PFW: NFL draft notes (incl. notes on players the Skins might look at )

as was mentioned the other day, PFW is a good site with not a lot of fluff. some very interesting points on some guys who might very well end up in the B&G:

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/NFLDraft/Draft+Extras/2009/wwhi041409a.htm

The Way We Hear It — Draft Audibles

Opinions from around the league on the hottest draft-related topics

By Nolan Nawrocki

April 15, 2009

The following quotes are from NFL scouts, coaches and front-office personnel, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Look for Audibles in each print edition of Pro Football Weekly and online at ProFootballWeekly.com.

“(Georgia Tech DE) Michael Johnson is almost nonexistent against the run. He was never a full-time player until his senior year. He’d be a rotational, third-down, situational pass rusher for us. You can’t consider taking guys like that until the third round; we couldn’t, anyway. Someone will take him sooner.”

“(Cowboys OLB) DeMarcus Ware is a fluid athlete who can bend to leverage the corner. Brian Orakpo is tight and not as natural of a pass-rush guy. Neither are great zone-dropping, but you don’t need to be as a 3-4 rush ’backer. The primary job is playing with your hand in the ground, and that’s what Orakpo does best. He’s got that explosive first step. And he is much stronger than Ware, not that Ware cannot play strong — he knows how to use his hands.”

“(Oklahoma WR Juaquin) Iglesias would be a good fit for Dallas. He’s tough and physical. He ran a lot of West Coast drags at OU like (Cowboys offensive coordinator) Jason Garrett likes to run. He will block. (The Cowboys) lost T.O. They do not have a physical receiver.”

“The Steelers have figured out Justin Hartwig is not the answer. He’s just a guy. He needs to be upgraded. I think they’ll look hard at a center in the first (round).”

“If you want a physical center, (Louisville’s) Eric Wood is your guy. Flip a coin between Wood or (California's Alex) Mack, but we like Wood better. He could be the first center drafted. (Oregon’s) Max Unger is more versatile, but he won’t match up as well against power.”

“If you watched (USC LB Brian) Cushing at his pro day, he opened up the wrong way twice in drills. He did the same thing once at the Combine. He’s a meathead. Rey Maualuga is going to need some reps, too. It won’t be instant for him. The safest linebacker of that group is Clay Matthews.”

“You can give a monkey a banana and a beer and throw on some highlights and could get better evaluations than some teams make. I sit in amazement every year on Draft Day at some of the decisions that are made. It floors me. But that’s the beauty of our business. We can watch the same tape together — you can have an opinion, and I can see it completely differently — and in three years, one of us will be right.”

“Penn State OT Gerald Cadogan is going to get drafted way too high for how he plays on tape. He’s too soft. We've got him in the fifth round. He’ll go in the third, maybe the second after the run on tackles. That’s why there are so many mistakes in the draft — guys get pushed up because of needs. We had Sam Baker in the fourth round last year. He went in the first. He played well in the preseason, but once he had to go against regulars and veteran war daddies, I think we saw what he was. He was hurt most of the year, so you have to give it time to play out, but I will be surprised if he plays up to where he was drafted."

“(South Carolina LB) Jasper Brinkley will be overdrafted on measurables. Go back to the tape.”

“We’ve done all the research on the quarterbacks. The one that really stands out from everything we have gathered is (Kansas State’s) Josh Freeman. His character is top-notch.”

“The league is moving toward four-receiver offenses. It’s so difficult to defend. Look at what the Patriots do with Tom Brady and the Colts with Peyton Manning. … (Arizona WR) Mike Thomas ran fast. Denver and New England worked him out. He would fit well as a slot guy in that offense.”

“There is a real talent involved with figuring out when players are about to run their course. (Former Chargers GM) John Butler was one of the best at it. He was a very futuristic-thinking GM. If you look at how many franchise players were cut loose at the end of their careers, I think you’ll see the answer. Butler had a knack for it. I can almost assure you if he had still been (alive), LaDainian Tomlinson would not be in San Diego right now. Michael Turner would have been the (work)horse last year. Look at it the other way and show me how many washed-up veterans have ever done anything for Oakland or Washington. (Bill) Belichick has some success with those guys because he keeps it simple and only asks them to do what they can still do well — but there are not many coaches that know the game like Bill does.”

Good post. Confirms my suspicion that Cushing is a wash out. Is Freeman better than Campbell potentially or just a heartbreaker?

We can watch the same tape together — you can have an opinion, and I can see it completely differently — and in three years, one of us will be right.”

that might be the most important part of the article for us as i re-read it.

3 years - not 1. we need to be patient with whomever we bring in, and remain so with the guys we got last year.

Look at it the other way and show me how many washed-up veterans have ever done anything for Oakland or Washington.

Doesn't "washed-up veteran" imply that they're not good anymore? So the article's saying that you can't win with a team filled with players who aren't good?

