He may even be available for the Texans in the 2nd round, though they could always trade up. Improving the interior of the line would help their RBs look far more effective.
Cody didn't look too special last night, a one dimensional guy. Ingram will be a great pro in 2011 Kindle made himself some money with his pass rushing and by covering the TE - I think he is going to be a good 3-4 OLB. Lamarr Houston looked good. Would make the perfect 3-4 Defensive End. McClain looked good. Shipley may have moved up a round or two
I wouldn't mind drafting Ship if we let Walter walk. I'm not sure that we can trust JJ to be our #2. He has the ability to do so but he needs to focus this off-season.
I've always liked www.gbnreport.com Not sure exactly how accurate their mocks end up being, but they have lots of info and usually do a 3 round projection.
Don't pay attention to any mocks until after the Combine. After that you can get plenty of good info.
true, but there always seems to be some mild consistency with these mocks. The common theme with KC's 5th pick this year seems to be Russell Okung. I guess thats a good pick for KC.
Like I sad above, no 1 mock site will be very accurate but if you look at some of the draft accumulators or draft munchers that average large numbers of mocks, then say, if you are interested in draft pick #20 and you look at the average picks between 15 and 25 then you do have a fair idea of who might be available. But I think Mike Mayock is generally considered the best individual professional mocker. But of course if you want to be accurate you have to put on on your crazy hat and guess who the Raiders will pick. Once one of the teams in the top 10 picks makes an off-the -wall pick the chances of picking a high percentage after that is gone because everyone shifts up. I like Walter Football for brutal honesty, The Huddle Report, Bernie's Insider (Browns site) used to have a big muncher. By our calculations, Mayock was victorious. A quick note about his mock draft: By 11 am, when our post went up, we hadn’t seen Mayock’s mock draft. So we don’t know the exact time it went up. While we don’t think there’s any chicanery at play, we just wanted to point that out. Also, for scoring purposes – 1 point was given to anyone who correctly nailed the pick exactly; .5 was given to those who had Tampa taking QB Josh Freeman, even though he went at 17 instead of 19, as many predicted. Mike Mayock (NFL Network): 10-32 Mel Kiper: 8.5-32 Ours: 8.5-32 National Football Post: 8.5-32 Gosselin (DMN): 8-32 Don Banks (SI): 7-32 Union-Trib: 7-32 The kid who claimed to have beaten Kiper in year’s past: 7-32 Todd McShay 6-32 Peter King 5.5-32 [UPDATE!] As expected, this post triggered a flurry of emails. Three that stand out: According to an emailer, Nolan Nawrocki over at Pro Football Weekly trumped Mayock’s score; Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune also hit double figures; and Shawn Zobel (aka, the kid who claims he’s better than Kiper) said that he only posted his final mock draft on his blog (not under the mock draft on his website, for whatever reason), and he too claims he beat Kiper. http://thebiglead.com/?p=13648
Definately, but what I'm saying is to get FULL value out of your first round pick it should be a playmaker who can play more than two downs. Cody sounds better valued taken in the second round, think Connor Barwin. Totally different players, comparison might be inappropriate, but to make my argument coming out of college he was looked at as a situational pass rusher aka not an every down guy. Scouts saw the talent and was thought by many to be on the cusp of the 1st round who ultimately got drafted in the second round. Here's a great article from ESPN insider about Cody and the endurance issue he faces.. As valuable as these training methods are, after looking at game tapes of Alabama Crimson Tide nose tackle Terrence Cody, it is clear there is one physical attribute the combine doesn't measure that it badly needs to. That attribute is endurance. Look at Cody's relative lack of playing time in a key, four-game SEC stretch that the Crimson Tide recently went through (at Kentucky, at Mississippi, vs. South Carolina, vs. Tennessee). Alabama faced 116 rushing plays in those games and Cody was on the field for only 68 of them, or 58.6 percent. Nick Saban's defense also faced 165 pass plays and Cody was in the game on but 54 of those plays, or 32.7 percent. Add the two together and Cody was in the Alabama defensive lineup on only 122 of 281 plays -- or only 43.4 percent of the time. To look at it another way, he was on the field for approximately 30 out of 70 plays per game. That sounds like a low number, but a key element in the Draft Lab series is that any collegiate totals have to be compared to NFL totals to see how they contrast. The expectation is that a draft prospect should be able to post totals against the lower level of competition in college that are appreciably better than a pro player's totals against NFL talent. In Cody's case, a perfect comparison would be how his playing time matches up against that of NFL nose tackles. I don't have those numbers available, but I do have a reasonable facsimile in a 2007 study I did on playing time for three top 4-3 defensive tackles the previous season: Albert Haynesworth, Cory Redding and Kevin Williams. Here are the results of that study: Three Of The Best 2007 endurance metrics for some of the best nose tackles in the National Football League: Player Plays in games Plays not in games Total plays % of time on field Albert Haynesworth 532 370 902 59.0 Cory Redding 858 227 1,085 79.1 Kevin Williams 866 214 1,080 80.2 At the time of the study, Redding and Williams were both noted for their ability as every-down players, but Haynesworth had the same knock on him about his inability to stay on the field that he has today. If Cody's collegiate playing time doesn't even match Haynesworth's it cannot be seen as a good sign, but there is a caveat: Alabama has a deep defensive line rotation. It is possible that Cody could play more, but without a way of measuring endurance, NFL teams will have a tough time determining if that is the case. That isn't the only caveat, however. Cody reportedly weighed more than 400 pounds as a juco player, and the first thing the Crimson Tide coaching staff told him when he transferred to Alabama was that he would have to lose a good deal of weight in order to get on the field. He certainly accomplished that, with his reported weight now at 354 pounds, but it very well could be that the Bama coaching staff still lacks faith in his ability to stay on the field for longer periods of time. The Haynesworth comparison is also not entirely apt because Cody's performance metrics in these four games come nowhere close to matching Haynesworth's totals. Cody did draw a higher rate of double-teams (63.6 percent to Haynesworth's 2007 double-team mark of 51.3 percent) but he notched only five Point of Attack (POA) blocking wins in 22 POA runs, or a win rate of 22.7 percent. In the three full seasons of run metrics I have completed on Haynesworth over the years, his POA win rates were 43.4 percent (2005), 32.3 percent (2007) and 23.8 percent (2008). Haynesworth's metrics are a high bar to reach, but if Cody cannot exceed those totals against college blockers, it stands to reason that he might struggle to equal those numbers at the pro level. TFS Lab Result: Cody's size, strength and ability to draw a double-team are impressive, but his subpar metric performance and the overriding concerns about his endurance give him a qualified TFS overhyped grade. If a team takes him in the second round with the idea that he is a two-down space-eater who can plug run gaps, he's a good fit. If a team takes him in the first round with the idea that he will be an every-down nose tackle, that would be a mistake.
