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(McKelvin and Cromartie doubts)
Non-BCS corners come with questions in NFL Draft
By PAUL DOMOWITCH
MOST OF us prefer to buy our meat from a dependable butcher. So do football coaches like Bill Belichick and Andy Reid, which is why the preponderance of players taken in the top rounds of the NFL draft each year hail from football factories in power conferences such as the Big 10, ACC, SEC and Big 12.
That shopping preference is particularly evident at the cornerback position, where just one of the 39 corners taken in the first round of the last 10 drafts has been a product of a non-BCS conference school. That was Rashard Anderson, of Jackson State, who was selected in the first round of the 2000 draft by the Carolina Panthers. Anderson started just nine games in two seasons for the Panthers before getting released.
This is especially pertinent right now because two of the top-rated corners in next week's draft - Leodis McKelvin and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie - come from schools in non-BCS conferences.
McKelvin, who is considered a possible top-12 pick by many draft analysts, played at Troy University, which is in the non-BCS Sun Belt Conference. Rodgers-Cromartie hails from Tennessee State, of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Their talent and speed - Rodgers-Cromartie ran the 40 in 4.29 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine in February and McKelvin was clocked in 4.38 - has intrigued NFL scouts. Particularly McKelvin, who also is an outstanding punt returner.
But their non-BCS college addresses are causing a fair amount of trepidation in the draft war rooms of teams that have them on their radar, including the Eagles, who own the 19th pick in the first round.
"[Non-BCS corners] are harder to evaluate because you don't see them against the top receivers," Colts general manager Bill Polian said. "That's the problem. You have to get your evaluations from the all-star games and the practices, and that's a little more dicey than having watched the guy for 3 years at Michigan or some place like that.
"The higher you pick a player, the more difficult it is to pick him unless you have lots and lots of information available to you."
Polian, one of the league's most respected talent evaluators, always has preferred to do his cornerback shopping at the BCS supermarkets. He's drafted 14 corners since 2000. Just four of those 14 were from non-BCS schools, and only one of those four non-BCS corners was selected higher than the fifth round (Joseph Jefferson, of Western Kentucky, third round, '02).
"Both of these guys [McKelvin and Rodgers-Cromartie] are enough known quantities and have enough outstanding athletic ability to say that they've gotten past whatever barrier their school put up," Polian said.
"Troy really isn't a small school. There are lots of guys from there that make it. You can make the argument that Troy plays a better schedule than a lot of Mid-American Conference schools. Cromartie's coming from a small school. But he has great bloodlines [San Diego Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie is his cousin]."
Scouts have a slightly higher comfort level with McKelvin than Rodgers-Cromartie because they had a chance to see McKelvin against top competition. Troy plays a tough nonconference schedule that last year included games against three SEC teams - Florida, Georgia and Arkansas - and Big 12-member Oklahoma State.
"You're better off typically [drafting BCS corners] at the top end of the draft," NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said. "But this kid [McKelvin] has shown against top-level competition that he can compete. If you put the Oklahoma State tape on, you can't tell me he's not a first-round corner. Oklahoma State had as good a group of wide receivers as I've seen around, and he dominated the game.
Mayock isn't so sold, though, on Rodgers-Cromartie, who really didn't start getting first-round consideration until after the season. He turned scouts' heads at the Senior Bowl workouts and was named the game's defensive MVP. Then, he went to the combine and lit it up there. At his Pro Day workout last month, he turned in impressive times in the other speed and agility drills, including the 20-yard shuttle run (4.14) and the three-cone drill (6.63).
"He has a wonderful upside," Mayock said. "He has maybe the best upside of any corner in the draft. But he scares me. It's a boom-or-bust thing.
"Small-school corners have a bad success ratio in the NFL. Every year there's one or two that catch our fancy. But I put the Tennessee State tape on and I'll tell you what. He doesn't look that great. He wasn't special. He turned away from contact. He didn't hit anybody. He's only 184 pounds. He worries me. He went to the Senior Bowl and showed he could do it. But I don't know whether he can do it on a consistent basis."
Mayock isn't alone in his reservations about Rodgers-Cromartie. "He's nothing like his cousin," an AFC personnel man for a team that is considering taking a corner in the first round next weekend said. "They're total opposites. This guy is quiet. He's reserved, timid. It doesn't show up on the field, but you worry about it."
The numbers aren't encouraging for NFL teams who are thinking about drafting McKelvin or Rodgers-Cromartie.
