http://walterfootball.com/draft2013meetingsteams.php <-- this is list I've been using to check out team visits. Christine Michael is the only prospect they've listed Jets to visit multiple times.
Obviously its a concern, but people have injuries. Its football. Players also recover 100% from injuries. If his ACL tear is all you have against drafting Gio then thats a little silly being that he looks good enough to be a consensus top 2 back. "Knee soreness" could be him running into a guy and hitting his knee and it being sore for a week or two... Or it could be from lifting a little too heavy. Its happened to me, and in a week or two I was fine. CBS has Gio at 2, MG at 11. draftcountdown has Gio at 1, MG at 10. Draftbreakdown has Gio 1, MG at 11. Nfldraftblitz has Gio ranked in the 1st, MG 4th or later. When I watch tape on them, I see a player with great running instincts and then one with good instincts. I see a player that could be a top 10 back, and then I see a player who can be in that 15-20 range.
Hey guys, I just got my day 2 combine observations posted. It's pretty long, so here's the link if you're interested. Don't want to fill up the board. http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Combine/QBWRRB.aspx
Andre Ellington was injured half way through his 40 and was still faster than players like Joseph Randle and Montee Ball. He is the real deal and I expect him to run in the 4.4's at his pro day on March 7th.
Mike Buchanan is an interesting mid-round pass rusher - ran well at the combine today. He's got a ton of talent, and his production drop-off can be almost entirely blamed on the coaching change. Illinois defense went from top 10 in 2011 to absolutely terrible in 2012 with a lot of the same players. Was once considered a potential 1st/2nd round guy.
IMO those are the guys that the Jets have to be looking at. Mid round guys with 1st round potential who dropped for some reason. I think that its better to draft those guys instead of others who havent shown anything.
Despite his injury, Dion Jordan is looking very good. He came in weighing 250, which the announcers said was 20 pounds heavier than during the season. He ran a 4.53 and his footwork and hips look very good in some of the drills.
Well, yes and no. I think character guys are always important. Guys don't drop for no reason it's either due to inconsistent play, injuries or off the field issues. None of which we want, well, maybe an injury assuming it's not a long term issue. While it's fair to have one or two gambles in the draft I would hope they generally go with the logical, smart, safe choice. Sure you could pick a project guy and he turns out to be a star player at his position or he could turn out to be a complete bust and people will be saying "you knew about all of these issues so why did you pick him?" Hindsight is 20/20.
Can't watch the rest of the combine because I'm working OT all week so I'm going to rely on everyone here to give me concise and accurate summaries of what's going on.
Reading that reminded me of why the combine is such a terrible process for talent evaluation. Why would any team evaluate a QB positively for throwing a pass with no pressure on him at all? Why would they evaluate a WR positively for catching a pass when the only footsteps he could possibly be hearing are his own? The Steelers and Bears really messed the rest of the NFL up when they convinced teams to hold this talent fair every year. Both those franchises know that nothing really valuable is coming out of the process but they sit back with their latter half of the 1st round picks and watch real players slide down to them because half the NFL thinks performance in skivvies, with no wind or weather and no opposing pressure is actually worth something.
The process is for evaluating certain skills on an even playing field. Having no pressures and such allows the focus to be on a specific individual, and then comparing to another specific individual. The QB passing is about the only thing I don't believe has any merit. Passing is based on timing, and chemisty, which there is none at the combine. The 40 is the most worthless skill test IMO, but you can evaluate other things. Burst in the 10 yard split, fluidity, etc. How often will you see a player run in a straight line in the NFL? I would truly prefer that everything was done in pads though.
Margus Hunt is going to be an absolute beast at the next level. He is raw, and may take a couple years though. Watching his drills today, he is very smooth with good feet.
Brandon Jenkins looked like shit today, and it is tough to tell if the injury was a factor. (Rust). My biggest problem is that he screwed up a drill after watching 5 people do it before him.
If you're just watching drills/posting metrics & not chipping below the surface...yes it carries no value within the process. However, if you listen to guys like Tomas Dimitroff & some of the other progressive minds in the NFL You'll find that combine offers a chance to witness something completely different. It's about seeing athletes movement skills in space. Feet/hips/fluidity. Basically gauging what type of athlete they are in space. It makes all the difference when projecting explosion/athleticism...arguably the biggest x factor in modern day football.
I agree, he is a pure OLB. Willie mentioned him when asked about Ansah and Jordan. He looked really good in drills today.
Stephen Hill caught every ball thrown at him at the last combine. That was a huge part of his rise from the 4th round to the 2nd. Then he gets on a field against a live cornerback and he doesn't have a clue. Press coverage shuts him down. He can't make adjustments in his routes. He drops too many balls (just like he did in college) and just like that he's looking like a 4th round pick again. The Jets would have been much better off with no combine last year. Harder to justify trading up in the 2nd for a 4th round pick when you haven't watched him doing air guitar receiver at the combine.
You can do all of that off of game film and that's where you should do it. Watching a guy make moves in his skivvies is only valuable if you're going to put everybody in skivvies on game day. The only thing the combine is good for is the physical measurements to offset the lying college sports departments and the face-to-face interviews - specifically the ability to do a lot of them in a short period of time. It saves airfare over having to jet around the country to interview fifty or sixty guys.
