Posts tagged Rookie Scouting Portfolio

RSP No-Huddle Series: Cowboys WR Danny Coale

0 Comments read Players, Wide Receiver
I resume the No-Huddle series with Cowboys receiver Danny Coale, a good, but underrated bet to make an impact as a rookie. Photo by Techsports.

Announcements

The RSP blog has experienced a wave of new viewers during NFL Draft season – thank you for checking it out. And thanks to those of you who post links to my work. It’s amazing how much this blog has grown in less than a year, and I have no plans on stopping.

Here are some exciting projects on the horizon:

  • The RSP Football Writers Project: Over two dozen respected football writers, analysts, and former scouts will each build a team under the structure of a salary cap. I’ll post each team here and interview the writers for further analysis. Originally scheduled to debut in May, I pushed back the schedule so we could undertake this project after the draft.
  • Grinding Tape of Ray Rice with Steelers RB Chad Spann: I’ve been super fortunate to continue talking with Spann, who is training this offseason to earn a shot at contributing to the Steelers’ roster this fall. Spann has agreed to watch a game with me. I’ll break down what I learn here.
  • The 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Post-Draft Add-on (Downloadable May 6): Tonight I finished my post-draft rankings, tiered fantasy cheat sheet, and average pick data analysis. I have also formulated an “Over/Under/Par” rating that should help dynasty league owners have a shorthand method of gauging how I value a player relative to rookie drafts that I had access to study. I have more analysis to write and format into an Adobe document and I’ll email all RSP readers when it will be ready to download. Remember, this is part of the package you get this year for buying the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio.

No-Huddle Series: Danny Coale

Note: I don’t claim these single-play analysis to be scouting reports that give an overall take of a player. I tag the phrase “scouting report” in my posts because this is how readers look for information on players that isn’t even as in-depth as I’m providing. While one play can tell a lot about a player, it can also be misleading. The plays I select are generally indicative of what I saw from the player overall.

Coale is one of those players that at first glance gets his yardage Continue reading →

2012 Post-Draft Skill Player Impressions Part-I

0 Comments read Matt Waldman
Find out why Browns WR Carlton Mitchell is potentially a beneficiary of the Browns draft. Photo by Hank.

I don’t believe in grading the draft. Many of my colleagues, ones I respect a great deal, will be providing draft grades this week. Some of them will say that they don’t believe a draft can be graded accurately for a few years, but two paragraphs later they are grading away like they’re teaching middle school. The reason is they believe they are giving readers what they want, and they’re right.

In this case, I don’t care. I’m not indulging in that practice. Although some may want to read it, perpetuating a practice that none of my writer brethren believe in but do it anyway is not something I have to do here. This is when I love having my own blog. I’m going to try something a little different and discuss what I think teams are trying to do with certain picks and whether I can see the logic. Continue reading →

NY Times Fifth Down Series: Luck and Griffin

0 Comments read Players, Quarterback

[youtube=http://youtu.be/6pbgG1r-RFM]

Can a team really go wrong with Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin? Of course they can, history shows that top quarterback prospects bomb year after year. Do I think they can go wrong with either one? Not unless something horrific happens.

Trent Richardson, Luck and Griffin are a great trio at the top of this draft class and arguably its three best players. While hard to predict whether Richardson will burst onto the scene like Adrian Peterson or Luck or Griffin will match Cam Newton’s first season, all three are within the same hemisphere of talent and potential. Here’s hoping they fulfill that promise.

Here’s the link to my thoughts on Griffin as published by the New York Times Fifth Down blog. Here’s some of my thoughts on luck with a link to the rest of the piece at the bottom.

1.    Andrew Luck, Stanford (6-3, 234)

I have no problem with anyone ranking Robert Griffin III of Baylor as the top prospect in this quarterback class. (See my scouting report here.) Griffin has great athleticism, intelligence and charisma to pair with good technique at the position. I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, if he has a better fantasy season as a rookie than Andrew Luck. But for the long haul, I still give the edge to Luck.

Luck has one of the most refined, polished games I have seen from a college quarterback entering the N.F.L.

It begins with his strong internal clock for pressure. He consistently does a good job of adjusting his location in the pocket at the right time so he can avoid the rush, keep his eyes down the field and get rid of the ball. Because he’s adept at using his eyes to manipulate coverage and displays an understanding of how to adjust his formations to get a mismatch before the snap, he’s well ahead of the game as an  N.F.L.  prospect. The fact that he does this in a pro-style offense is a bonus.

The ability to manipulate a defense extends to his play fakes, ball fakes and bootlegs to create open windows, and he does all of it with fantastic rhythm and timing for a young player. He’s smooth and controlled, and he throws off a defense before delivering the football on time and with great location to his receivers. He has a highly nuanced underneath game, and when defenses try to stop it, he can throw the deep ball as the counterpunch. [Read the rest here]

While listening to talking heads tell you about the draft is sometimes enjoyable, own the document that gives you the literal book on the skill positions that matter to your fantasy league. Get the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio today and then get the May 6 update at no extra charge. If you listen to my readers it’s money well-spent.

