Yep, all good points. That said, they've been pretty good at dealing with mistakes and not letting them fester; Wilford and Eric Green immediately spring to mind.
Well Boomer, those two were easy, and in the end they were justified in keeping Wilford a yr as he has made some plays for Jax. The real decision is whether or not they make what I'll call the Zach Thomas mistake. In 07 Mueller and Cameron passed on Willis because they had 34 yr old Zach Thomas, Zach was injured with another concussion in the middle of 07 and never played another down for the Dolphins, he was released quickly by Prcell's and Co, fast forward to Draft 2010 and we have 35 yr old JT and 33 yr old JP. Neither has played poorly, do they move on from those two and draft some young OLB's, or do they spray paint over the rust and try to wring one more season out of one or both them?
Neither Porter or Taylor are mistakes in the sense of what Chris and I are talking about though. And who knows whether they passed on Willis or whether they just preferred Ginn more.
Not mistakes per se, but would they be kept and relied upon in 2010 and OLB not addressed in the draft? Well, it made sense NOT to take Pat Willis because Thomas was coming off of a pro bowl season at ILB and the season before we had lost a bunch of games by 3 pts or less. This draft is going to be more one of predictive vision than filling needs per se, what we see as needs they may not see as large of needs.
You mean Wilford the veteran free agent that they kept for an entire season plus, even though he could only make it onto the gameday active list a handful of times? I don't think that's a very good example, usually your inactives are reserved for young players in development, not mid-priced free agents that have been in the league a long time and are collecting free pay checks. It took them a while before they admitted failure on the Wilford front.
I don't think Willis ever came into the frame for Randy Mueller. He was thinking QB/WR combo the entire way...and taking Ginn was a predictable offense for Mueller (hence our having correctly predicted the interest in him) when you consider how much a speedphile he is.
I don't know that it was so much sticking to their guns and holding out hope that Wilford would turn it around as it was salary cap related. It would have been a not-insignificant hit if they cut him earlier than I did, if I remember correctly.
I agree. I think it was solely a financial consideration. No more, no less. Chris; I'm almost finished with the RM/BS thing. Just going through the cutdowns for plays and adding plays for the sum up. Try and have it finished with clips identified. Could of course put this in a PM but am using my phone, thus can't be arsed.
Yes. Chris, I finished RM and started the video ID for BS. That actually takes a long time. Will try and finish today.
I know it takes a long time, you get things to look like that in 5 minutes work. They're great work. I was gonna say to you guys, that without the Bowl Games I have 54 games on tape, and will have every Bowl Game on DVD - if we need them. I've started going through players and I will reorder the player rankings and have a Mock Draft up within a day or so.
It's funny but it's really sharpening my eyes. You watch it one and do a play by play. Then write a big old analysis and conclusion and look for cut ups that match and you start seeing other things you didn't think you'd see.
Yeah, it also makes you look for it again, whatever you saw, just to make sure it isn't a one off or single game issue. Having the time etc. just makes us I guess more accountable - which is never bad. Chris is doing a good bit of schleppin around with this, but the results will be really cool.
