Yakuza Rich
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This year’s draft was weird because free agency hasn’t happened yet and thus it was kind of hard to figure out if a team addressed their needs or not. There was talk about them doing the draft before free agency in future years. That may not be a bad idea, although I think it makes life rougher for small market teams who are more draft focused than free agency focused.
I really don’t get ESPN though. Chris Berman has no relevancy whatsoever. In that ever important 18-35 year old demographic, the guy is still referencing Cab Calloway and old AFL jokes. That and he’s wildly annoying to listen to. And please stop showing the players getting the call before the pick has happened. As this video shows, it’s FAR better off to have the commissioner make the pick to help build up that thing called ‘suspense.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZxNeFLuY98
Say what you want, but it was stuff like this that MADE the NFL draft entertaining and watchable. Now most of the picks are completely anticlimactic.
Anyway, I posted my thoughts on Tyron Smith. I love this guy’s footwork. He reminds me of James Worthy when he first came in the NBA and he already had the quickest first step in basketball. This kid’s dropslide is pretty electric. He also has L-O-N-G arms. IIRC, Ware’s arms are very long and at 35”, Smiths are at 36”. I’ve believed this for awhile, but long arms are generally a great thing to have in football at every position except QB, Punter and Kicker. Smith reportedly has to work on his hand placement and consistently extending his arms properly, but so does just about every other tackle coming out of college not named Jake Long or Joe Thomas.
As far as the draft goes, I basically look to see what the team picked in the first 3 rounds against Gosselin’s top 100 board. I figure he’s the most accurate draftnik out there and it’s really not about ‘being a bust’ if the entire league has somebody drafted high. I think this league is really about finding guys who will work hard and can take the mental demands of playing the game and then having a good enough organization and coaching staff that develops players. I don’t think Tom Coughlin has a superior eye for talent, but he ‘drafts well’ because he’s great at finding players that can take his coaching and then he’s great at developing talent.
But, I’m digressing.
Carter was a bit of a reach for us as Goose had him at #65 and he was selected 40th. But, Carter was the next LB on Goose’s board. I was talking to a friend of mine before this pick and it just seems to me that the Cowboys like to go look for a position of need in 2 years here rather than this year. So that to me means that Brooking stays for 2011 and Carter will play nickel LB and special teams. I think it was obvious that the team felt it missed that nickel LB last season quite badly. I remember watching Carter playing against LSU and I thought the guy was great. He’s also a terrific special teams player.
I haven’t watched a lot of DeMarco Murray, but I like the pick in the sense that he’s an explosive tailback. I think the ‘2 tailback’ system is a bit overblown in today’s NFL. Everybody wants a ‘thunder and lightning’ type of tandem. But I like explosive tailbacks…so if one needs a rest, why wouldn’t you substitute that with another explosive tailback? If I can have a ‘fresh’ explosive tailback in the game at all times…I think that is a MAJOR advantage. Of course, I worry about short yardage to a degree, but I think that can be solved.
I don’t know much about Arkin. But, I do know he was a dominant OT in college who struggled a bit with the transition to guard. However, he does seem to have more than enough ability to play guard and I like versatile players. I’m curious as to how we’ll handle the RG spot because I don’t think we can afford to have Bigg Davis there for more than 1 season if we are lucky.
Nothing seemed out of reach in rounds 5-7 as Thomas, Harris, Chapas and Nagy all seemed to be picked where they thought they would go. Harris really intrigues me though. Dallas really needed a slot WR who just can’t be covered by LB’s, gives safeties fits and corners struggle to stay with him on short routes. The guy caught 101 passes last season for East Carolina, not really known for great QB’s. So it appears that he catches everything. He’s also reported to be quick and a great route runner. Those are the type of WR’s that usually excel in what I think the Cowboys are looking for.
I watched quite a bit of Chapas at UGA. Nothing really stood out to me except for his size and he can run pretty well. I would love to see him either be that Fullback or perhaps that John Kuhn type who is really effective getting about 8 carries a game, but he’s never going to be a featured runner.
Overall, it’s just too tough to tell right now with this draft because FA hasn’t happened, yet. I think if we get Huff and Sensy re-signed and do something to address the DE’s and RG positions, it looks like a very reasonable draft because we didn’t reach for the most part and we looked to fill some of the positions of need. Plus, if Smith is as good as we think he is, I would easily take Free and Smith over any other tackle combination in the NFC East.
