tank carradine at 18

[dart]

not a problem with it

 

[32BellyOption]

Heck no! I'd try to trade down like crazy but if I HAD to make a pick, I'd go Sylvester Williams.

EDIT: Forgot about Vaccaro...he's definitely the choice before Williams

I'm not sold on Vacarro. Is there that much of a difference between him and the safeties that will be available in the 2nd and 3rd rounds?

 

[hra8700]

The one thing that worries me is we haven't had a good track record with college players who had history of injuries lately. Sean Lee, Bruce Carter and Demarco Murray have all missed a substantial amount of time the last couple of seasons and we may have soured on that whole draft strategy now. Under the present system you only control players for 4 years and the draft value of a redshirt player is dramatically lowered from losing 25% of that time.

I wouldn't penalize Carradine too much from an isolated ACL tear if he had a pristine history prior to that and had a good operative report from the surgeon and good post-op evaluation by the sports med doctors. I don't think Carradine will be healthy enough to go through a formal Pro Day before the draft, will he? He does sound like a perfect fit for LDE in Kiffen's defense and fits his preference for fast players who relentlessly pursue the ball. I'd love to be able to let Spencer walk and free up the cap space. I also think the DL is in need of a major youth injection with all of the starting four about to hit 30 and two of them coming off injury plagued years. If Cooper is gone my preference would be to draft a DL with our first pick based on the way the boards are lining up and if Carradine is the best one then so be it. I don't think Carradine or Moore fit what Kiffen wants and Ansah and Jordan will be long gone. I do think there is a big dropoff at DT after Floyd and Star and think Richardson is a good notch below those two and the same holds ture for Sylvester Williams.

The injury question is very interesting. What injuries predict future injuries? Unclear. I suspect the only really predictive injuries are soft tissue injuries (some people just get inflammation more quickly) or degenerative joint issues. In basketball i think dwyane wade is truly "injury prone". Im sure teams have studied this and have a good idea. Just because you get a few injuries in a row doesn't make you injury prone. I suspect a player with only a history of a torn acl isn't much more likely to have an injury than another player, but who knows until you study it systematically.

Carradine will have a pro day on April 20. He says he already has full straight line speed. I completely agree with you about the value of a draft pick being the first 4 years, but I don't think carradine will really miss much time. Training camp starts a full 8 months after his acl tear. Given current recovery times and his reported fast recovery he should be ready. It's possible he won't be quite as physically explosive his first year back, but rookies tend not to be very productive their first year anyway due to technique and mental issues, so I don't think it's a big concern. He'll be able to play 30% of snaps his first year as a backup which is not that bad for a rookie. If he turns out to be really good, I'd love to see if we could use him as a dt on dime packages like jpp and Justin tuck. A lot of scouts seem to think he can do it. If he would have to be "redshirted" I agree he's not worth 18.

In regards to the dt's, frankly I think 5 could go in round 1 which is kind of absurd. Richardson is a very slightly worse version of Floyd, Jesse Williams is a very slightly worse version of lotulelei, and Sylvester Williams has pretty incredible athleticism as well. I'd love Richardson or Jesse Williams.

 

[Eskimo]

Carradine [/B]or Moore fit what Kiffen wants and Ansah and Jordan will be long gone. I do think there is a big dropoff at DT after Floyd and Star and think Richardso
I

I meant to say Werner instead of Carradine here.

Carradine is basically a prototypically LDE in a Kiffen defense, IMO. He has the size, speed and pursuit ability he craves with the length and strength needed to play LDE. The question is health and whether we have enough information to assess his movement skills post-injury. Usually most players need about 9-12 months to get to be able to cut but most do so with some hesitation. They usually don't trust the knee at the beginning and that is why most players don't play at their prior level until about 2 years post-injury.

 

[TheSport78]

I'm not sold on Vacarro. Is there that much of a difference between him and the safeties that will be available in the 2nd and 3rd rounds?

Don't know but for me he's a higher rated player than Sylvester Williams.