Posts tagged Matt Waldman

RSP Caption Contest: Win a free RSP

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Caption Contest: Best caption for this photo of my colleagues at the Shrine Game practices wins a free past edition of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. The usual suspects are: (L-R) Bleacher Report's Michael Schottey, NFL Network's Chad Reuter, National Football Post's Wes Bunting, and ESPN Radio/Footballguy Cecil Lammey.

I lifted this photo from Cecil Lammey’s Facebook page. You have one week from tonight to give me a fitting caption for this photo. Make it funny, but keep it (reasonably) cool. If you want the nomination to even come before the judges panel don’t cross the line.

Most likely we’ll all be having dinner together on Wednesday night. I want to have a strong collection of nominees to present to these four to judge the best caption to go with the photo. I will be the tie-breaker judge if needed. The winner gets a free Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication from 2006-2012. Second and third place winners get a free RSP from 2006-2011 or a 50 percent discount on the 2012 RSP.

You must answer every question on the form to qualify. I might give out more RSPs for really funny self-deprecating facts. If you’re going to win for potentially busting on these guys, you better be able to deliver something funny about yourself.

The Caption Contest is Over. Winners Announced Here

Roster Notables for 2012 Senior Bowl

0 Comments read Matt Waldman
Cyrus Gray is one of my fave RBs this year in a class dominated by juniors. Photo by SD Dirk.

This will be my third season watching prospects at the Senior Bowl and my second covering it for the New York Times Fifth Down Blog. Here are some of the prospects on the current roster list that I’m looking forward to watching up close and a few notes as to why.

WR Joe Adams, Arkansas: I don’t think Adams is the speed demon that Jacoby Ford is, but he has made a number of exciting plays the past couple of seasons when the ball is in his hands. I want to see Adams in drills where Continue reading →

A Bait and Switch Fiesta: How Oklahoma State’s defense revealed chinks in Andrew Luck’s armor.

0 Comments read Players, Quarterback
Apple pie, (Chevrolet), con men, and football. Its all America unfiltered. Photo by Bucklava

I’ve always loved movies about con men. I think con men are as American as apple pie.

-Bill Paxton, American actor and director.

Good football is about successfully perpetrating a con. Almost every element of the game is designed to persuade the opponent to fall for a bait and switch. The most basic techniques of head fakes, dead legs, spin moves, and swim moves are used to execute strategies like play action passes, trap blocks, shotgun draws, and fire zone blitzes to trick opponents into a vulnerable position and ultimately earn a team an advantage.

One of the best football games I saw last week was a seesaw affair in the Fiesta Bowl where Oklahoma State edged Stanford 41-38 in overtime. The most fascinating moments of the game came when OSU’s defense faced Stanford’s offense. Both units excel at the art of the bait and switch and the game’s first quarter was a display of strategic and technical savvy that makes football a riveting contest of trickery thinly disguised as a battle of brute force.

If the Cardinals offense is a road gang of con men, Continue reading →

2012 RSP Update

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views

With the NFL well into its postseason, I’m steadily working my way through draft prospects for the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which will be sold exclusively through a link to a secure shopping page you can access from this blog. If you’d like to purchase the 2011 RSP it is still available for $9.95. Back issues are available for $5.95 apiece until April 1.

To buy past RSPs, email me at mattwaldmanrsp@gmail.com and include the years you wish to purchase (2006-2011 are available) and the email I can use to send you a PayPal invoice as well as the publications once the invoice is paid. After March 31, Continue reading →

Keys to a Good Back-Shoulder Fade

0 Comments read Wide Receiver
Keshawn Martin was one of two receivers I watched in recent months that got me thining about the techniques required to execute a good back-shoulder fade. Photo by Mattradickal.

The back-shoulder fade can be an unstoppable weapon if a receiver understands how to run the route and the quarterback throws the ball with timing and confidence. Here are components of the route that make the play successful. Continue reading →

RSP Cutting Room Floor: College RB and WR Notes

0 Comments read Players, Running Back, Wide Receiver
Jarrett Boykin has NFL athleticism but the Hokie offense didn't demand him to develop NFL receiver skills. Photo by Gary Cope.

If you haven’t noticed, the RSP blog is often my catchall area to write about anything I can relate to football. Nonetheless, rookie evaluation is still far and away the headliner. With the regular NFL season in the books I’ve ramped up my film study of college players. Here’s a few odds and ends about several players I’ve watched recently. For much more in-depth analysis, get the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication available April 1.

Western Kentucky RB Bobby Rainey is the best running back prospect you’ve never heard of. Continue reading →

Message from Footballguys Players National Champion

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
I had my worst fantasy football sesason in 15 years - by far - until I got this email below.

I had my worst year in 15 seasons playing fantasy football. I made the playoffs in only 50 percent of my leagues. In fact I had four teams miss the playoffs, which accounts for 40 percent of my total non-playoff qualifiers in my career in the hobby. But a nice consolation has been the number of fantasy owners emailing me over the past few weeks thanking me for suggesting they consider a different approach to drafting teams, which I termed the Upside Down Drafting strategy.

But the email I got this afternoon from Ronald Eltanal, the $125,000 winner of the Footballguys Players Championship, makes me feel like a champion even if I didn’t win one this year. See below…

Matt,

I just won the Footballguys Players Championship (I still can’t believe it as I write it). I’m writing to thank you for your advice this season, in your footballguys articles and in the stuff you write for your rsp blog. Take a look at the squad I drafted, and you can see it has your fingerprints all over it: Continue reading →

Boycotting the Corner Store: A Lesson for RBs

0 Comments read Players, Running Back
Other than Reggie Bush, I can’t think of a back that loved “taking trips to the corner store” more than Bills RB C.J. Spiller. Now that he’s boycotting the corner store his production is blossoming. See what I mean below. Photo by Matt Britt.

Isaiah Pead is an NFL running back prospect for the 2012 NFL Draft. The 5’11”, 198-pound University of Cincinnati senior is agile, and quick. He earns his tuition gaining yards from spread and pistol sets. This morning I’m watching Pead gain 191 total yards from scrimmage and score two touchdowns against NC State.

I’m not surprised about his performance, because I’ve seen Pead before. In another sense, I’ve seen Pead many times before. The Bearcats’ star runner shares similar tendencies of most good college running backs. However, one of these tendencies is a bad habit in the NFL. I call it, “taking trips to the corner store.”

Most of us have a favorite corner store in our neighborhood. We go there for gas, cigarettes, junk food, energy drinks, beer, lottery tickets, you name it. Nothing there is really good for us, but we can’t resist the temptation. In football I see the “corner store” as a running back’s decision to bounce a run outside. Continue reading →

Guy Lights a Fire Under Bank of America’s Hind Parts

0 Comments read Walk on the Wild Side
Insert Bank of America behinds over top...Photo by Baronsquirrel.

Occasionally, I like to write about things here that have nothing to do with football and today I was alerted to a story about an MBA candidate that I wrote about at my day job. He won a prestigious entrepreneurship competition for presenting a pitch for a product that actually has football implications – a hand-held device called the Traumatic Brain Injury Test (T-BIT), which determines whether an athlete has a concussion.

However Ken Williams didn’t get into the news for T-BIT, but for finding an inventive and humorous way to get Bank of America to stop dragging its feet: a music video.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/4rEfSupQB78] Continue reading →