Broaddus Big Board: Ranking The Top 50 Prospects

[Fla Cowpoke]

If you look at the past leaked boards and understand that the Cowboys take off players that don't fit their scheme. A lot of those guys in the 20s aren't drafted until the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I get that...but what I am wondering is if this is his impression of the top 50 for Dallas or the top 50 overall. If it is top 50 overall, I think it's pretty whacked. Nothing in the article says that it is his prediction of the Cowboys board...just the top 50 players available.

 

[speedkilz88]

I get that...but what I am wondering is if this is his impression of the top 50 for Dallas or the top 50 overall. If it is top 50 overall, I think it's pretty whacked. Nothing in the article says that it is his prediction of the Cowboys board...just the top 50 players available.

I think it's a little of both. He obviously is seeing it from the Cowboys view.

After plenty of hours studying the tape, this is simply my 50 best targets in the draft – from obvious stars to some lesser-known surprises. This should give some idea of what to expect in the first two rounds of the draft, and who the Cowboys may have a chance of taking.

 

[jterrell]

You're putting much too much stock into the opinion of probably the least informed draft ranking you'll ever come across in the media.

his ranking is probably better than kiper or mcshay.
he's been one and still talks to scouts.

i wouldn't rank guys this way but he is at least consistent.

 

[jterrell]

ebron is very overrated.
great athlete but he's not a great tight end.
could be a pro bowler in 3 years but looks likely a back up tight end used sole;y in the passing game.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

ebron is very overrated.
great athlete but he's not a great tight end.
could be a pro bowler in 3 years but looks likely a back up tight end used sole;y in the passing game.

He's not a complete TE for sure.

 

[jterrell]

He's not a complete TE for sure.

6'3"+ and 245 is about prototype size for those split out TEs.
But Ebron had some drops in college and really not all that great production. 3 TDs all year....
Only played one SEC, Big 10, Pac 12 or Big 12 team this year.
Had 3 catches and 32 yards.

His Pro Day featured some of that....

Tony Pauline of DraftInsider.net reports that Ebron "did not look good" at his pro day, and that he dropped a number of passes while looking poor in his drills. The aforementioned David Hamilton gives us the exact number of three drops.

In a bubble, three drops doesn't seem like much but in the friendly atmosphere and with the scripted nature of a pro day, it's a little troubling. Ebron has had drop issues throughout his college career and those drops emerging in what is generally the best-case scenario for a player is never a good sign. He'll still be a high draft pick, but there will definitely be some disappointed scouts today.

I think Kelvin Benjamin is a much better prospect in the same body.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

You don't have to convince me JT. I don't like Ebron nearly as much as a lot of people do.

 

[jterrell]

You don't have to convince me JT. I don't like Ebron nearly as much as a lot of people do.

I sensed that, just fleshing out why I thought he was overrated.
And why I disagree with all the posts from Broaddus who loves him.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I sensed that, just fleshing out why I thought he was overrated.
And why I disagree with all the posts from Broaddus who loves him.

Good enough. If we are interested in replacing Witten, then Ebron is not that guy IMO. He might end up being a fine pass catching threat, he can surely threaten vertically but to replace Witten, you have to be able to block, catch and get open. I would rather let somebody else draft Ebron.

 

[speedkilz88]

I hope Broaddus is right and someone takes him before 16.

 

[Hardline]

Ebron is Mike Evans at the TE position.

 

[jterrell]

Ebron is Mike Evans at the TE position.

You mean except for all the production versus top competition right?
Evans had 2500 yards receiving, 150 catches and 17 TDs in two SEC seasons.

I see Ebron much more as Fred Davis.

 

[xwalker]

I get that...but what I am wondering is if this is his impression of the top 50 for Dallas or the top 50 overall. If it is top 50 overall, I think it's pretty whacked. Nothing in the article says that it is his prediction of the Cowboys board...just the top 50 players available.

Broaddus does not think in term of black/white logic like defining if it's the top 50 overall or the top 50 for the Cowboys. It the top 50 players that gives him a warm fuzzy feeling.

