Posts tagged NFL

RSP Writers Project: Matt Williamson, ESPN

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I had a feeling Matt Stafford would be on a lot of RSP Writers Project Teams, but after 5-ish used Stafford for his reader’s submission, I haven’t seen Stafford appear until Matt Williamson took the plunge. Photo by Marianne O’Leary.

Matt Williamson’s story is well-known to us at the RSP blog. The former Cleveland Browns scout graciously served as our unofficial quality assurance tester for the writer’s project player values. Due to a communication error on my part, some of the writers built rosters with only two quarterbacks. I’m letting it slide due to the sake of time, but just know that there would have to be some minor adjustments with Williamson’s squad to meet the three-quarterback rule.

I doubt the adjustment would seriously change the make up of his team, which at first glance is an offense with a powerful ground attack complemented by a fearsome vertical passing game, and a 34 defense with most of the money invested in linebackers. Williamson’s team is a fun mix of big and small investments with a lot of players that reflect his eye for talent combined with a willingness to rely on role players that fit his scheme.

I think the last part of that statement is an important one to remember. Good teams aren’t filled with superstars from top to bottom, but they do have a great mix of studs and players that are studly at a limited number of tasks. See comments for guys Chris Rainey and Williamson gets it.

At the same time, he also found potential bargains. His tight ends are a great example. If Fred Davis can stay away from situations where he has to be his own lawyer Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 8/3/2012

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Falcons receiver Julio Jones is a world-class physical talent as a football player. However, until he can make the plays you see in the video above, he’s still playing a “B-game.” Jones is a good player with flashes of excellence and this is the component of his craft to monitor in order to see if he takes the next step in 2012.

This Weekend

If Texas receiver Marquise Goodwin learns how to consistently gain and maintain position like he does on this catch, he has a future as a vertical threat in the NFL. Learn more from Sterling Sharpe in the link to a coaching video below. Photo by Aaronisnotcool.

More on the craft of gaining separation from the line of scrimmage, with a play-by-play example of Texas speedster Marquise Goodwin.

Coming Soon: Cecil Lammey Q&A

Finally, Lammey and I had a chance to spend an hour with a digital recorder running. The newly syndicated host of “Riding Shotgun” is an aficionado of cattle roping, boars, and running backs. I’ll let him tell you about the chaps – I’m still getting treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. Expect to see this posted at the eve of the regular season.

New Project on the Horizon: NSFW Week

Watch out now, I’m about to let it fly. Details below.

If you listen to The Thursday Night Audible Roundtable, I sometimes let my irreverent side out for a walk (with a choke collar and a sturdy leash). Somtimes I also do it here.  I don’t know when, and I’m not sure what form it will take just yet, but I have a feeling sometime this fall, I’m going to have a “Wildman Uncensored: Not Safe For Work Week at the RSP.”

Pretty much anything and everything I wouldn’t share and laying it down unfiltered. I’ll provide Continue reading →

RSP Writers Project Q&A: Chase Stuart, Footballguys, Football Perspective, and Pro Football Reference

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Can Peyton Manning add years to Anquan Boldin’s career? Chase Stuart hopes so. Find out more about his RSP Writers team below. Photo by Michael Wifall.

Chase Stuart took an aggressive, offensive approach to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Writers Project, spending $93.5 million of his $150 million salary cap on his offense. Can’t say I blame him. He has a nice mix of young skill talent and veteran grit and his dollar cost averaging for his offensive line could pay off.

Although his defense has some clear weaknesses, he also has talented players that should do a good job of playing aggressive football when Stuart’s team has a lead. If this team gets behind early it could be problematic, but I can see how this offense is set up for this team to go 10-6, even in a tough division.

Learn more about Stuart’s team below as the writer at Footballguys.com, Pro Football Reference, and (his new blog) Football Perspective provides an engaging take on the RSP Writers Project. Continue reading →

RSP Writers Project: Chase Stuart, Footballguys, Football Perspective, and Pro Football Reference

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Chase Stuart spent $93.5 million of his $150 million camp on offense. By those standards, Peyton Manning was a bargain. Photo by Jeffrey Beall.

Chase Stuart is probably what my dad envisioned when he had his first son back in 1970: a Manhattan lawyer with a proclivity for stats and history. Well Pops, one out of three ain’t bad – in baseball. Of course, his third try was the charm: my little brother is a Columbia grad student earning his master’s in statistics. But lets’ get back to Stuart and his aggressive offensive mentality you’re about to see below.

At Footballguys.com, Stuart writes a popular series called “Player Points,” which I think always has a great takeaway worth remembering about a player. He also blogs for the venerable Pro Football Reference site that has earned kudos from some of the top football journalists around. And recently, Stuart created his own excellent blog, Football Perspective.

Because Stuart has everything going for him, I have to try (note the word “try”) to knock this Jets fan down a peg with the observation that his team philosophically looks a lot like the 2012 New England Patriots or Colts of the Manning era. Continue reading →

RSP Writers Project Q&A: Russ Lande of GM Jr. and The Sporting News

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Looking for a player with Darren Sproles’ style? Former NFL Scout and draft analyst Russ Lande tabs Falcons RB Jacquizz Rodgers for this role on his ground-centric offensive attack. Photo by McD22.

Russ Lande is a former NFL scout with the Rams and Browns who produces the draft publication GM Jr. and provides content for The Sporting News, including its annual draft guide. Lande has also appeared on television, including The Big 10 Network and ESPN2. Here’s a Q&A I did with Lande in the New York Times Fifth Down a couple of years ago at the Senior Bowl.

