Posts tagged Ryan Riddle

Reads Listens Views 5/30/2014

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Upside Down Strategy, Jeff Tedford, Ryan Riddle’s Draft Metrics, Kraken, and RSP Post-Draft Update.

What is Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  May is normally a lighter month for me on the blog due to the short turnaround time for the RSP Post-Draft and the magazine schedule at my day job. Otherwise, I post links on Fridays to content I’m saving for later consumption or pieces that I found compelling. You may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

Listens/Views

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I was a matriculate of this program. This is a fun composition from one of its students that sounds like the title.

Download the 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio + Post-Draft Update!

Friday’s are also my chance to thank you for reading my work, encourage you to follow the RSP blog, and download the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication.

The 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Post-Draft Add-On is ready for download.  If you’re in a dynasty league, the combination of the 2014 RSP and the RSP Post-Draft will have you prepared for this year and beyond. Want details? Need details? I have ’em right here:

  • 84 pages
  • How to use the RSP and RSP-Post Draft together
  • Overrated/Underrated
  • Good/Bad post-draft fits
  • UDFAs to watch
  • Long-term dynasty waiver wire gems
  • Strategic overview of 2014 rookie drafts
  • Tiered Value Chart Cheat Sheet across all positions
  • Post-Draft rankings analysis and commentary–including notes about impending contracts years of competition on the depth charts
  • Average Draft Position (ADP) Data of 19 dynasty drafts
  • RSP Ranking-to-ADP Value Data
  • Raw Data Worksheets to continue calculating additional ADP data for future drafts

Hell, take a video tour of the 2013 post-draft to see what I mean:

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Seriously, this analysis is worth the price of the 2014 RSP package alone, but you get this as a part of your purchase with the 2014 RSP. Remember 10 percent of each sale is donated to Darkness to Light to prevent sexual abuse in communities across the United States. While that alone should get you to download the RSP package, do it because you will be blown away with the detail and insight of the analysis and content. It’s why the RSP has grown so much in the past nine years.

Best yet, 10 percent of each RSP sale is donated to Darkness to Light, a non-profit devoted to preventing and addressing sexual abuse through community training in schools, religious groups, and a variety of civic groups across the U.S.

Download the 2014 RSP and RSP Post-Draft here

In Case You Missed It/Coming Soon

Reads (Football)

Views

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H/T to RabidBuc.

 Reads (Life In General)

  • The ‘Miracle’ Berry That Could Replace Sugar – Miracle fruit contains a protein called miraculin that tastes sweet enough to replicate the effect of sugar.
  • Blue Note turns 75 – Not the club in New York or Tokyo, but the record label based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Check out some of the music and articles on NPR–especially the Lou Donaldson & Lonnie Liston set where Donaldson talks a little trash about “pop-jazz” and 50 cent. Ironically, it’s their brand of “hard-bop” that actually led to some of this music he was trashing. Good music though.
  • ‘Oh My Jesus!'” Shots Fired During NPR Interview in Chicago – An interview about gun violence is interrupted with gun violence.
  • The $6800, 84-mpg Elio is Getting Closer – This three-wheel, two-seat car is getting closer to its production standard with reservation list sporting 17,000. It qualifies as a motorcycle for driving, but they’re shooting for a 5-star safety rating. I don’t know if that’s a reflection of the car or a reflection of the government. I hope it’s the car.
  • A Series on the Koch Brothers – If you’re a conservative, you’re likely to look at this series in Mother Jones’ as a “hit-piece.” If you’re liberal, you’ll probably love it. If you’re a writer, you’ll probably judge it on the merits of the work. And if you’ve ever known anyone who was asked to sign a statement saying that you’ve never received welfare before one of their companies gives you a job, then you have a smidgeon of insight into them.
  • God, The Devil, and ‘Hannibal’ -I’m hearing this NBC series based on Hannibal Lecter is good. I watched some clips on Hulu and was impressed.
  • Intriguing Lime-Green Blobs Appear In The Andes Mountains. Are They Alive? – These “drops of lime sherbert” in the desert are about 2,000 years old.
  • How Gun Extremists Target Women – These people give responsible gun owners a bad name. Some of them even harassed a Marine Veteran on Memorial Day.

