Yes, with his second pick in the second round.

 

It's like you people forget history moments after it happens.  

After TT signs Greg Jennings to replace Randall Cobb, I'd put the chances of drafting a WR at 3:1.

quote:

what else do you expect Ted to do in the second round?

Fleece another team with a trade down?

Kendricks looked good, as did Anthiny and McKinney. Perryman looked stiff. ILB doesn't look very deep this year from an athleticism standpoint.

 ILB never looks very deep from an athleticism standpoint... I think that's why they are ILBs.

 

 

So whoever TT picks will fit right in?

Vontaze Burfict ran a 5+ 40 and looked terrible in the drills. Combine can't measure how good of a football player you are, just how good of an athlete.

40 time is relevant for WR, CB and safety.  That's it.  Those are the only positions that will run 40 yards in a given play on a consistent basis.  I can see RB too, but they run 40 yards so infrequently that you really can't change your draft board based on a 4.6 vs 4.4 forty.  Now sometimes a slow 40 time is indicative of a lack of athleticism, which is a red flag.  But 40 on it's own is just so meaningless for an in-the-box player.  

 

I know they take 10 yard splits, but I'd be more interested in just a flat out a "ten time" rather than a "forty time" for in-the-box players.  Just line up and run 10 yards.  For any front 7 player, 0-lineman and RB, all every play occurs in about a ten yard box.  Why not cater the workout to that?  Even QB.  Who cares how fast you can get 40 yards, I'm more curious about how fast you can get to 10 yards (ie: escaping the pocket).  

 

Very surprised that the combine has had the same drills forever.  For how much money goes into this you'd think they would adjust them to better evaluate the positions.  

How was it ever decided that 40 yards was the length to run in order to determine speed in football anyway?  Why not 35, 50, 60 or whatever?  Was this decided during Lent or something?

Nobody has ever beat Jesus's 40.

If they really wanted to make this biblical, they should make the track sand and throw manna at the guys as they cross the finish line.

biblical ? they should run 40s on water... if you sink, you stink

The drills are pretty good, The 40 and Bench Press get the hype, but are probably the most useless, in general. The three cone and shuttle are big for LBs, CBs, RBs, Safeties and pass rushers. the gauntlet is fun to watch to see how naturally guys catch the ball, etc. For the guys who scout all-day, every-day it's more to compare guys side-by-side you have rated similar from film, etc. or to give you a heads-up to go back and look at the tape again on a guy you may have overlooked.

 

IoW, I doubt many (if any guys) ever go from a fourth-rounder to a first-rounder, for example, but if a scout has say Randy Gregory and Vic Beasley with the same rating, the drills may be enough to put them in an order vs. a "whichever, it doesn't matter".

Burfict is an ahole. He went in fat and out of shape with the attitude that he didn't give a ****. I believe he left the combine early. He got what he deserved when he went undrafted.

You're absolutely right, but Vontaze Burfict is a dam good football player when he's healthy. His timed speed and his 3-cone and on-field drills didn't mean jack. AJ Hawk's combine numbers were outstanding, he's an average LB at best. Combine doesn't tell the whole story.

The Eagles gave away two second round picks to move up in the 1st round to draft Mike Mamula after he quietly spent months practicing combine drills. He nailed each drill then scored 49 out of 50 on the wonderlic (Still the highest score ever). 5 years later he was out of football with a few meaningless stats. 

 

#1. Does the guy really like playing football?

#2. Does the film say the guy can play football? 

 

Get the first question wrong and things tend to fall apart. 

Nope.  Pat McNally, a punter from Harvard who played for the Bengals, scored a 50.  Otherwise, I was thinking of Mamula as well.

Punters don't count but I think he played another position? If I'm going to get called for BS least it's by another Weber kettle owner. 

I think he was a WR in college too, but I'm guessing he wasn't quite up to snuff athletically for that in the NFL.  

 

I stayed at an In N Out Burger last night.  Upgraded me to average.

You have to think most personnel guys watch a ton of game tape to evaluate prospects.   To me, that's the most important indicator - not all the drills at the Combine.

What the Combine can get you is insight into the person- i.e. interviews. 

The only advantage I see is if you have a player that wants to showcase or validate some physical skill such as bench press reps or 40 to build the hype and improve their draft position.

Not to forget his vertical or arm length!

 

Big knock; big hands(whole world) but injury red flagged.

Not to mention his short career

The problem with this line of thinking is :

1. It was ONE guy, TWENTY years ago....

2. ...when all the other guys weren't also training for the specific drills.  

 

The combine is what it is, a good place for interviews, medical exams and the ability to compare guys' athleticism side-by-side to help confirm or deny what they saw on tape or delineate between similar guys. It's not a be-all/end-all, but it's not nothing either.

 

Remember: the tape showed that Ricky Elmore was a productive football player.

There have been others in recent years.  Mamula is just the most infamous.

 

Matt Jones - the white guy QB turned WR who ran fast and washed out

Darius Heyward-Bey - although who knows where he would've been drafted by someone who wasn't senile

Vernon Gholston - nuff said

James "Cone Drill" Lee - Or was it "Big Hands" Lee?  I can't remember, but at least that stiff was only a waste of around a fifth-rounder.  I'm putting him here instead of Mandarich, as that's still too painful.

 

The workout warrior types seem to be spotted better by teams these days, but it still happens.

Matt  Jones' biggest issue was he was a turd off the field, though the position switch I'm sure didn't help. Sure, an example of "it only takes one", but you can say that about every flop.

 

Heyward-Bey is still earning a NFL paycheck. He's the offensive version of the innoculator.

       
       


Awesome post.

Mike Mamula was actually a decent player and if he was drafted in the late 1st or 2nd round (where he should have been), his career would have been considered a success.  He played in 77 games over 5 years and had over 200 tackles, 31.5 sacks, 8 forced fumbles and 6 recovered fumbles.  Not bad stats for a DE.  Injuries ended his career, not lack of talent.  Mike Mamula.  

True, but the point is that he shot up draft boards because of what he did in his underwear, and he was not the only guy in the past 20 years to do so.  

Thanks Ted!

This came out at the combine, so I'll post it here.

Green Bay report: GM Schneider has out in Seattle contract should he someday be offered same job with Packers

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d...gn=green-bay-packers

I hope that's true. That could mean a lot of really consistent success for GB for a long time.

What about Eliot Wolf?

God willing this isn't a decision that will need to be made for a while.

 

Schneider and Wolf certainly would be the leading candidates. Paul Allen could throw a hell of a lot of money at Schneider should GB make a run at him.

Thompson is 62 and signed through 2018 when he'll be 65. Wolf retired at 62 and it was somewhat unexpected at the time. Could very well see Thompson do the same. 

Wolf retired at 62.

corrected

Wrong correction.  You should have corrected when Wolf actually retired to 65 and bypassed Sherman's reign as GM.

Schneider vs. Wolf

 

  

Finally, the NFL is listening to me.  Surprised it took them this long to change it.