Goff's accuracy and ball placement are pretty unreal. He's the legitimate front runner for the next class. I think Paxton Lynch will be up there. Brandon Doughty will have fans but I don't think he will be up at the top. Connor Cook will be up near the top. There could be a following for Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan, but they'd be more or less considered "draftable" along with Jacoby Brissett. The underclassmen are sorting themselves out fairly well. I don't know that I see Hackenberg or Cardale Jones really challenging Goff. This is Goff against Utah by the way. Damn good defense he faced. [video=youtube;snmwY6tboEQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snmwY6tboEQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]
And this is Paxton Lynch who I believe may be the only QB out there that could challenge Goff's position. [video=youtube;tSjlNpiv0tc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSjlNpiv0tc&feature=youtu.be[/video]
He definitely has some tools to work with...great size w/room to add weight, strong arm, mobile. How do you feel about his accuracy? Saw some spots where throws got away, but that could be attributed to being forced out of the pocket quite often. However, difficult to knock someone's accuracy w/0 INT's on the season. Real test this Saturday against Ole Miss.
Since we really have no clue what type of defense we're going to be running I'm just looking at any player for any scheme. Couple of linebackers who jump out at me are Jaylon Smith and Nick Vigil. Smith is asked to do a lot...and he does it well. Think he's the best LB in the class that I've seen so far...he does everything. Not quite Willis level athlete but I think some comps are there. Vigil is just phenomenal. He won't get the hype others do and that's fine but he can play. He is much much better than his brother..and I actually like Zach. This kid can play...instincts are off the charts and when he hits you..you stay hit.
I need to see more to truly get my arms around his accuracy. But I will say he's accurate enough for the pros, for sure.
Pff loves them some Kenny Clark as well. They had a post about their top 10 players in college football this year..he was 10 I believe.
I came in ready to ask about Paxton Lynch. Pretty nice that you mentioned him. WF and others don't even have him on their lists.
That Michigan vs Michigan St game was hilarious. Punter screwed up and will have nightmares for ages. Btw this Calhoun kid is a stud. We need him. He can replace Vernon or at least take over from Wake when he retires.
Stats dont tell the whole story but if you watched that Michigan/Michigan State game yesterday... Cook's ball placement and anticipation is through the roof. He might be better than Goff... Not sure... Thats a top defense he faced yesterday. Doughty had another monster game but against North Texas, everyone has monster games against North Texas this season. Still lots of nice highlights of him hitting his receivers deep in stride. Next week be sure to tune in Western Kentucky vs LSU, probably the best defense Doughty would have ever faced his entire college career. LSU is going to kill them but still would be interesting to see his decision making. paxton had a great game against Ole Miss, Memphis is better than more than half the schools of all major conferences. Theyre on the rise and maybe they should replace SMU or Vanderbilt out of their conference. It would help that program tremendously if they were in the SEC with recruiting though yesterday im sure it was a big win for recruits.
ughhhhh, good college qb prospect, but, and I quote, after the win at michigan...''thats god right there, thats a higher power right there'' w...t...f
Mentioned him? Strictly speaking I've been mentioning him since like November 2014. [video=twitter;536278044563243010]https://twitter.com/ckparrot/status/536278044563243010[/video] [video=twitter;542734330515439616]https://twitter.com/ckparrot/status/542734330515439616[/video]
I agree with you about Cook by the way. I keep arguing in favor of him when people go after him. I think he's in a pretty solid top three with Jon Goff and Paxton Lynch. But ultimately I'm not sure I see Cook vying with Goff for top billing with evaluators, whereas I do see many evaluators possibly putting Lynch ahead of Goff.
There was a higher power out there.... Spoiler Anyways Cook reminds me a lot of Phillip Rivers with that masterful back shoulder throw. He hits that perfectly.
Been taking a close look at the defensive ends and it's difficult to find exactly what I want. I like certain parts of all of them, from Emmanuel Ogbah to Jonathan Bullard, Shaq Lawson, Dadi Nicholas and Bronson Kaufusi. Shalique Calhoun is no slouch. Do guys like Adam Gotsis and Robert Nkemdiche become trim defensive tackles, or do they slim down a bit and become bigger defensive ends?