Some real money quotes in there, thanks.

Cushing is a meathead.

If the line about Michael Johnson is true, no way in hell Blache wants anything to do with him.

Does anyone else think the monkey with the beer line is about Snyderrato?

“The league is moving toward four-receiver offenses. It’s so difficult to defend. Look at what the Patriots do with Tom Brady and the Colts with Peyton Manning. … (Arizona WR) Mike Thomas ran fast. Denver and New England worked him out. He would fit well as a slot guy in that offense.”

This is why you need an F'ing PASS RUSH with your front 4. You don't need HOF CBs if the QB doesn't have time to throw. If the QB does have time to throw, your HOF CBs won't be.

that might be the most important part of the article for us as i re-read it.

3 years - not 1. we need to be patient with whomever we bring in, and remain so with the guys we got last year.

I think also you can't get too hung up on where draft "experts" have players rated. At the end of the day, it is where the team has a player rated that is important and how accurate that rating is. That's not something you are going to get from draft guys.

that might be the most important part of the article for us as i re-read it.

3 years - not 1. we need to be patient with whomever we bring in, and remain so with the guys we got last year.

Skins fans don't know how to be patient.

Good post. Confirms my suspicion that Cushing is a wash out. Is Freeman better than Campbell potentially or just a heartbreaker?

Freeman to me seems a lot like Campbell. Read his draft weaknesses and compare them to Campbells. Not a good option for us.

Skins fans don't know how to be patient.

Neither do the fans. QB controversy central right here. I don't understand what it is about DC. Even if the Skins had Peyton the fans would find something to complain about.

BTW: If JC gets decent line play this season he'd best play better cause I thought he blew in the games when the line played well last season

I think also you can't get too hung up on where draft "experts" have players rated. At the end of the day, it is where the team has a player rated that is important and how accurate that rating is. That's not something you are going to get from draft guys.

i agree. even the mock drafts done by "experts" are often more or less big board rankings only altered by which teams are strong at which positions already.

teams have to rate players on how they will fit into their systems and their future plans, and that is not information that any smart member of any organization should be iwlling to give out.

thus, the understandable inaccuracies of mock drafts and the need for fans to understand (or pray) that there is often a plan in place bigger than simply filling a need.

Freeman to me seems a lot like Campbell. Read his draft weaknesses and compare them to Campbells. Not a good option for us.

Agreed. Campbell 2.0

This is why you need an F'ing PASS RUSH with your front 4. You don't need HOF CBs if the QB doesn't have time to throw. If the QB does have time to throw, your HOF CBs won't be.

Yup. This is why you need to be able to block with your oline and kill the qb with your dline. If you have a porous oline that always needs help, then sending 4 wr out is useless. If have a soft dline, then the cbs and safties are going to wear down out there.

We've invested really heavily on corner safety, and wr.

Some real money quotes in there, thanks.

Cushing is a meathead.

If the line about Michael Johnson is true, no way in hell Blache wants anything to do with him.

Does anyone else think the monkey with the beer line is about Snyderrato?

Anonymous conjecture is just "beer talk". Shame on PFW - might as well link to blogs.

:helmet: The Rook

Anonymous conjecture is just "beer talk". Shame on PFW - might as well link to blogs.

:helmet: The Rook

i strongly disagree. there is legit football talk in that article that is often sorely lacking from other sites.

PFW is legit. find a site where scouts will attach their names to anything other than misinformation.

Anonymous conjecture is just "beer talk". Shame on PFW - might as well link to blogs.:helmet: The Rook

A quote is literally a quote, even when it's anonymous.

I believe they are verbatim quotes from scouts who for obvious reasons would not say those things on the record.

I also know that there's always a ton of smoke-blowing by these guys in April. If you really like a player, you'll talk him down hoping that he falls to you. If you dislike someone, you'll talk him up hoping that someone in front of you reaches for him.

In the end, it doesn't matter much, but I do appreciate getting a sense of what some folks are saying about these guys.

Eh, I think he's being too critical of Cushing personally. The talent is there IMO. He's a sideline to sideline LB with good power and speed. His ability to cover is the only question mark for me.

I think also you can't get too hung up on where draft "experts" have players rated. At the end of the day, it is where the team has a player rated that is important and how accurate that rating is. That's not something you are going to get from draft guys.

Except I got the distinct impression from that article that this scout believes that some teams are far worse at rating players than the published draft experts. Why do I have the nasty suspicion that Redskins are one of those teams.

The Redskins have done an ok job drafting over the past few years. Our problem is that we give away too many picks on players that do absolutely NOTHING for us. We could have drafted two WRs with the picks we gave up for Brandon Lloyd. At least one of them could have given us more production than Lloyd did at a fraction of the cost. The second round pick we gave up for Jason Taylor could have been a decent future OL or DL prospect. Taylor is no longer on the team and did nothing for us last season.