Views

You’ve probably seen this, but if you haven’t it’s worth it. Cool, but not surprising. My cat did this to save a kitten from two dogs about 9-10 years ago.

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Player-Coach: Questioning Process vs. Questioning Authority

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Photo by Mike Mozart.
There are a lot of great coaches in football, but there are also the “Cartman’s.” Photo by Mike Mozart.

It’s not often discussed, but the quality of coaching and leadership adds another layer of complexity to evaluating prospects.

One of the great things about the Internet – specifically social media – is having conversations with people who don’t go with the herd. Ryan Riddle is one of those individuals. So when my friend says outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy has great instincts, that’s a player I want to watch.

If you didn’t know already, Riddle was a defensive end at Cal who had stints with the Raiders, Ravens, and Jets. He weaves his experiences with major college football and the NFL into his coverage of the pro football at Bleacher Report.

The other night, Riddle and I were engaged in a conversation about teaching and coaching. Riddle told me that there are a lot of layers within the teacher-student dynamic on a football team that the general public doesn’t consider.

One of these layers is how a position coach teaches technique to his players. Dolphins’ receiver Mike Wallace told media at the Senior Bowl that he didn’t have any technical instruction at his position during his first three years at Ole Miss. Riddle will tell you that his defensive line coach was exacting about technique.

Good coaches know that the most efficient way for players to execute on the field is to have the right tools. So while it may be task-oriented thinking at its finest, a coach’s first inclination is to hammer home good form.

Even at the highest level of any profession, the best maintain an understanding of the fundamentals. However, the best at any profession know when to break the rules.

It’s a tough situation for a coach – especially for some of the less experienced coaches who didn’t play the position they’re teaching and may not have mastery of the unwritten rules. Even if that coach is a former grizzled vet at the position he’s teaching, he may lack the vision to recognize productive creativity that veers from basic technique.

Riddle was a creative player with NFL-level athleticism, but his coach was drilling home technique with such exactitude that it clashed with what Riddle did best. In most cases, technique should refine what a player does well rather than limit him.

Unlike many players who fear questioning the coach on this matter, Riddle was fortunate. Even when they initially butted heads in practice about playing style, Riddle and his coach always got along.

Riddle’s coach eventually realized he had a potential exception to the rule on his defensive line. Still, he had to tread a fine line between allowing behavior that could help the team and setting the ground rules that he had final say if Riddle’s way wasn’t working.

Riddle is an example of a productive relationship between a player and coach despite conflict over fundamentals. Although football is a sport where the ultimate goal is to win a conflict, the process of doing so is built on teamwork.

It’s why disagreeing with a coach on a fundamental level the way Riddle did isn’t common. Some of Riddle’s teammates had similar gripes that they kept private, even if it meant the possibility that they’re productivity could have been better for the team. It’s is a difficult thing for people to understand how slippery a slope it is for a player to have differences with a position coach.

There are good and bad coaches just as there are good and bad CEOs, doctors, teachers, and football players. If a position coach is an insecure human being who uses his role to prop up his self-esteem, a young player challenging instruction can pose a serious threat.

As with any profession, good coaches don’t always become good coaches until they’ve been bad coaches. Manage teams of people for any length of time and there will be moments where one can mistake the difference between a player questioning a process and a player questioning authority.

Good leaders understand the difference. However, there are coaches who can’t handle either scenario.

If you ever wonder why some NFL players who seem like good citizens and even better teammates were – in hindsight – puzzling late-round picks, it’s worth considering that some of these players weren’t “difficult to coach,” “soft,” “bi-polar,” or “didn’t love the game,” as their coaches characterized them to scouts.  Greg Hardy, Terrell Davis, and Arian Foster had legitimate gripes about college coaches engaged in character assassination to NFL scouts.