Walk on the Wildside: My Draft to Mock-Part II

0 Comments read Walk on the Wild Side
I guess tattoos are okay for the field hands, but not for the workers in the big house. Find out who passes Jerry Richardson’s eye-ball test in My Draft to Mock – Part II. Photo by PDA.Photo

After the response I got from last night’s Draft to Mock, apparently there’s a side to many of you that have also grown a little bored of mock drafts. So here’s Part II of My Draft to Mock. For those of you with the scanning virus, this is not a real mock.

Carolina Panthers select DT Fletcher Cox, Ole Mississippi: “Fletcher” is just a good, old-fashioned name. Continue reading →

Walk on the Wildside: My Draft to Mock – Part I

0 Comments read Walk on the Wild Side
The official moving company of the Colts heading for Texas, but which quarterback’s furniture are they grabbing? Find out in My Draft to Mock, Part I. Photo by cogdogblog.

Everyone is doing mock drafts. I’m waiting for President Obama to do one on ESPN any minute now – especially with the ladies of The View likely scheduled to do one on Wednesday. For fear that my football card might be taken away, I thought it was time I do one.

Like Greg Cosell, I plead ignorance on the machinations of teams’ draft boards. In fact, I’ll go a step further and plead insanity. Continue reading →

No-Huddle Series: Iowa State WR Darius Reynolds

0 Comments read Players, Wide Receiver
Learn why Darius Reynolds has a chance to develop into a quietly formidable player in the NFL.

As Jon Gruden said during his QB Camp episode with Brandon Weeden, Iowa State is “a pretty good football team. Quietly, they’ve become formidable.” You don’t become that quietly formidable without some quietly formidable players. I think that pair of words fits wide receiver Darius Reynolds.

The Cyclones receiver ran a 4.54-40, bench pressed 225 lbs. 23 times, delivered a 6.77 three-cone drill, and posted a 35-inch vertical leap at nearly 6’2″ and 206 pounds. His three-cone time would have been third-best at the NFL Combine and his bench press reps would have topped Marvin Jones’ 22 reps as the best overall. To give you a little more perspective, all of those numbers beat Justin Blackmon’s workouts. Continue reading →

No-Huddle Series: RB Bobby Rainey, Western Kentucky

0 Comments read Players, Running Back
Bobby Rainey gets the next play in my No-Huddle series.

The first person who tipped me off to Bobby Rainey was NFL.com writer and researcher Chad Reuter, who worked at CBS Sportsline and NFL Draft Scout. Like many of the great tape grinders out there, I don’t get a chance to talk with them often or at great length because they are busy doing what I’m doing – working long hours. If this blog hasn’t helped you figure it out, the community of tape grinders who aren’t current NFL scouts is a cool group of people. If they recognize you as one of them, you learn that on the whole, they are hard-working, generous people with an abundance of humility.

Reuter is definitely one of these people. So it was a pleasant surprise last fall when he saw Rainey play, liked him, and Continue reading →

Q&A on Eagles Draft at Moving The Chains

0 Comments read Matt Waldman
The Eagles might be looking for big receivers to compliment Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson, but find out why I think Vick might benefit more from a dynamic slot receiver that can play tough over the middle. Perhaps a player like Danny Coale.

I want to thank Sheil Kapadia for the Q&A session we had on his blog Moving The Chains. You can find here.

If you haven’t signed the petition to get Greg Cosell on TV for the draft, I recommend you do it. I view it as a way to inform producers that their perceptions are not always correct about what its audience wants.

More later…

No-Huddle Series: RB Chris Polk, Washington

0 Comments read Players, Running Back
Chris Polk may need to keeping working to attain that Photo Shop build most current NFL runners have, but he has a good Football IQ.

I lied to you.

The RSP No-Huddle Series was something I initially created to write about prospects likely to get drafted in the late rounds, if at all. I’m still going to do more of those players, but sometimes there are plays you remember that you want to share with people.

One of these plays is a pass involving Chris Polk that reveals more to his game than usually meets the eye and continues an observation I had about the play I profiled yesterday of NIU’s Chandler Harnish.

If you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest, then you probably don’t realize that Chris Polk was a wide receiver in high school. It’s not common to see a player switch from wide receiver to running back when he transitions from high school to college. Usually it’s the other way around: Hines Ward, Jeremy Ross, and Marvin Jones are all good examples. The last time I saw a college receiver transitioned running back it was when Lou Holtz did it with Ricky Watters, who I though was one of the best short-yardage running backs in the league because of fantastic footwork in tight spaces.

This play below is what separates the 5’10”, 215-pound Polk from many of his peers. It begins Continue reading →

NY Times Fifth Down Top-Five Series: No.1 WR Michael Floyd

0 Comments read Players, Wide Receiver

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1. Michael Floyd, Notre Dame (6-2, 220)

From the standpoint of on-field performance, I believe Floyd has the best all-around skills and talents among the receivers in this draft class. This is a talent-rich group, but none of the prospects in this class have all of the qualities that Floyd brings to the game. When evaluating the last two years of receiving talent, I believe the only receiver with more promise is A.J. Green.

One of the factors that might have clouded the picture in the evaluation of this year’s receiver class was the condition of Floyd’s right knee. While Floyd was still healing, he had to gather his steps to accelerate. If he had to make a break to the quarterback, he could not get a great bend on the knee when he had to use his right leg to plant.

However, after watching Floyd get completely healthy, [Read the rest here]

Download the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio for analysis of over 151 prospects at QB, RB, WR, and TE.