Mel Kipers Big Board???

[theogt]

Originally Posted by StarPower

Dead on.

My big beef with kiper is that his big board is so fluid in the months after the season when not one game gets played. I understand kids go thru senior bowl/combine etc...but he has (for example) Reggie Nelson at like 11 a couple months ago, and now he has dropped out of the 25??? What did he do besides run an avg 40 at the combine and a sub 4.4 at Fla's proday? And Ginn jumps into top ten and he has done NOTHING cause he's been hurt.

Its such a bunch of %$#@. He is supposed to watch these kids play games all fall. If he thinks a kid is top 15, then maybe i can see some SLIGHT movement after interviews, workouts, etc. But to fluctuate like 20 spots...load of bull.

[View Full Quote]I wouldnt feel so passionately about it if Mel was just doing a mock, b/c team needs change. But he is ranking these prospects. Load of Bull. He has become just as much about controversy and self promotion as he has about providing us draftnerds with honest prospect evalutation.

I don't remember Nelson ever being ranked in the top 15, but regardless, I have a couple points. First, Kiper's Big Board changes constantly before the draft because he's selling a product. He can get more clicks if it changes weekly.

Second, it's quite possible that in the last month he spoke with some scouts that are starting to put their boards together and realized that many people are ranking some players differently than he is.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

HERE is his final mock with that safety going early last year.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Originally Posted by theogt

I don't remember Nelson ever being ranked in the top 15, but regardless, I have a couple points. First, Kiper's Big Board changes constantly before the draft because he's selling a product. He can get more clicks if it changes weekly.

Second, it's quite possible that in the last month he spoke with some scouts that are starting to put their boards together and realized that many people are ranking some players differently than he is.

hes at least top 20.

[shaketiller]

I've followed Kiper's work for many years -- at one time much more closely than I do now. I actually miss the old days, when Kiper would have players ranked pretty considerably different than would other analysts and the teams themselves.

I don't think Mel has become arrogant. He's a draft geek and a pretty nice guy. But he has become an "insider." Rather than follow his own instincts, I think now he bends much more to the conventional wisdom. Usually, by the time draft day rolls around, his board looks awfully similar to the boards from which the teams are working, it seems.

He wasn't nearly as accurate in predicting the draft during those early years, but he was challenging, and frequently he was right. He will still occasionally present a different, controversial opinion -- hyping Mike Williams, for instance (and obviously he was wrong) -- but in general, he seems to have become shaped to the needs of the Draft telecast. He doesn't seem to want to stray too far from conventional wisdom.

I still think that Kiper is a very good draft analyst. If you're going to point to his obvious mistakes, you must at least acknowledge that even the most astute teams make mistakes as well.

I don't think Kiper is as fresh, insightful and controversial as he was during what I think of as his glory days. I recall that Kiper was among the first to recognize the amount of talent Jimmy Johnson was assembling in Dallas during the early 90s.

Now Kiper is a good resource to learn during the weeks leading to the draft which players are "rising and falling." In reality, the movement probably isn't nearly as volatile as it seems. Analysts such as Kiper merely are beginning to discover what the teams are really thinking.

But it's fun, and it's entertaining. It's pro football for geeks like me when the news otherwise would be dead. For that, I appreciate the trail that Kiper helped to blaze.

[Hostile]

Originally Posted by shaketiller

I've followed Kiper's work for many years -- at one time much more closely than I do now. I actually miss the old days, when Kiper would have players ranked pretty considerably different than would other analysts and the teams themselves.

I don't think Mel has become arrogant. He's a draft geek and a pretty nice guy. But he has become an "insider." Rather than follow his own instincts, I think now he bends much more to the conventional wisdom. Usually, by the time draft day rolls around, his board looks awfully similar to the boards from which the teams are working, it seems.

[View Full Quote]He wasn't nearly as accurate in predicting the draft during those early years, but he was challenging, and frequently he was right. He will still occasionally present a different, controversial opinion -- hyping Mike Williams, for instance (and obviously he was wrong) -- but in general, he seems to have become shaped to the needs of the Draft telecast. He doesn't seem to want to stray too far from conventional wisdom.

I still think that Kiper is a very good draft analyst. If you're going to point to his obvious mistakes, you must at least acknowledge that even the most astute teams make mistakes as well.

I don't think Kiper is as fresh, insightful and controversial as he was during what I think of as his glory days. I recall that Kiper was among the first to recognize the amount of talent Jimmy Johnson was assembling in Dallas during the early 90s.

Now Kiper is a good resource to learn during the weeks leading to the draft which players are "rising and falling." In reality, the movement probably isn't nearly as volatile as it seems. Analysts such as Kiper merely are beginning to discover what the teams are really thinking.

But it's fun, and it's entertaining. It's pro football for geeks like me when the news otherwise would be dead. For that, I appreciate the trail that Kiper helped to blaze.

Absolutely great post.