REAL FOOTBALL Thread

striker42 said:
I loathe the Troy Anderson pick. The NFL scrap pile is littered with small school players that had the athleticism but could never adjust to the speed of the game at the NFL level. If you want to take a 4th or maybe 3rd round flyer on a guy like that, okay. But a second rounder on Anderson with the other options there was silly. I wouldn't be surprised if he was on the practice squad in a couple years.
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The thing is he also dominated the senior bowl which was not small school players. He’s going to surprise the hell out of everyone who hasn’t done any real research on him. Fastest strongest LB in the draft.
 
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The Falcons had to trade up for the Penn State edge guy because Seattle was gonna take him and he was very high on their board. I don’t get the weird vibes trading up for him… most analysts thought he was a first rounder. The Falcons had a very good draft. Unless you’re a casual surface fan.
 
zbhargrove said:
The Falcons had to trade up for the Penn State edge guy because Seattle was gonna take him and he was very high on their board. I don’t get the weird vibes trading up for him… most analysts thought he was a first rounder. The Falcons had a very good draft. Unless you’re a casual surface fan.
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The weird vibe was that we could have gotten Ojabo, Mafe, or Ebiketie and not traded up. Maybe Ebiketie will be significantly better than Ojabo and Mafe maybe not. Looking at the Falcons, pickin the 4th round, they could have gottena better rated RB than Allgeier and gone with White or Spiller, then used the 5th round pick for a guard or tackle.
 
zbhargrove said:
The thing is he also dominated the senior bowl which was not small school players. He’s going to surprise the hell out of everyone who hasn’t done any real research on him. Fastest strongest LB in the draft.
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All Anderson has is athleticism. He was successful in college because he was just a much better athlete than the future farmers he was going against.

As for the Senior Bowl. I put less stock in that than in spring games. It's a glorified scrimmage. The main goal of most people is to not get hurt and with so little practice together before hand you're not getting near true game speed.

If athleticism was all that mattered every elite rated athlete would be a star in the NFL but that doesn't happen. Anderson had a Relative Athletic Score of 10.0, do you know the last LB who scored a 10.0? Lorenzo Carter. Carter is an okay player but he's no star and he came from the SEC.

Game speed is my main concern with Anderson. He had two years of experience at LB playing glorified rec football. Even at that level he was often suceptible to misdirection. 4 year starters at major programs bust out all the time because they can't make the jump to NFL game speed. Anderson will be facing an insane jump.

Anderson is the kind of guy your take no earlier than the late third round because he has MASSIVE bust potential. A team with as many holes as Atlanta shouldn't be taking those gambles. Get starters before gambling of risk reward guys.
 
striker42 said:
All Anderson has is athleticism. He was successful in college because he was just a much better athlete than the future farmers he was going against.

As for the Senior Bowl. I put less stock in that than in spring games. It's a glorified scrimmage. The main goal of most people is to not get hurt and with so little practice together before hand you're not getting near true game speed.

If athleticism was all that mattered every elite rated athlete would be a star in the NFL but that doesn't happen. Anderson had a Relative Athletic Score of 10.0, do you know the last LB who scored a 10.0? Lorenzo Carter. Carter is an okay player but he's no star and he came from the SEC.

Game speed is my main concern with Anderson. He had two years of experience at LB playing glorified rec football. Even at that level he was often suceptible to misdirection. 4 year starters at major programs bust out all the time because they can't make the jump to NFL game speed. Anderson will be facing an insane jump.

Anderson is the kind of guy your take no earlier than the late third round because he has MASSIVE bust potential. A team with as many holes as Atlanta shouldn't be taking those gambles. Get starters before gambling of risk reward guys.
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You will see.
 
zbhargrove said:
The Falcons had to trade up for the Penn State edge guy because Seattle was gonna take him and he was very high on their board. I don’t get the weird vibes trading up for him… most analysts thought he was a first rounder. The Falcons had a very good draft. Unless you’re a casual surface fan.
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Ebeketie has some key questions in his game. The most important thing for a pass rusher is the first step. You give an NFL offensive lineman a chance to set his feet and good luck getting around him. Ebeketie has a pedestrian first step.

The second is strength. If you've not got an explosive first step you better be strong as an ox. Ebeketie isn't super strong.

The Falcons first two rounds could end up being disastrous. Going WR first with all their holes was dumb and picking a Michael Jenkins clone over Garret Wilson was indefensible. Trading up for Ebeketie was unnecessary given the options there. And Anderson has a probably 75% chance of being a practice squader.
 
striker42 said:
Ebeketie has some key questions in his game. The most important thing for a pass rusher is the first step. You give an NFL offensive lineman a chance to set his feet and good luck getting around him. Ebeketie has a pedestrian first step.

The second is strength. If you've not got an explosive first step you better be strong as an ox. Ebeketie isn't super strong.

The Falcons first two rounds could end up being disastrous. Going WR first with all their holes was dumb and picking a Michael Jenkins clone over Garret Wilson was indefensible. Trading up for Ebeketie was unnecessary given the options there. And Anderson has a probably 75% chance of being a practice squader.
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Mel Kiper and McShay say Andersen (yes you continue to spell his name wrong) was easily a first round talent and has the talent to be a starter day 1 (no he won’t be a starter day one but he will get a lot of playing time). Most actual analysts loved the pick. Talk crap about Kiper and McShay all you want but I certainly trust their evaluation much more than you. Plus I actually got to watch the dude regularly in Big Sky competition up here. I’d bet you a $100 he doesn’t fall to the practice squad.