Riddle says there’s a tendency for coaches to over correct the small points of the game. He’s seen it to the extent that when players accept the criticism, they over think on the job and play too slow. They don’t realize that they’ve become more worried about pleasing the coach to avoid risking a bad reputation than making the play.

In Riddle’s case, his position coach sat Riddle down and talked about it. The coach told the defensive end that he was fine with Riddle’s methods, “but it better work.”

In tomorrow’s Futures at Football Outsiders, I explore why Riddle describes Van Noy as “a linebacker version of Tyrann Mathieu.”

Stay tuned.

Reads Listens Views 1/18/2013

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Life of Pi

This week on Reads Listens Views: Lance Zierlein with a round of “Microwave Scouting”; Ryan Riddle tells you what it was like to participate in a college all-star game; Andy Benoit previews the conference championships; three books I read this month that I think most of you will enjoy; experimental Latin music; and the 2013 RSP is available for pre-payment.

Prepayment for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio is Available

If you’re one of my readers who, over the years, has convinced me to offer prepayment (thank you), now’s the time. The 2013 RSP is available for $19.95 and will be available for download April (as usual). If you’ve purchased the RSP in the past, you can prepay at this link. You also get the post-draft add-on a week after the draft that includes tiered fantasy rankings, average dynasty draft spot data, team fit analysis, sleepers, UDFAs to watch, and dynasty drafting tips. It’s a second magazine-sized publication that is included with the purchase of the pre-draft publication. Past issues (2006-2012) are available for $9.95 apiece and the RSP donates 10 percent of every sale to Darkness to Light to train communities to recognize and prevent the dynamics of sexual abuse.

Senior Bowl

Once again, I’ll be at the Senior Bowl with Jene Bramel and Cecil Lammey. We’ll be covering practices and media night for the New York Times Fifth Down and Lammey’s ESPN affiliate as well as providing analysis and interviews here at the RSP blog. Stay tuned.

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Reads

Non-Football Reads

Here are three books I’ve read this month and I’d bet most of you will enjoy at least two of them.

  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, but the book was so good I might read it again before taking in Ang Lee’s vision of this story about an Indian Boy who is stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. The story is far less fantastical than it appears. However it is fantastic on every level.
  • The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter – This is essentially what I hope to hear doesn’t happen to Chris Brown or Chase Stuart in 15 years when mid-life crisis hits. This novel is a lot of fun and will make you laugh out loud.
  • Killing Johnny Fry by Walter Mosely – Walter Mosely is one of my favorite writers. This is a much different story than his mystery novels – it’s a ‘sexistential novel.’ Not for everyone, but a good read nonetheless.

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Reads Listens Views 11/30/2012

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Are you a dynasty league owner, or are you looking for a surprise producer at the end of the season in a deep re-draft league? Marvin Jones might be your guy. See below. Photo by John Martinez Pavliga

Thanks

I have great readers. People who send me holiday cards, books, and YouTube videos because they just enjoy the back-and-forth. While I’m not always able to respond in kind or with as much regularity as I’d like, I still want to thank all of you who frequent this blog, email me, and/or purchase the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication. Two years ago I wondered if the RSP would have a long-term future. I’m far more optimistic than I’ve ever been due to the response to this blog and the 2012 publication. I hope all of you reading this have a good holiday season filled with gifts that come from being around people that you enjoy.

If you’re new to the RSP blog, here’s a series I wrote comparing Bengals receiver Marvin Jones and Jets receiver Stephen Hill.

Listens

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This is one of the most sonically flexible small groups you will ever hear. Think Peyton Manning at the line of scrimmage with a Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark, Austin Collie, and Edgerrin James all in their prime.