It's Christmas, guys! Don't work too hard! Although I should be the one to talk, I was putting together a film on Brian Price late last night. I have about 40 games on my computer, and obviously the ability to get all of the bowl games and plus more games from the regular season. I've worked my way through about 20% of the inventory that I have currently, and I'll probably be downloading more games, so this probably only amounts to 10% of the total work I plan on doing this draft. It's definitely a process. Christmas has been a distraction of course. I should be able to do more work during the weekend (not tomorrow obviously, three families to shuttle between and all), Then I'll be taking three of the four work days off next week, haven't figured out which ones yet. That will give me more time to get things done. A couple of things I might need help on though is trying to put together the themes for the videos. Like the sections with the linebacker vids. Seems like every player has a different theme that jumps out. Like with Brian Price you'd want to highlight his quickness and penetration off the snap, but also his almost complete inability to retrace, the fact that he ends up on the ground on like 30% of the plays. With Brandon Spikes it was all about him getting off blockers. Taylor Price the theme to highlight was obviously the sheer fight and toughness he put on display, playing with a chip on his shoulder against the big, bad SEC team. I haven't figured out a formula for each position on how to arrange the videos. Like, should I arrange all of the linebacker videos the same way I did the Spikes & McClain vids? 1. A section of them making (or missing) plays on the ball from a free lane 2. A section of them dealing (or not dealing) with blockers 3. A section of them in coverage 4. A section of them on the blitz 5. A section that highlights any particularly bad or good reads For the DTs, how should I set that up? My thoughts were... 1. Examples of disengaging (or not disengaging) the blocker to make a play on the ball 2. Examples of penetration off the snap, disrupting the flow of the play 3. Examples of dealing with a double team, particularly on run plays 4. Examples of reading the screen, or otherwise reading (not reading) the play I'm open to suggestions here from anyone, of course. I need to come up with some kind of framework for every position. I was thinking that I could set up the videos in sections like that, and then maybe start off the video with an overview of the themes that should jump out at you during the course of the film. For instance if I were to set up the Brian Price video the way I did, the themes to watch for would probably involve: 1. Penetration - Rare quickness off the snap, getting into an OL's body before he has even popped out of his stance. 2. Balance - Almost total inability to recover/retrace on his feet. Spends way too much time on the ground, showing an inability to protect his legs. 3. Aggression - Attacks his assignments (usually the runner) aggressively, not necessarily reading the ball, making him susceptible to play fakes. And for Rolondo McClain... 1. Strength - Flashes the core strength to take on and totally defeat offensive linemen, stopping runners in their tracks with no yardage after contact. 2. Physicality - Doesn't deliver the first blow or punch blockers when trying to get off blocks, indecisive when forced to plan in advance how to deal with a blocker instead of just feeling his way out after a blocker gets into him. 3. Speed/Agility - Excellent straight line speed going sideline to sideline, but lacks the hips to make quick direction changes And for Brandon Spikes... 1. Physicality - Very physical, delivers the blow to blockers, shows a comfort level with and the quick ability to develop a plan for defeating blocks while tracking the ball. 2. Awareness - Tracks the quarterback's eyes extremely well, but aggressiveness toward blockers sometimes sees him losing sight of the ball carrier. 3. Blitzing - Very gifted pass rusher that can rush from the edge and deal with backs in the middle in order to get to the quarterback.
The easiest thing would be to make it easily applicable across the board. That way, it can cut down on your work load - hopefully. Also it makes it easy to break down the write up to compare with it. My thinking was that you include these indices: LB's for instance 1). Movement skills - ability to flip their hips, flow to the boundary, coverage etc. overall speed. 2). Ability to read plays and motion of the offense and fight through trash, or get caught in the wash. 3). Stack and shed versus chase and tackle style players and subsequently hand use etc. if applicable. 4). Tackling, are they wrap up tacklers, hang on guys, or players that put their helmet into the opponent's chest? Then if there are other talents the guy brings you can either choose to highlight them individually or include them in those categories for example. It would also bring more structure to the overall look of every breakdown, that way the look becomes iconic (for lack of a better term) and it makes it easy to edit if we need to in the future.
I have trouble seeing how those sections could apply to a collection of plays. I think you have to keep in mind that there's a difference between grading a player and setting up a video that makes grading the player easier.
Well if you want to highlight Price, then his explosion could be involved in how he reads the play as well. The guy can come off the ball, but still have no idea where he's going. Some of those areas will cross over in a single play. Price may come off the ball well, but not use his hands, etc. For Spikes, the same play that shows he can attack blockers can also show him not continuing on to find the ball etc. Cause I assume you are highlighting certain plays during the game to illustrate points regarding the player - or am I way off with this?
What qualifies as a section in your view? Cause to me, a section may be how they play the run, versus the pass etc. which would also have examples of footwork etc. When I write about these guys, I tend to do it where how they play the run i.e. take on blockers, do they use their hands, I go into that within those areas......are we talking about the same thing via different methodologies here? Semmes like it.
I finally got to reread your post Chris, now that the kiddies have buggered off for an hour. We were talking in similar fashion, just going about it differently. The sections you had work fine from what I can see. Are you including any clips that have them working their way through trash at the LOS? Also their ability to flow to the boundary or not would be a plus for a LB.