YR
I really don’t get ESPN though. Chris Berman has no relevancy whatsoever. In that ever important 18-35 year old demographic, the guy is still referencing Cab Calloway and old AFL jokes. That and he’s wildly annoying to listen to. And please stop showing the players getting the call before the pick has happened. As this video shows, it’s FAR better off to have the commissioner make the pick to help build up that thing called ‘suspense.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZxNeFLuY98
Say what you want, but it was stuff like this that MADE the NFL draft entertaining and watchable. Now most of the picks are completely anticlimactic.
Anyway, I posted my thoughts on Tyron Smith. I love this guy’s footwork. He reminds me of James Worthy when he first came in the NBA and he already had the quickest first step in basketball. This kid’s dropslide is pretty electric. He also has L-O-N-G arms. IIRC, Ware’s arms are very long and at 35”, Smiths are at 36”. I’ve believed this for awhile, but long arms are generally a great thing to have in football at every position except QB, Punter and Kicker. Smith reportedly has to work on his hand placement and consistently extending his arms properly, but so does just about every other tackle coming out of college not named Jake Long or Joe Thomas.
As far as the draft goes, I basically look to see what the team picked in the first 3 rounds against Gosselin’s top 100 board. I figure he’s the most accurate draftnik out there and it’s really not about ‘being a bust’ if the entire league has somebody drafted high. I think this league is really about finding guys who will work hard and can take the mental demands of playing the game and then having a good enough organization and coaching staff that develops players. I don’t think Tom Coughlin has a superior eye for talent, but he ‘drafts well’ because he’s great at finding players that can take his coaching and then he’s great at developing talent.
But, I’m digressing.
Carter was a bit of a reach for us as Goose had him at #65 and he was selected 40th. But, Carter was the next LB on Goose’s board. I was talking to a friend of mine before this pick and it just seems to me that the Cowboys like to go look for a position of need in 2 years here rather than this year. So that to me means that Brooking stays for 2011 and Carter will play nickel LB and special teams. I think it was obvious that the team felt it missed that nickel LB last season quite badly. I remember watching Carter playing against LSU and I thought the guy was great. He’s also a terrific special teams player.
I haven’t watched a lot of DeMarco Murray, but I like the pick in the sense that he’s an explosive tailback. I think the ‘2 tailback’ system is a bit overblown in today’s NFL. Everybody wants a ‘thunder and lightning’ type of tandem. But I like explosive tailbacks…so if one needs a rest, why wouldn’t you substitute that with another explosive tailback? If I can have a ‘fresh’ explosive tailback in the game at all times…I think that is a MAJOR advantage. Of course, I worry about short yardage to a degree, but I think that can be solved.
I don’t know much about Arkin. But, I do know he was a dominant OT in college who struggled a bit with the transition to guard. However, he does seem to have more than enough ability to play guard and I like versatile players. I’m curious as to how we’ll handle the RG spot because I don’t think we can afford to have Bigg Davis there for more than 1 season if we are lucky.
Nothing seemed out of reach in rounds 5-7 as Thomas, Harris, Chapas and Nagy all seemed to be picked where they thought they would go. Harris really intrigues me though. Dallas really needed a slot WR who just can’t be covered by LB’s, gives safeties fits and corners struggle to stay with him on short routes. The guy caught 101 passes last season for East Carolina, not really known for great QB’s. So it appears that he catches everything. He’s also reported to be quick and a great route runner. Those are the type of WR’s that usually excel in what I think the Cowboys are looking for.
I watched quite a bit of Chapas at UGA. Nothing really stood out to me except for his size and he can run pretty well. I would love to see him either be that Fullback or perhaps that John Kuhn type who is really effective getting about 8 carries a game, but he’s never going to be a featured runner.
Overall, it’s just too tough to tell right now with this draft because FA hasn’t happened, yet. I think if we get Huff and Sensy re-signed and do something to address the DE’s and RG positions, it looks like a very reasonable draft because we didn’t reach for the most part and we looked to fill some of the positions of need. Plus, if Smith is as good as we think he is, I would easily take Free and Smith over any other tackle combination in the NFC East.
YR