Football and Fantasy Football Reads

  • 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick’s parents can’t believe criticism over their son’s arm tattoos USA Today writer Robert Klemko interviews Kaepernick’s parents after a writer disparaged the quarterback’s tattoos. Personally, I’ll never get a tattoo. I don’t believe in marking my body with ink. However, invoking the quarterback-as-CEO argument against Kaepernick is an out-dated idea. Please look around at our CEOs, congressional representatives, and leaders in academia. They wear the right clothes, have the right hair cut, and project and image of reliability. True, projecting an image is an action and looking like a banker-robot is safe. But athletes aren’t bankers. Unlike bankers, athletes are supposed to take risks. They are supposed to be passionate. They are supposed to deal with tremendous adversity. I don’t want to banker running my offense. I want someone with conviction. To stick with bankers and their politician employees. . . for that matter, everyone. Isn’t it time we apply Ghandi’s Seven Sins to what we think we see in them?
    • Wealth without Work
    • Pleasure without Conscience
    • Science without Humanity
    • Knowledge without Character
    • Politics without Principle
    • Commerce without Morality
    • Worship without Sacrifice
  • A Former Player’s Perspective on the Rookie Wall Ryan Riddle offers another fantastic take on a the behind the scenes realities of the NFL.
  • Zach Law’s Interview of Mike MacGregor at Fantasy Throwdown If there were an underrated fantasy football resource in the industry, MacGregor is that guy. I wouldn’t be doing this today if it weren’t for him.

Non-Football Reads

Views

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I’ll be talking about Wheaton soon. Those of you draft analysts on Twitter who predicted I’d like Wheaton were correct.

Reads Listens Views 10/19/2012

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Hat tip to E.C. Stoner for the Brees video.

Reads (Football)

Futures: Matt Barkley – This was last week’s column. Tomorrow’s analysis is on West Virginia Receiver Tavon Austin.

Russell Wilson’s Seam Pass to Zach Miller – Danny Kelly at Field Gulls is one of the cooler bloggers I’ve had the pleasure to interact with during my first year and a half doing this work. He has been extremely generous with posting my work on his site and I wish I had discovered his work as an analyst sooner. This is a fantastic piece on Russell Wilson that demonstrates why Wilson has skills to start in the N.F.L. Go ahead, bring up the 49ers game last night. You done? Good. Read.

A Former NFL Player’s Inside Scoop on Aaron Rodgers – If you weren’t done about Wilson then I suggest this fascinating read about Rodgers at Cal from his former teammate Ryan Riddle. As usual, excellent stuff that describes a debut that left Rodgers crying the night away alone in his room. All quarterbacks go through rough patches.

New Grantland: Denver Dips Into the Old Colts Playbook for Some Vintage Peyton

Nick Saban Doesn’t Teach Back-Pedaling – Always good stuff at Smart Football.

Reads (Non-Football) Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 8/10/2012

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Views: My First Pair of Dawgs

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The only tandem of corners on the same team  to attend three consecutive Pro Bowls in NFL history.

There’s Still Time to Get The Jump on Impact Rookies And Sleepers

Training camp and preseason yields surprises every summer. Who would have thought Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 6/28/2012

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Wish there was a corner like Mike Haynes for the RSP Writers Project

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Thanks

Another Friday, another round of thanks to my readers – as well as all the writers – frequenting the RSP blog and participating in the RSP Writers Project. This exercise of building an NFL franchise is addictive, isn’t it? It’s also a great platform to share knowledge. Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 6/22/2012

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Happy Friday. Hope you’re as pumped as Tuck today. If not, don’t worry. The RSP Writers Project will be back within a day or two. Photo by Chris Pusateri.

RSP Football Writers Project Update

I got some additional input from Football Outsiders columnist Ben Muth on players values this week. – Muth, a former college and NFL offensive lineman whose popular column grades offensive line performance, was gracious enough to make some tweaks along with me and Rotoworld’s Josh Norris to get the values of the linemen aligned with the rest of the player values.

This isn’t to detract from the excellent work Matt Bitonti did. There were more tweaks to the values in addition to the offensive line. And for the most part, the issue wasn’t the values of the players that Matt set, but the skeleton of how linemen should be valued versus other positions.

Simply put, we needed a trial run to see where to adjust. Matt did a fine job of putting everything together with the expectations I communicated to him and if he hadn’t, we would have been able to present the project this week for what I’m calling a “trial run.” And judging by the response, Continue reading →