If you gave Broaddus 2 prospects at the same position and asked him to evaluate them relative to each other based on game film, then he is probably good at doing that; however, when it comes to more complicated logic, things get fuzzy for him. Ranking players at different positions would be one area where he struggles. Figuring out how those players fit with the Cowboys would also be a more difficult task for a guy like Broaddus. He's more of the old school type that just does things based on gut-feel (emotion) and doesn't really go through it step by step in a logical fashion.

This is not really a big criticism. You need scouts that can just watch game film and report what they see. It the scouting director and higher ranking team officials that need to go through the logical process of making a draft board.

It seems that Ciscowski might be more the old school gut-feel type and that's why they have promoted McClay to create the draft board.

 

[DFWJC]

Ebron is Mike Evans at the TE position.

Evans has way better hands.
I do think Ebron will have good career though.
Go < 16 please

 

[Hardline]

Evans has way better hands.
I do think Ebron will have good career though.
Go < 16 please

I have seen Ebron make circus catches from impossibe positions. He has excellent hands.

 

[DFWJC]

I have seen Ebron make circus catches from impossibe positions. He has excellent hands.

I probably didn't word that right. Yes his hand can be fantastic...should have less consistent. I watched both players a ton last year.

 

[jterrell]

I have seen Ebron make circus catches from impossibe positions. He has excellent hands.

this is the issue tho... occasional circus catch doesn't equal great hands.
ebron has probably dropped more passes than the next two or three TE prospects together.
his hands have flashed on the sensational but were inconsistent even in the pro day as noted above.

he does not have the hands of gavin escobar or jace amaro but he is being drafted for potential which is insanely high.
i am not a fan of ignoring what a guy is now to guess he maxes out.

it happened with demarcus ware but it is real rare.

 

[Hardline]

this is the issue tho... occasional circus catch doesn't equal great hands.
ebron has probably dropped more passes than the next two or three TE prospects together.
his hands have flashed on the sensational but were inconsistent even in the pro day as noted above.

he does not have the hands of gavin escobar or jace amaro but he is being drafted for potential which is insanely high.
i am not a fan of ignoring what a guy is now to guess he maxes out.

it happened with demarcus ware but it is real rare.

I would be interested to see how many times Ebron was targeted as compared to the other TEs you mentioned.

 

[jterrell]

I would be interested to see how many times Ebron was targeted as compared to the other TEs you mentioned.

that would be nice data to have.
going to guess ebron was targeted a lot considering he played with basically all freshman and soph WRs. looks like they only had two other guys catch 25 passes. he was option 1 a lot like amaro was. --except amaro played with legit collegiate WRs like potential 7th rounder or UDFA Eric Ward.

what i can tell you is Ebron only played against 4 ranked teams in 3 seasons.
that's pretty sad competition.
he had 3 100 yard games this year and the good news is they werent all versus dogs, bad news is they were all losses and none of the teams were top 20.

by comparison amaro lit up the top 25 laden big 12 and arizona state. he averaged about 9 catches and 100 yards per conference game.
ebron looks like an athlete and has great measurables.
i am not a fan of his hands nor his body type all that much tho.
he was very soft looking at 253 and may not really be big enough to play in line at all.

hard imho to ignore when a guy leads the big 12 in receiving yards from the TE position and has actual TE size.

if one of these two guys is going to develop into a jason witten, it is amaro imho. --tho either doing so is a long, long shot.

 

[jterrell]

I would be interested to see how many times Ebron was targeted as compared to the other TEs you mentioned.

woah... actually found a site with this data:

top 2 listed are ebron and amaro, lol.

http://rotogrinders.com/pages/College_Football_Advanced_Stats_Tight_Ends-175017

amaro was targeted 141 times. he caught 69.5% of passes to him.
ebron was targeted 87 times and caught 63.2% of passes to him.
the biggest discrepancy is probably in % of TD workload. Amaro scored 26% of the receiving TDs for Tech, Ebron only 11% for Carolina.

ebron's yards per target and his long 79 yarder are big stats for him and speak to his explosion.