:? :roll: I see that GAIII went undrafted as expected. He'll join his dad with the Raiders. I wonder why he left Notre Dame? I was shocked at all the clowns (and Clowneys) who were drafted, while Stanford's Shayne Skov went undrafted. I wonder what the problem was with him?
About eight additional Irish signed free agent contracts with various teams. That makes about 15 total who have a shot at the big time. That is a lot of talent to replace. Carlo won't have to buy his own drinks for a while. He is for now a team mate of Johnny Manziel. 8)
Did I see that Tommy Rees was signed by the Redskins? Also of note no SEC QB was drafted and for the first time since 1937 no Texas Longhorn was drafted. I think it's pretty clear why Mack needed to retire.
Jo Co, Skov signed with the Raiders as a free agent. Like you, I was surprised he went undrafted as he seemed to be the heart of Stanford's defense. Terry, McCarron was drafted in the fifth round by Cinncinatti. And isn't A&M in the SEC?
Didn't know about all these draft picks. See, I watch ESPN and as far as I can tell the only ones drafted were Clowney, Manziel and Michael Sam. Were there actually others??? :roll:
:idea: :!: The Texas situation is very strange. For all these years, we were told that they had tremendous talent going in the front door, so I have to wonder what was going on when nothing went out the back door. It's almost like Bob Davie was running their player development. They were also the first team to be done with recruiting every year for decades. They made no attempt to recruit out of Texas and supposedly "had their pick" of in-state talent the way USC does in Los Angeles...
There were a few SEC QBs taken, JFF in the first round. That Mettenberger dude (LSU) went somewhere. Murray went to the Chiefs, I think. AJ McCarron went to the Bengals and I had a good laugh at folks demanding that he be named the starter ahead of Dalton while JFF will be another bust. That's the neat thing about the NFL, we'll see. The rubber meets the road over and over in that league. How in the hell don't the Jets sign Calabrese? The Raiders, of old, used to make a living off of guys like Skov as well as borderline personality disorder/sociopath types. I think the league has gotten better at recognizing talent while expansion of the league (and other sports) has watered down the ability to find diamonds in the rough. That's my 2 cents on it all. I enjoyed the Browns draft. Not so much for JFF, but they had a clear plan that they stuck to and didn't get touched by the passion of the moment. Any time you can thumb your nose at Kiper's righteous indignation, I like it. He's that dude who is right one time for every 10 things that come out of his mouth and then never lets you forget it. I have no idea how he's stayed employed, let alone considered the leading source of info, for so long.
Let me say this about Clowney, us folks in SEC land sure heard plenty about him during football seasons.
Clowney played in exactly the same time frame as Stephon Tuitt of ND. Now Tuitt played hurt and overweight for all of 2013 coming off abdominal surgery. I don't believe he played a full season at ND, possibly only his second year. Clowney ended up with exactly four more career tackles and 2 1/2 more sacks. perception is everything and when you have a fawning media behind you nothing is impossible.
Perception is indeed everything. Supposedly this guy can't throw: He was the SEC's all-time leader in career passing efficiency (170.8), completion percentage (67.1%), passing touchdown to interception ratio (5.5 to 1), rushing yards by a quarterback (2947), rushing touchdowns (any position) (57), and total touchdowns responsible for (145).[2][74] Among many mentions in the NCAA Division-I record book, he is ranked second in career passing efficiency, third in career yards per attempt (9.33), 8th in career rushing touchdowns, and also owns the record for most consecutive games in which he both threw at least one touchdown pass and scored at least one rushing touchdown (14).[75]
hmmm I don't know what I was thinking with regards to SEC QB's. Tuitt vs Clowney. Clowney was just so high profile, being the #1 overall HS recruit, then that big hit in the Bowl Game, every body was just so in love with his athleticism and the whole once in a generation talent. Actual production on the field last year...good not great. I hope Bill O'Brien and Romeo Crennell can get Clowney to perform up to his potential. Next hurdle will be to get him signed and into camp, as opposed to him signing with Scott Boras who will hold him out as long as possible and create animosity between the team and Clowney.
Dave there are a ton of Texas Tech QB's and Hawaii QB's under June Jones that had eye popping numbers but didn't make it in the NFL. Its the same when you look at stud HS QB's, lots of them that seemed like can't miss but did miss.
WSJ - College Winners and Losers Clearly Dantonio is an excellent coach, he clearly doesn't get the same level of talent based on HS rankings as Ohio State and Michigan. But he always has a very tough physical team. I think he might be a better coach than either Kelly who he owns a 1-3 record and he owns a 5-2 record vs Michigan. Yet I don't think Nationally he gets much respect. I know a lot of ND fans would gripe if Kelly were to leave and they hired him, and Texas fans didn't really want him on the short list. Les Miles always seems to have the talent at LSU, but while I think he's a better coach than a lot of people want to give him credit. Some of his decisions though always leave you scratching your head even though many of them actually work out. Brian Kelly, very big year for him. He's had a lot of talent if you go by the draft but some of that talent wasn't really available. Nix and Tuitt really were walking wounded last year and that hurt the defense a lot. We also lost several other DL's and never had a good combo at ILB. Not to mention, while nobody was a better gamer than Tommy Rees, he clearly is not a fit for what Kelly wants to do with the offense. So I'm not sure that you can say Kelly underachieved.
I think Urban Meyer has a good offensive mind and scheme but his attack was much more balanced than the pass happy one engineered by June Jones. Those Tech Qbs lived and died by the pass..... and moving a team otherwise was out of the question. It (rushing Qbs ) still seems to be out of favor given how JFF dropped down in the draft. We'll see how Cleveland decides to use JFF and if he is effective as a pocket passer. Given that Brady Quinn and Brandon Weedon were damned near killed back in Cleveland's pocket I would say JFF's chances aren't all that good.
Point is that college numbers are just that, many a college player who was very very good in college never achieved that same level of success as a Pro. Brady Quinn is an example. I thought for sure he would be a starting QB for a long time in the NFL. But he's never had the success in the NFL that he had in college and he came from a Charlie Weis/NFL style offense. You might say he never had a chance, but that's the breaks. I won't feel sorry for Brady though he made several million dollars in the NFL, has his degree and while I don't think he's on a roster right now and maybe could be by August also his career could be done.
I was one short when I earlier surmised that 7 ND players had been drafted. We were tied with Bama and behind LSU. Here's an excerpt from an ESPN internet article:
Browns cut Vince Young...oh the horror, he wasn't given a real chance! He's won a playoff game, he's been to a Pro Bowl...it's a conspiracy!!
That's 14 players who wore the Blue and Gold last year who are moving on to possible NFL careers and that have to be replaced. On a separate topic the writers on BG Illustrated are predicting that 4-6 players will be drafted next year. That to me represents a negative talent flow or a lot of inexperience coming back. Bama can pull this off every year; I don't think we have the depth.