Just 17 corners from non-BCS schools have been taken in the first three rounds of the draft since 2000. Only five of those 17 are starters - the Bears' Charles Tillman (Louisiana-Lafayette, second round, '03), the Browns' Eric Wright (UNLV, second round, '07), the Panthers' Richard Marshall (Fresno State, second round, '06), the Jaguars' Rashean Mathis (Bethune-Cookman, second round, '03) and the Rams' Ronald Bartell (Howard, second round, '05).
By comparison, 81 corners from BCS schools have been taken in the first three rounds since 2000. Sixty still are playing and 31 are starters.
"The big question [with a non-BCS player] is, 'How's he going to do when the lights go on?' " the Colts' Polian said. "This is the biggest league with the most pressure and the most attention. Ultimately, that's what they either conquer or succumb to. And that's pretty hard to predict under any circumstance, whether it's a BCS conference player or somebody else.
"But you certainly know that somebody who hasn't played under that kind of pressure and scrutiny is going to have an adjustment period. And you have to try to help him through it."
Said Mayock: "You have dueling statistics here. One is that there's comfort in the big conferences. They practice every day against top-level people. They play every weekend against top-level people. You're taking less of a chance because you've seen them compete against the highest level. So the scouting is a little bit easier.
"But the other thing statistically about corners is that the heavy preponderance of starters at that position are first-round guys. You don't fare as well later because, later, you get shorter guys who can't run as fast. So, if you want a starting NFL corner, you'd better get him in the first round. That's why it's going to be awfully tough for a team looking for a starting corner to pass on either of these guys in the first round."
Rodgers-Cromartie knows he is being looked at much more cynically than some of the draft's top corners from BCS conference schools, such as Kansas' Aquib Talib and South Florida's Mike Jenkins, who also are expected to go in the first round.
"Coming from a small school, I was like a guy that was under the radar," he said. "I felt like I had to do well at everything - the Senior Bowl, the combine and then my Pro Day. I know I have a hurdle that I have to jump over coming from a small school. I know I have a lot to overcome."
A scout for an AFC team with a top-15 first-round pick and a pressing need for a corner said McKelvin's and Rodgers-Cromartie's backgrounds won't necessarily prevent his team from taking them, but it won't help their case.
"It makes you think hard, particularly that high up," he said. "But that alone won't change your mind. Not one thing changes your mind. But once you start lining up all the check marks, that one won't be on the right side."
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/spo...corners_come_with_questions_in_NFL_Draft.html
Non-BCS corners come with questions in NFL Draft
By PAUL DOMOWITCH
MOST OF us prefer to buy our meat from a dependable butcher. So do football coaches like Bill Belichick and Andy Reid, which is why the preponderance of players taken in the top rounds of the NFL draft each year hail from football factories in power conferences such as the Big 10, ACC, SEC and Big 12.
That shopping preference is particularly evident at the cornerback position, where just one of the 39 corners taken in the first round of the last 10 drafts has been a product of a non-BCS conference school. That was Rashard Anderson, of Jackson State, who was selected in the first round of the 2000 draft by the Carolina Panthers. Anderson started just nine games in two seasons for the Panthers before getting released.
This is especially pertinent right now because two of the top-rated corners in next week's draft - Leodis McKelvin and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie - come from schools in non-BCS conferences.
McKelvin, who is considered a possible top-12 pick by many draft analysts, played at Troy University, which is in the non-BCS Sun Belt Conference. Rodgers-Cromartie hails from Tennessee State, of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Their talent and speed - Rodgers-Cromartie ran the 40 in 4.29 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine in February and McKelvin was clocked in 4.38 - has intrigued NFL scouts. Particularly McKelvin, who also is an outstanding punt returner.
But their non-BCS college addresses are causing a fair amount of trepidation in the draft war rooms of teams that have them on their radar, including the Eagles, who own the 19th pick in the first round.
"[Non-BCS corners] are harder to evaluate because you don't see them against the top receivers," Colts general manager Bill Polian said. "That's the problem. You have to get your evaluations from the all-star games and the practices, and that's a little more dicey than having watched the guy for 3 years at Michigan or some place like that.
"The higher you pick a player, the more difficult it is to pick him unless you have lots and lots of information available to you."
Polian, one of the league's most respected talent evaluators, always has preferred to do his cornerback shopping at the BCS supermarkets. He's drafted 14 corners since 2000. Just four of those 14 were from non-BCS schools, and only one of those four non-BCS corners was selected higher than the fifth round (Joseph Jefferson, of Western Kentucky, third round, '02).
"Both of these guys [McKelvin and Rodgers-Cromartie] are enough known quantities and have enough outstanding athletic ability to say that they've gotten past whatever barrier their school put up," Polian said.
