fahey’s team. His defense might be better than mine personnel-wise. But I hope you can have 15 pick-sixes, because they might need it if his offense doesn’t step up.” Photo by Marianne O’Leary.

Cian Fahey covers the NFL for The Guardian and he also writes for Irish Central and at one time contributed for The Bleacher Report. Fahey is a Steelers fan and also contributes toSteelers Depot. If you’ve never read his work or followed him on Twitter, he’s not afraid to give his unfiltered opinion. You’ll see that as he reveals his roster below.

I like a lot of Fahey’s choices on defense. I opted for Darrelle Revis yesterday when I finally began my revised version of my team. The idea of shutting down an entire side of the field or plastering 95 percent of the league’s receivers into utter uselessness is appealing. Where we differ is that Fahey is opting for a 3-4 scheme and I’m a 4-3 guy. On offense, Fahey and I both took a chance on tackle Charles Brown, who was a second-round pick of the Saints two years ago but injuries derailed his developmental opportunity to flourish as a starter. His production for eight games in 2011 makes hm a player I agree is a bargain.

As for his take on Dwight Lowery? Well, I suspect there’s a lot of love at Bleacher Report for the Jaguars safety. It’s one of the follow up questions Continue reading →