Posts tagged Rookie Scouting Portfolio

Senior Bowl Interview with WR Jeff Fuller

0 Comments read Players, Wide Receiver
Fuller has the build and core skills of a future NFL starter, but his status as a top-tier player at his position in this class is now questionable due to an inconsistent senior year.

This Q&A of Texas A&M wide receiver Jeff Fuller took place at the Senior Bowl’s media night. I was unable to identify the reporters at the beginning of this session so I have labeled them Reporter 1 and Reporter 2. Fuller is a 6’4”, 217-pound receiver with experience in a pro-style offense brought to College Station by former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman. Here’s what Fuller had to say about his up and down senior year, his learning progression during his college career, and what he expects to face during his transition to the NFL. Continue reading →

Senior Bowl First Impressions

0 Comments read Matt Waldman

Day 1 Impressions

By Jene Bramel

Under the mentorship (and light hazing) of Matt and Cecil Lammey, I’m credentialed to cover the Senior Bowl for the first time and getting a crash course in the world of pre-draft scouting in Mobile this week. You can read our detailed scouting observations from Day 1 and check out Matt’s detailed thoughts on the Minnesota Vikings’ approach to teaching WR play at the New York Times’ Fifth Down blog [link forthcoming], but I thought I’d share a newbie’s perspective of the weigh-in and first afternoon practice. Continue reading →

2012 RSP Writers Project Update

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The RSP Football Writers Project is no fantasy league. You'll pay the price for taking a player the caliber of Tom Brady. Photo by Jeffrey Beall.

This project has generated a lot of positive feedback on the blog. Readers want to build teams with the guidelines we provide you and they have sent me questions to ask you (I have over 100 to choose from).

Just to refresh your memory, here’s the basics of the project:

The RSP Football Writers Project will include various football writers from around the country. They will each create a football team. They will be selecting these players from salary tiers provided for every player in football on a spreadsheet. Each football writer will have a salary cap. The job is to pick a team (starters and depth at each position) and then explain in writing the personnel decisions relative to salary, experience, talent, and system they plan to use on offense and defense. Think of it like one of those fantasy football games where you can pick any player (so no draft) but have to fit it in under the cap. The difference is more thought and care to an overall team concept is given and we’re not competing with the teams just presenting them and answering questions.

So far we have 24 participants – including the readers’ generated team – and there may be a few more before the month is over. Sigmund Bloom is developing the salary guidelines for the players and we have determined a basic schedule for the project: Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 1/20/2012

0 Comments read Reads Listens Views
Can you tell which man is wearing Depends? (One of the caption entries I liked for this week's RSP Caption Contest)

It has been a little over 24 hours since I announced the RSP Photo Caption Contest and the response has been good. Cecil, Chad, Michael, and Wes will be judging the quality of the captions on Wednesday after Senior Bowl practices. Since I’m just the tiebreaker, I thought I’d list some of the early favorites (from my perspective) for a shot at a free RSP (contest details and entry form can be found on this page):

  • “Failed Fathead concepts.”
  • “Bravo’s new hit series: The Real House Husbands of Tampa Bay.”
  • “Can you tell which man is wearing Depends?”
  • “AVN’s winner for worst adult film of all time: The Island of Misfit Boys”

A special thanks to these guys for taking one for the team. Now, onto the reads, listens, and views of the week – including some LaVon Brazill highlights. Continue reading →

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 →

Free Playoff Fantasy Football

0 Comments read Matt Waldman
Didn’t get to draft Calvin Johnson this year in your fantasy league? Draft him weekly (or as long as the Lions remain alive) at Fantasy Throwdown. Photo by MattBritt00.

You can’t beat the intensity of the NFL playoffs, but you can add to it with one-on-one fantasy football. Mike MacGregor and I are holding playoff fantasy football all the way through the Super Bowl at Fantasy Throwdown.

That’s right, you can have a Super Bowl fantasy match up. In fact, we’re holding a playoff tournament right now with 24 players participating in four, one-on-one games this week. If you missed the tourney, you can still challenge a friend or someone on the site – its easy to play and difficult to stop!

Here’s the basics (for more complete directions go here):

  • Challenge a friend or another person on the site.
  • You and your opponent determine the three games for that week that will comprise your player draft pool.
  • Pick your games wisely as well as your draft order, because you each get to block a player from the draft pool during the draft. If there’s only two good QBs from those games you selected, you can set it up to force your opponent to settle for a scrub.
  • Draft your team.

Drafts take 10 minutes if you and your opponent are both online. Or you can stretch out the draft throughout the course of the week or even do predraft settings. Play standard or IDP, PPR or non-PPR while chatting live with your opponent if you wish.

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 →

Message from Footballguys Players National Champion

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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 →