There's a lot of potential in this draft..you nailed several. Good thing too because OV will be gone and possibly Shelby as well...which leaves us with a pure pass rusher in Wake and Terrence Fede. I'd love to add a big run stuffing end that can also rush the passer and possibly even move inside if we want that versatility and then another DE/LB hybrid who just gets after the passer. Really, really like Dadi Nichols. Down year thus far but he's getting plenty of attention. He's so physically gifted it's scary...reminds me of Bruce Irvin level burst. Probably best as 3-4 backer...but I could see him at SLB dropping down to rush the passer.
ToddPhin suggested the possibility of J Phillips (very bigyet very athletic) as the jumbo end opposite Wake. If Phillips develops and we run a D similarto SEA/ATL, then adding a Dadi Nichols or Leonard Floyd (comparable skillset,but maybe more explosive) at SLB, would be exciting. Floyd is plenty effective moving forward, butI’m not sure about his ability to drop in coverage to satisfy that aspect of theposition. Other option would be to address SLB via FA, and draft a bigend (Buckner, Oakman) to replace OV. However, Irvin is the only FA option that I’m aware of, and he hasn’thid his desire to rejoin Quinn in Atlanta.
Dadi Nicolas is extremely athletic but he ought to be as he's only 6'2" and 236 lbs. I think Kam Chancellor is bigger than that and he's a pseudo-safety. That's my only issue with Dadi.
Out of curiosity, where are getting his measurements from? CBS has him listed at 6'4". However, I know that colleges like to "massage" the measurable to make them more attractive. I'd think he could handle adding some mass to his thin frame, which makes a transition to SLB fairly reasonable.
In certain spots we could use Phillips...but in a league where teams throw on running downs so often I don't think he would offer much from a pass rush ability from end. I do like Oakman a lot..and Buckner some. Neither are perfect especially in the leverage game yet..but lots to work with.
I agree with that. But I'd view him as a Hybrid player. I don't think he can line up as a DE every down in the NFL...so it wouldn't change the fact we need another end but I still like the player..especially as a pass rusher. I also don't see him as someone you would have to use a 1st on to get.
NDSU QB, Carson Wentz out 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist. I've seen Rotoworld mention him several times, but his competition level is an obvious concern. Kid has tools to work with....6'6", 231lbs strong arm, mobile, good decision maker. Wouldn't mind seeing him as a future b/up to Tannehill. I know Moore is a great locker room guy, but at some point Miami has to develop a younger QB. This might be the tallest group of QB prospects in awhile.
One guy I haven't seen but am intrigued by is Emmanuel Ogbah, the DE from Oklahoma State. He seems to have a good bit of power to his game, along with size and length. Anyone watched him at all? He seems like a guy Miami could target in rd. 1 or 2 as a direct replacement for Olivier Vernon to fill that "base end" role in the current scheme or Jim Schwartz's scheme (just hypothesizing), especially if Miami gets on a roll and plays themselves out of position to grab someone like Robert Nkemdiche.
This draft seems like it has a lot of scheme specific front seven guys. Lots of undersized linebackers and edge rushers, and 3-4 ends and hybrid guys. Some teams are going to be rubbing their hind legs together and others are gonna be out in the cold. Wherever Ray Horton is coaching next year I think is gonna have an opportunity to do some serious foundation building.
He's great...and he's done it against some top competition. He beat Stanley more than once against ND if I recall and he's arguably the top T in the class. You can tell he's extremely powerful ..and deceptively explosive. Im not a Clemson fan but they have several players I really like. Lawson, Kearse, and Alexander are all impact players out there. I'd take any of those guys all day for our defense.
Me too. It's too early to accurately predict where exactly guys will go for me...but I think all 3 go in the 1st 2 rounds just off of what I've seen. I like all 3...but I would LOVE Kearse to pair with Jones. He's a bigger guy but I think he's a fine fit at FS. Good instincts, awareness, and ball skills back there. His size is also a big plus...his length only increases his range back there. It's early but he's my favorite S in the class besides Ramsey.
http://www.thephins.com/forums/-2015-Season-Dolphin-Chatter-Thread-Part-2-Dan-Campbell-takes-over-as-interim-HC last post of the page, Kev, if it doesn't take you right to it.