Lande’s RSP Writers Team has a makeup of players that is largely unique from other squads Continue reading →

Coming of Age: Young Vets to Watch

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Randall Cobb? I love this guy. I want to see the Packers use him like Percy Harvin and Wes Welker wrapped up in an electric package. Photo by Elvis Kennedy

Something I emphasize when it comes to fan expectations of young players transitioning from college to the NFL is to account for the Great Emotional Divide. College football is an insulated world where university athletic programs fill its players’ time with a full slate of activities so there is little idle time. Moreover, these programs often employ staff to monitor participation in each of these activities.

The NFL is not as tightly managed because the players are too old to be treated as anything less than men. Colleges and universities exist in that gray area where 95 percent of its students are still socially young men, or even boys, transitioning into manhood. College football programs can use this gray area to its advantage by protecting its investment with rules that minimize the potential for law-breaking behavior.

That’s a topic for another time. Another consequence of these “live your life by the numbers” schedules imposed on college football players is that they are not use to the freedom that comes when they leave NCAA programs and enter the real world. Despite the fact that football players make unreal money as professionals, the looser schedules and expectation for players to train and study on their own is as real as it gets.

These new freedoms combined with significantly tougher competition, more complex mental components of the game, and vastly higher expectations can lead to something that these young athletes aren’t use to doing on the football field that can hold them back: thinking. When an athlete starts thinking on the field of play he hesitates. When he hesitates, he’s a step slower. And when he’s a step slower, he’s behind. And when he’s behind, he makes mistakes or misses opportunities he should have exploited.

Remember this last paragraph as you spend this summer reading Continue reading →

RSP Writers Team: Russ Lande, GM Jr. – The Sporting News

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About Russ Lande

If you want to learn something right away about former NFL scout Russ Lande, note his preference for quarterbacks with great awareness and accuracy over pure arm talent and athleticism (I agree). Photo by Parker Anderson.

Russ Lande began his football career as a scout with an unpaid position as a part-time recruiting intern with the UCLA Bruins. The next year, Lande was a pro scouting intern with the Los Angeles Rams and then transitioned into the role of scouting administrator from 1994-1998. He learned from the likes of Jack Faulkner, Dick Vermeil, Mike White, Bud Carson, Charley Armey, and Nick Aliotti.

Lande founded GM Jr Scouting and published his first annual GM Jr’s Guide to the NFL Draft (“The Guide”), starting with the 1999 NFL Draft. He also worked in the XFL as an east coast scout and later earned a job with CBS Sports’ television show NFL Today as an editorial consultant. Soon after, the Cleveland Browns hired Lande as a Midwest Blesto Scout responsible for evaluating senior players at over 70 colleges and universities. Since 2007, Lande has been the draft expert for The Sporting News.  His company, GM Jr. Scouting LLC supplies The Sporting News all NFL content for the NFL and NFL Draft, both online and in their annual Sporting News Pro Football Draft publication.

Lande’s RSP Writers Team was originally composed with a $140 million cap through a miscommunication that we had about the rules (which was my fault). When I gave him more time to redo his team with the extra $10 million, he made tweaks to his quarterback depth and added Matt Hasselbeck. I think this is important to note, because I believe Lande is confident enough in hi selections that the extra $10 million didn’t make a huge difference except at one position.

Because I regard Lande as an industry peer when it comes to studying prospects, I enjoyed discovering players we both like: Hasselbeck, Juron Criner, Donald Brown, Taylor Thompson, Glenn Dorsey, and Cordy Glenn. The fact that Criner reminds me of Cris Carter and Lande describes the rookie as having “the best Continue reading →

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

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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 →

RSP Writers Q&A: Sam Monson, Pro Football Focus

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When you can turn “Gronk” and Gates (twice) into “Gunk,” you can have strong safety Tyvon Branch’s swagger. Sam Monson explains why Branch is the only hybrid stopper in the NFL. Photo by Jeffery Beall.

I was raised on cornerbacks Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield playing bump and run in Cleveland. It was a big reason why I wanted Darrelle Revis and added some young, promising corners with man coverage skill to my squad. I have a brother-in-arms in that department with Sam Monson. The Pro Football Focus writer unveiled his RSP Writers team yesterday and if you appreciate the skill of man coverage, you’re going to love what he did.

I probably asked Monson more follow up questions than any writer thus far, including a mini-discussion about studying the game from a statistical perspective versus one of technique. I couldn’t agree with his answer more. We lead off with that question, using Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate as the starting point for this stats vs. technique discussion. Continue reading →

RSP Writers Team: Sam Monson, Pro Football Focus

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About damn time Drew Brees is on a writers team, don’t you think? Sam Monson builds a team that a defensive back would like: a passing game he only has to face in practice and a defensive unit geared to defend an aerial assault. Photo by eschipul.

Sam Monson is an analyst at Pro Football Focus. He’s a sales and marketing director in Dublin, Ireland. Apparently, Monson is also a ball-hawking defensive back for his local football league (see his Twitter profile). Jene Bramel was sent across the pond to scout him. His report is forthcoming.

In the spirit of Monson’s football position, the PFF writer built a RSP team that I believe places heavy emphasis on taking away the pass as well as testing good passing defenses. He has a strong 1-2 punch at receiver, a promising all-around tight end, and throwing the ball to them is none other than Drew Brees, who makes his first appearance on a RSP Writers Project Team.

Just from the initial scan of Monson’s roster, he has built a unit with defensive backs capable of sticking to receivers like flypaper and relentless edge rushers along the defensive line. While I’m not a fan of some of his depth, it’s easy to nitpick any of these teams in that department. What I do know is that Monson’s team will be competitive as long as it stays healthy and when I say competitive, I mean compiling stats in the left-hand column labeled “W.” Continue reading →