I’m not arguing about Ebeketie as I don’t know enough about him. I just know most analysts had him as a first rounder. If he was much higher on their board then it was fine to trade up when Seattle was rumored to take him.
 
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zbhargrove said:
Mel Kiper and McShay say Andersen (yes you continue to spell his name wrong) was easily a first round talent and has the talent to be a starter day 1 (no he won’t be a starter day one but he will get a lot of playing time). Most actual analysts loved the pick. Talk crap about Kiper and McShay all you want but I certainly trust their evaluation much more than you. Plus I actually got to watch the dude regularly in Big Sky competition up here. I’d bet you a $100 he doesn’t fall to the practice squad.

I’m not arguing about Ebeketie as I don’t know enough about him. I just know most analysts had him as a first rounder. If he was much higher on their board then it was fine to trade up when Seattle was rumored to take him.
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It's not about talent with Andersen. He's physically gifted, there's no doubt about that. The problem is that Big Sky game speed was sometimes too fast for him. It doesn't matter how physically gifted you are if you're out of your depth diagnosing plays and getting in the right position.

I'll bring up Lorenzo Carter again. Dude has ELITE talent but he's a fairly average player. Why is that? Because it takes more than physical ability.

Andersen is about as raw as a player can possibly be. It makes him a huge risk.

I will say I'm growing to hate the London pick more though. That pick is going to blow up in Fontenot's face. The more tape I watch the more baffled I am. He gets less separation than any receiver I've ever seen.
 
striker42 said:
It's not about talent with Andersen. He's physically gifted, there's no doubt about that. The problem is that Big Sky game speed was sometimes too fast for him. It doesn't matter how physically gifted you are if you're out of your depth diagnosing plays and getting in the right position.

I'll bring up Lorenzo Carter again. Dude has ELITE talent but he's a fairly average player. Why is that? Because it takes more than physical ability.

Andersen is about as raw as a player can possibly be. It makes him a huge risk.

I will say I'm growing to hate the London pick more though. That pick is going to blow up in Fontenot's face. The more tape I watch the more baffled I am. He gets less separation than any receiver I've ever seen.
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Lol do you want to bet $100 or not? If he stays healthy he will not even sniff the practice squad. You are so desperate to argue but I’m willing to sit back and let him prove your wrong.
 
Just funny. I can’t find a single analyst who didn’t love the Falcons draft. Completely different than previous ones. For once they focused on physicality instead of finesse.
 
London and the BYU RB are the only picks I don’t love. But London fits perfect in an AS offense and if he ends up more Mike Evans it’s a great pick.
 
zbhargrove said:
London and the BYU RB are the only picks I don’t love. But London fits perfect in an AS offense and if he ends up more Mike Evans it’s a great pick.
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Watch his highlights. I was cringing watching them. He's not close to comparable to Mike Evans as London can't even get separation against bad Pac 12 DBs.

Everyone is talking about London's ability to win jump balls. In the NFL, you won't have a QB throwing a ton of jump balls to a WR who is blanketed by a DB with zero separation. You just can't build an NFL career as an elite WR on winning jump balls.

London will have an NFL career but it's going to be severely limited by his inability to get open. He's a WR2 at best unless he figures out how to gain separation. Getting a WR2 with a top 10 pick is a disaster.
 
zbhargrove said:
Lol do you want to bet $100 or not? If he stays healthy he will not even sniff the practice squad. You are so desperate to argue but I’m willing to sit back and let him prove your wrong.
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Looking at it objectively, his athleticism probably means his floor is as a special teams player, especially since as a 2nd round pick the front office will be desperate for him to contribute.

My problem is Andersen is an absolute neophyte at LB. He barely knows what he's doing out there. He has minimal experience and what experience he has is at an extremely low level of competition. He honestly shouldn't even see the field outside of special teams next year. He has that much to learn.

This is the kind of pick that annoys me. It's someone trying to be smarter than the average bear and get a steal when 99 times out of 100 it backfires.
 
zbhargrove said:
Just funny. I can’t find a single analyst who didn’t love the Falcons draft. Completely different than previous ones. For once they focused on physicality instead of finesse.
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Every analyst loved the Falcons pick of Jamaal Anderson out of Arkansas. They all said he was going to be a dominant pass.rusher. I, on the other hand, was yelling at my TV. The guy had the worst first step I'd ever seen and only got sacks in college because of stunts.

Analysts are often wrong.
 
I did like the draft better after the second round. Ridder was a steal. He has some holes in his game for sure but he also has the raw tools to be successful in the league.

The first round was brutal, the second was bad, but the rest of the draft was better. Still, I'd rather hit on rounds one and two than get above average results the rest of the draft.
 
Montana does not play slow football. Thats...a terrible take.

They are one of the better suited teams to pick from in FCS. If the kid can play all those spots there, he can play in the league. He may be slow to diagnose or over pursue just flat out because he lacks experience at the LB spot.
 
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