Saban on hot mic calling MLaw a reach

USUALLY the good old "Oh what does he know, or who is he anyway, or don't shoot the messenger cliches follows all these type opinions from the media types.

I THINK Saban maybe has a few pelts on the wall regarding recruiting defensive talent for his opinion to be considered strongly.

But yep, it's the Zone, so wanting a player to be something he's not is standard operating procedure.

jmo
 
Lots of media people thought Travis Fredrick was a solid player but a reach at his pick too.

Cowboys got their man in Downs. They didn't have a second. If Lawrence was their highest on their board I'm not going to argue with using the pick to get the guy they wanted rather than someone with questionable fit/questionable stats like Faulk. And I say that being an Auburn grad.

He wasn't going to be there in the third and they traded back once already and they already won with Downs. If he pans out, I'm fine with him being a "reach".
 
Truth is yes he was overdrafted, but you have to consider would other teams take him if you don't use picks 20-25? I think some of it may be false info but some teams may actually had taken him before pick 30.

So then you compare him to Jacas and Young etc, who actually were drafted in the 2nd round. Does Lawrence fit the 3-4 OLB role better than them? Does he have the potential to eventually be better? I think that was more the prevailing thought the Cowboys used.

Of course even if I liked him a ton doesn't matter we will see who ends up being better from this class.
 
atlantacowboy said:
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...e-pick-a-reach-on-hot-mic-changes-tune-on-air

So, apparently, Saban didn't consider this guy a first round pick and thought he would be a day 2 sleeper. But, what does the GOAT know? :popcorn:
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There's a reason he's in the booth.............
What's crazy is everyone agreed after 15-18 1st-round grades... you were dealing with 2nd-round talent over the next 20 or so picks. So how could he be a reach if we drafted within the 2nd-round batch? ALL 1st round graded players were off the board.
 
Scouts had him ranked higher that Mesidor. This board wanted Mesidor... I keep hearing the mumurs M.Law is old but he's only 22. Kid has a motor and pretty good arsenal of moves already. He's coming in very polished into the NFL. A lot of DE's don't even have a counter move coming into the league and need 3 years to develop that.
 
youngjerryjones said:
Scouts had him ranked higher that Mesidor. This board wanted Mesidor... I keep hearing the mumurs M.Law is old but he's only 22. Kid has a motor and pretty good arsenal of moves already. He's coming in very polished into the NFL. A lot of DE's don't even have a counter move coming into the league and need 3 years to develop that.
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He's too light in the ***. NFL tackles will sit and anchor while stonewalling his outside angle speed which is his primary trait.
His lower body is not strong enough to offer any type effective bull rush against NFL tackles.
Same as EZ last year.
At least one year, I'll say 2, to get up to NFL strength standards once again just like EZ who was a much more impressive college sack artist.

A ceiling of Dorance Armstrong and that's in year 3.
 
Havic said:
Its fine, he is entitled to his opinion. A rumor I heard was SF wanted him in the 1st and traded out once Dallas grabbed him.
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Niners were also rumored to want the receiver Concepcion who got taken before their pick.
 
TheMarathonContinues said:
Him saying it’s a reach is fine. Him being fake about it and sayin he’s a sleeper is foul. Stand on business Saban.
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Eh, he didn't say anything much different, just with a more positive-ish tone. He said "sleeper for tomorrow" meaning he was taken in the 1st when expected to be taken in the 2nd or 3rd. That's a nicer way of saying reach. It's not inconsistent.
 
Risen Star said:
Lawrence was a late riser. There were multiple mocks with him in the late 1st round over the last month.

But we didn't use 20 on Lawrence alone. We used 20 on Lawrence, Devin Moore and LT Overton.
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I wouldn't doubt for one second that Sabin maybe watched a 20 second clip of him before he was drafted.
 
Malachi Lawrence is an example of a guy who is very athletic but did not have the stats and resume’ of other first round edge rusher picks. He was a late riser who showed a lot of potential in his pre-draft testing.

That doesn’t mean he’s a bad pick. But IMO it probably means he won’t be an immediate plug and play guy. IF he develops into his upside and potential, he will be very valuable.

Was it a reach? To some yes, some no. I saw him play a few times at UCF (on TV) and he did not look like an unstoppable beast to me. But his raw talent says he could become that.

“MLaw” was All Big 12 first team in 2025, but there’s a big difference between him and David Bailey for example. Bailey, selected #2 in round one, literally had double the number of sacks as Lawrence and also nearly twice as many TFLs. Bailey is an almost a can’t miss. MLaw is a big potential guy.

He could become really good. We will see.
 
atlantacowboy said:
People might have said thing about Jimmy Johnson who was 8-24 after his first 2 season. The difference between Nick and Jimmy is Troy Aikman. Saban gave up NFL coaching bc he clearly saw that he could not win without a QB in the NFL and he had no means of acquiring one. The final straw was when he had talked Drew Brees into signing with Miami only to be overruled by the GM bc of the concerns of medical staff. Had Saban gotten his guy, no reason he couldn't have at least done what Sean Payton did with Brees.

But to dispute his coaching acumen is laughable. Saban had a shrewd eye for talent and built that Bama juggernaut with it.
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He does for college but he never proven it in the NFL.
 
Bobhaze said:
Malachi Lawrence is an example of a guy who is very athletic but did not have the stats and resume’ of other first round edge rusher picks. He was a late riser who showed a lot of potential in his pre-draft testing.

That doesn’t mean he’s a bad pick. But IMO it probably means he won’t be an immediate plug and play guy. IF he develops into his upside and potential, he will be very valuable.

Was a reach? To some yes, some no. I saw him play a few times at UCF (on TV) and he did not look like an unstoppable beast to me. But his raw talent says he could become that.

“MLaw” was All Big 12 first team in 2025, but there’s a big difference between him and David Bailey for example. Bailey, selected #2 in round one, literally had double the number of sacks as Lawrence and also nearly twice as many TFLs. Bailey is an almost a can’t miss. MLaw is a big potential guy.

He could become really good. We will see.
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The Cowboys have drafted that same guy Bob for a while, it's just only 2 of them have had the actual game impacting talent as passrushers that supported their draft slot or pre draft hype.

Lawrence is no different from Gregory or Kneeland or EZ.

Ware and Parsons are extremely hard, if not impossible outliers at their position to follow.

Some NFL team scouts can still see diamond in the rough plug n play impact edge guys.
The Cowboys scouting department ain't one of them.
 
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