Been watching back some of the Bowl games. Ryan Matthews played well for Fresno State but I was interested in the BYU-Oregon State game, mainly to get a decent look at Stephen Paea. BYU have some interesting prospects. I understand Max Hall's limitations as a QB in terms of his size and arm strength, but he's hella accurate, has decent feet and can manipulate the pocket. I doubt he has the skill set to be an NFL starter but in the right system, I think he could be a back up. Dennis Pitta is the biggest name on that team and it was a typical Pitta game; flashed decent hands and mediocre blocking. He catches a lot of passes from the slot rather than in line and does a nice job of sitting down and finding the dead spot in the zone. He reminds me a lot of Jason Witten when Jason was at Tennessee. Hands, body shape, even the way he runs. And much like Jason he's an inteference blocker. He falls off far too many blocks and lacks great size in his upper body. In 3 years time, if they work on him, he could be a decent player. Defensively Jan Jorgenson is the same old player he's always been. He's been shifted to the 5 technique and it doesn't suit him. He's a high effort player who will get a late round/FA look. The best player on the field was FS Scott Johnson who flashed constantly throughout the game. Very aggressive in run support, he read Canfield's eyes well and made a number of plays in the passing game. He bounced back from a 15 yard penalty for a head shot to pick off Canfield. He also forced a Jacquizz Rodgers fumble and generally was excellent all game. He's undersized at 193 but he played really well against an experienced senior QB and a decent group of skill players. Speaking of Canfield, he has the size but he's always been too inconsistent for me. Paea is a good player with great explosion off the ball. He got a little overpowered in the run game at times, but he's very strong and powerful. He made the play of the game which went unnoticed by the ESPN commentators. BYU had 1st and goal at the 1 and they handed to Harvey Unga running off LG/LT. Paea was over the RG, but he crashed down the line, broke through the double team of G/C and tackled Unga with 1 arm. It was a stunning piece of DT play. At 6'1 and 285 he's a 4-3 DT but I hope he stays and rounds out his game because I think he's more of a 2nd rounder at the moment.
By the way Chris, what Texas games do you have? I am doing Texas versus TT and Nebraska so if you have those two games I can give you the times of certain plays to highlight for UT players.
For me the most impressive players in that game are Paea and Unga, and of those the only one I was REALLY interested in watching was Unga. I've watched enough Jorgenson to not really bother with him anymore. Pitta is an interference blocker like you say but also an inconsistent one from game to game. I'm not sure how often, if at all, he can be counted on to block a DE off the line unless he gets bigger, and at this skinny size I already question his speed to get open off the line and do anything but run Wes Welker routes from the slot without getting Wes Welker YAC. He's another one of those too-old types that went on Mormon mission. Unga though, that's a squatty, powerful runner with some burst and agility. And Paea seems to be a very underrated DT prospect, one of the best in the country. Problem is, I believe he's made his intent clear to return to school.
Go ahead and send me the time indexes, I'll grab the games. I believe right now the only Texas game I have is from 2008 against Oklahoma. I'm downloading a couple of 2008 Oklahoma games so that I can do a cut of Jermaine Gresham.
Could be wrong, but I think you're correct. I'm pretty ceratin Paea has announced he is returning for another year Unga sshpould be a good pickup for someone. I saw a few games this year. He's another guy that always seems to go forward
Paea says he wants to win the Outland so he's going back. Pitta isn't going to block a DE ever. Unga always plays pretty well when I watch BYU but he seems so one paced. I don't think I've ever seen him have a run longer than 10 yards.
It's a technical term for not super gluing the players in question onto the tarmac in front of the bus.
Hehehe. Big shout out to Coach Reinebold and the SMU Mustangs who hammered Nevada last night. Coach R did a lot of work with Davone Bess and coached over in Europe for a while. SMU were huge when I first started following this game.
Ohio Marshall on soon. Another opportunity to watch Taylor Price. North Carolina/Pittsburgh will feature a good many draft prospects. That should be an excellent game. I think UNC will take it, anyone else with me on that?
LaVon Brazill on the other side to Price bears some watching as well. NC/Pitt should be a real goody. There's some legitimate top 3 round talent on that NC defense including Austin and Bruce Carter who are first rounders and two defensive backs I like in Deunta Williams and Kendric Burney.
I'll go with UNC as well. I was more impressed by them than Pittsburgh. But Jonathan Baldwin, sheesh! I also liked Dion Lewis - tough runner.