"Troy really isn't a small school. There are lots of guys from there that make it. You can make the argument that Troy plays a better schedule than a lot of Mid-American Conference schools. Cromartie's coming from a small school. But he has great bloodlines [San Diego Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie is his cousin]."
Scouts have a slightly higher comfort level with McKelvin than Rodgers-Cromartie because they had a chance to see McKelvin against top competition. Troy plays a tough nonconference schedule that last year included games against three SEC teams - Florida, Georgia and Arkansas - and Big 12-member Oklahoma State.
"You're better off typically [drafting BCS corners] at the top end of the draft," NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said. "But this kid [McKelvin] has shown against top-level competition that he can compete. If you put the Oklahoma State tape on, you can't tell me he's not a first-round corner. Oklahoma State had as good a group of wide receivers as I've seen around, and he dominated the game.
Mayock isn't so sold, though, on Rodgers-Cromartie, who really didn't start getting first-round consideration until after the season. He turned scouts' heads at the Senior Bowl workouts and was named the game's defensive MVP. Then, he went to the combine and lit it up there. At his Pro Day workout last month, he turned in impressive times in the other speed and agility drills, including the 20-yard shuttle run (4.14) and the three-cone drill (6.63).
"He has a wonderful upside," Mayock said. "He has maybe the best upside of any corner in the draft. But he scares me. It's a boom-or-bust thing.
"Small-school corners have a bad success ratio in the NFL. Every year there's one or two that catch our fancy. But I put the Tennessee State tape on and I'll tell you what. He doesn't look that great. He wasn't special. He turned away from contact. He didn't hit anybody. He's only 184 pounds. He worries me. He went to the Senior Bowl and showed he could do it. But I don't know whether he can do it on a consistent basis."
Mayock isn't alone in his reservations about Rodgers-Cromartie. "He's nothing like his cousin," an AFC personnel man for a team that is considering taking a corner in the first round next weekend said. "They're total opposites. This guy is quiet. He's reserved, timid. It doesn't show up on the field, but you worry about it."
The numbers aren't encouraging for NFL teams who are thinking about drafting McKelvin or Rodgers-Cromartie.
Just 17 corners from non-BCS schools have been taken in the first three rounds of the draft since 2000. Only five of those 17 are starters - the Bears' Charles Tillman (Louisiana-Lafayette, second round, '03), the Browns' Eric Wright (UNLV, second round, '07), the Panthers' Richard Marshall (Fresno State, second round, '06), the Jaguars' Rashean Mathis (Bethune-Cookman, second round, '03) and the Rams' Ronald Bartell (Howard, second round, '05).
By comparison, 81 corners from BCS schools have been taken in the first three rounds since 2000. Sixty still are playing and 31 are starters.
"The big question [with a non-BCS player] is, 'How's he going to do when the lights go on?' " the Colts' Polian said. "This is the biggest league with the most pressure and the most attention. Ultimately, that's what they either conquer or succumb to. And that's pretty hard to predict under any circumstance, whether it's a BCS conference player or somebody else.
"But you certainly know that somebody who hasn't played under that kind of pressure and scrutiny is going to have an adjustment period. And you have to try to help him through it."
Said Mayock: "You have dueling statistics here. One is that there's comfort in the big conferences. They practice every day against top-level people. They play every weekend against top-level people. You're taking less of a chance because you've seen them compete against the highest level. So the scouting is a little bit easier.
"But the other thing statistically about corners is that the heavy preponderance of starters at that position are first-round guys. You don't fare as well later because, later, you get shorter guys who can't run as fast. So, if you want a starting NFL corner, you'd better get him in the first round. That's why it's going to be awfully tough for a team looking for a starting corner to pass on either of these guys in the first round."
Rodgers-Cromartie knows he is being looked at much more cynically than some of the draft's top corners from BCS conference schools, such as Kansas' Aquib Talib and South Florida's Mike Jenkins, who also are expected to go in the first round.
"Coming from a small school, I was like a guy that was under the radar," he said. "I felt like I had to do well at everything - the Senior Bowl, the combine and then my Pro Day. I know I have a hurdle that I have to jump over coming from a small school. I know I have a lot to overcome."
A scout for an AFC team with a top-15 first-round pick and a pressing need for a corner said McKelvin's and Rodgers-Cromartie's backgrounds won't necessarily prevent his team from taking them, but it won't help their case.
"It makes you think hard, particularly that high up," he said. "But that alone won't change your mind. Not one thing changes your mind. But once you start lining up all the check marks, that one won't be on the right side."
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/spo...corners_come_with_questions_in_NFL_Draft.html