Paxton Lynch's game against Tulsa was mentioned by Vertical Limit earlier. Here it is. [video=youtube_share;XVexp-MLfdo]https://youtu.be/XVexp-MLfdo[/video]
I think of Paxton Lynch as like a Ryan Mallett with genuine athletic ability added to the mix. I was high on Mallett but I don't necessarily mean the comparison as a huge endorsement of Paxton Lynch. Mallett had warts from a football standpoint coming out. He needed to speed up his process considerably if he wanted to survive in the pros. He also needed work on his ball placement, little things with his footwork, etc. And then there was the total lack of athletic ability the importance of which I would say I underestimated pretty consistently in my QB evaluations around four or five years ago. So it's good that Paxton is like a Mallett that has genuine athleticism, because if he was like a Mallett period I wouldn't have a high grade on him. Paxton also needs to speed up his process and clean up some little things in his footwork and ball placement. I worry about the speed of his decision making in the pros. But in the words of an evaluator I trust, he may be the closest thing to a franchise level QB prospect you see in this draft. Jonathan Goff is a legitimate competitor with Paxton Lynch for the top spot, and I think Connor Cook probably is as well. Hard for me to imagine falling in love with any of the other QBs that could be in this draft to where I am taking them over one of those three. I've said before that Paxton is likely the only one that could challenge Goff for top spot but that's probably being unfair to Connor Cook, whom I like a whole lot and who smells the most like a franchise QB in some ways. I could go any of those three ways. We'll see. But, for those Doughty fans out there, he's certainly high up on the next tier. I go back to the athletic ability thing. His process is faster than Paxton's, but his athleticism is not.
I'm really intrigued by the two gigantic non-receiver blockers in this draft. I haven't seen too much of either yet, but Baylor has a 6'7" 410 pound(not a typo) fullback/TE, and LSU has a 308lb. TE(who is out for the season). I was a big fan of Brandon Manumaleuna, a 300lb TE who could be trusted to block interior linemen. That seems like such a boon to a blocking scheme.
Surprised that Corey Coleman is listed by so many as the #1 WR.... and equally surprised that he leads the nation with 18 TDs. Firstly, he tips off each snap when the ball is coming his way. Weight on his front foot pre snap = pass to Coleman. Weight on back foot = either a run or a called pass elsewhere. He essentially tells the corner and safety when he needs to be bracketed. Secondly, if he's not the laziest player in the country, I'd like to see who is. Only thing worse than Coleman's effort as a blocker was Deion Sanders' effort as a tackler. I literally wanted to reach through the screen and ring his neck each time a play prematurely ended simply b/c lazyass Coleman allowed his cornerback an unimpeded path to the tackle. Kid is the king of standing around and doing nothing when the ball isn't coming his way.
Watching the Penn St vs Temple game, and I can't believe that I had no idea that Penn St QB Hackenburg is from the county where I've lived for the past decade! Coverage of sports here is so pathetic. If a player of that calibre had been from my hometown in WV, he'd be on the local news every week. But here in VA, no TV, nothing in the paper, no word of mouth. The handful of guys from my home area who have gone on to big time college football are still local heros.
PSU's Carl Nassib is right there with Shaq Lawson atop my DE list ATM. Can't decide between the two. Some strong similarities between Nassib and JJ Watt [Wisconsin days]. He belongs in the 1st round. His partner in crime Anthony Zettel is quite impressive as well. Seems like at least one of these two is in the backfield every friggin' snap. Good question about Nkemdiche and Gotsis. Does RN remind you of Marcell Dareus in that regard? Maybe the better question after watching Dareus's career unfold is- can you keep Nkemdiche from outgrowing the DE spot if that's where you want him? If I had a need at DE but were set at DT, I'd be okay with drafting him to play end. Gotsis will probably go to a 3-4 team, no. I could see them having him slightly higher on their board as a 5-tech than a 4-3 team would have him as a strong side end.
I think I'd probably stack them in the current order of: 1) Nkemdiche 2) Lawson 3) Ogbah 4) Bullard 5) Calhoun I think this is also probably the order I'd stack them if I'm Tannenbaum/Hickey as it relates to the Dolphins as well. I think Lawson and Ogbah should be front and center on their radar in the first round. As far as Nkemdiche goes, I'd compare him to more of an oversized Michael Bennett. I think he's got enough quickness to line up as a base end in a 4-3 and then you can reduce him inside in pass-rush situations. I think you could also probably play him as a straight 3-technique in a fast-flow read type of defense like Seattle too.
