Rack said:
Hey, I read a scouting report that said Stewart Schweigert was just as good as Sean Taylor, wanna read that useless scouting report too?
It's good to know that I don't have to waste anymore time watching games or reading the views of people who follow these things for a living like the folks at NFL.com and John Clayton of ESPN. I can just consult with you instead.
Here is another. I could post about a dozen that state the same information but I won't. A simple Google search can confirm.
sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=1742045
ESPN.com: NFL
Monday, February 23, 2004
Taylor might be draft's best player
By John Clayton
ESPN.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- An argument can be made that the best player in April's draft won't go first.
Sean Taylor of Miami is the ultimate playmaker.
He makes crunching tackles in the mold of Roy Williams of the Dallas Cowboys and he snares interceptions with the ease of Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens.
Sean Taylor is expected to be a top 10 selection in the upcoming draft.
"I think I'm both combined in one," Taylor said. "I can hit. I can cover. I can run. I think you're getting everything in one, almost."
There's only one problem. Taylor is a safety, playing 10 to 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage. If defensive linemen are the first line of defense, safeties are the last line. They play so far off the ball that many teams devalue them. Thirty-year-old veterans making more than $3 million are usually run off. Last year, some teams were taking rookie cornerbacks and plugging them into the safety position as starters just for speed.
"Traditionally, you can get safeties that can play pretty good for you -- even go to the Pro Bowl -- in the later rounds," Texans general manager Charley Casserly said. "So if there's a choice, you can move the safety off a little bit farther. The other thing is when you scout, safeties a lot of times are off the tape and may have five plays in a whole game."
But here's the debate floating around the Indianapolis combine: What if that safety could be the next Ronnie Lott, a Hall-of-Fame player? Can a safety go No. 1? Probably not in a draft that features quarterbacks Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, athletic left tackle Robert Gallery and top receivers such as Larry Fitzgerald, Roy and Reggie Williams and maybe even Mike Williams of USC.
But Taylor could be the next Ronnie Lott.
"I don't know, Ronnie Lott did a lot of great things," Taylor said. "That's a big name. I don't know. Wow."
But, Taylor is the one making a lot of NFL people say wow. He measured out at 6-2, 230 pounds for the scouts. But he's got enough range and speed to make plays against the pass and turn interceptions into big plays.
"Sean Taylor is a playmaker," Cardinals coach Dennis Green said. "There are guys that are playmakers at their position. Anquan Boldin is a playmaker at his position. Larry Fitzgerald is a playmaker at his position. Sean Taylor is a playmaker at safety. He can get up and down the field, and he'll make interceptions at a key time. He's a good hitter. Roy Williams is tremendous in the NFL and he is that kind of player. You're talking about that kind of player except he is faster. He is faster and he will probably make more plays with the ball.
"Roy makes a lot of plays in a lot of different areas and he is a heavier hitter, but I think Sean is a ballhawk. He's a guy who can have eight, nine, ten interceptions in his first year in the league. He has that kind of ability."
Taylor terrorized the college scene. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden was awed by his skills. "He hits as hard as he covers," Bowden said. He enters the NFL with as much buzz as Lott, Ken Easley and Dennis Smith did in the early 1980s. But as great as those three were, none went higher that No. 4 in the draft. Easley went fourth in the 1981 draft, Lott went eight and Smith went 15th to Denver.