Here are some wide receivers, pretty deep class of WRs so I'm gonna do more than 3. WR could quickly become a priority should Walters/Davis not return. Hard to predict where WRs will go but I'll take a shot at it: Wide Receivers: 1. Dez Bryant (6-2 210 lbs) - First rounder, could be early after combine. 2. Brandon Lafell (6-3 209 lbs) - Early second round pick. 3. Golden Tate (5-11 195 lbs) - Late first rounder at best. 4. Mardy Gilyard (6-1 180 lbs) - Mid second rounder, combine could help. 5. Eric Decker (6-2 215 lbs) - Late second or third rounder. 6. Jordan Shipley (6-1 190 lbs) - Second or third rounder, combine could help. I should disclose that I'm a Longhorn so I may be a bit biased, but I would love to add Shipley. I don't see Walters or Davis coming back and I think Shipley would be a nice possession/slot WR opposite AJ. He has great hands and always seems to find the open spots, also a PR/KR option. Jacoby is a big play threat which is nice, but he's also mistake prone. I think we need to add a solid slot WR that can be relied upon to make the catches underneath AJ.
That has us taking a RB which is highly doubtful. I'll be happy with Earl Thomas. Seems like he's coming out. Hope we get the 19th!
It was mentioned in the Texas-'Bama thread, but I think it should be brought up here: Earl Thomas entering the Draft Considering the Texans' needs and where Thomas is projected to fall, I really think this could be our guy.
Great news, thrilled to hear that one! I think he would be a real nice fit at free safety for us. We can only hope more and more projected 1st round people declare for the draft so that we will have quite of few guys we WANT to choose from at 19 or 20
USC RB Joe McKnight, WR Damian Williams and DE Everson Griffen go pro. http://www.dailynews.com/ci_14154446?source=rss
UT-alum here, but I'm also a big Texans fan. I understood and embraced the Mario over VY pick, but I think going back-to-back UT in the first and second round could really help improve the Texans next year. Earl and Jordan, depending on what we do in free agency, would improve our defensive secondary, our second WR (assuming KW leaves and including my distrust of JJ as an every down player in the NFL), and giving the team another option in the return game. I hope there's a way to improve the DT spot in free agency, so we can get better talent in the draft. I can also see a scenario where if we don't get a DT in free agency, we trade out of the first, pick up some more picks, and take Cody in the second round. We could use him as a two-down DT and then bump Antonio Smith inside and bring in Barwin to rush on passing downs. edit - I see that Lance Z is high on Jared Odrick. Let's add his name to the watch list for DT now. DT: Terrence Cody and Jared Odrick (Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy are pipe dreams) CB: Joe Haden, Patrick Robinson, Perrish Cox, and Kyle Wilson FS: Eric Berry and Earl Thomas
I would also include Arrelious Benn in there, who, I think could go anywhere from Mid-first to Late-Second depending on his combine, and how scouts feel about his tendency to sometimes drop passes.
2 Safetys Texans should keep an eye on... Morgan Burnett, hasn't declared yet.. projected 1st round pick.. had 227 tackles and 14 INTs in 3 years at Georgia Tech <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dmX7QBRjJas&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dmX7QBRjJas&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> Reshad Jones, declared for the draft. safety from Georgia.. hard hitter. projected late 1st- early 2nd. Had 194 tackles and 11 INTs in 3 years at Georgia. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1su79vloRNg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1su79vloRNg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lZOYy4a40JI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lZOYy4a40JI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
John McClain has said the Texans will be taking a RB with their top pick in this years draft. He may be wrong, but obviously one of his contacts within the organization has told him this. I'd be fine with them taking Spiller with the 20th pick. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Wf0kC-w9lU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Wf0kC-w9lU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
