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NFL Youtube Scouting

I greatly enjoyed Dane Brugler’s breakdown of the 2009 Dallas Cowboys draft class on Monday. If you haven’t read it, it is worth your while. You may not love the Cowboys draft plan, but you need to know more about them then simply calling them “11 dudes I have never heard of and the Aggie QB who wasn’t very good”. You will not impress your friends with that.

With that in mind, I thought it might be good for those of us who are not NFL scouts to turn to one of our great teaching resources so that at least know what everyone is capable of before we all meet in San Antonio in the last week of July.

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2009 NFL Draft: Cowboys Round-Up

The Cowboys had the most picks of any team on Day 2 (rounds 3-7) after staying quiet on Day 1. Will all 12 of these players make the roster? Who knows, but Jerry & company addressed most of their needs and added quality depth. Let’s take a look at the newest Dallas Cowboys, pick-by-pick:

Round 3 (#66) Jason Williams, LB, Western Illinois, 6-1, 240 lbs.

The “experts” called this pick a reach, but I had Williams rated as a solid 4th round  player so it wasn’t too big of a risk in the 3rd round. He has excellent size and speed combo with a reportedly sub 4.5 40-yard dash, but wasn’t invited to the combine. Williams is expected to add depth at linebacker in the middle and compete for a starting job down the road.

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2009 NFL DRAFT: Final Mock Draft

Draft Day is finally here. Despite the top 10 not having the dynamic talent of past years, there is still a lot of intrigue. The biggest rumor over the past 48 hours is at the #3 spot and the Kansas City Chiefs and new General Manager Scott Pioli. LSU DE Tyson Jackson has been the hot name lately, but giving three overall money to an end who isn’t a dynamic pass rusher seems like huge reach. With Aaron Curry staring them in the face, I don’t see how the Chiefs can pass on this versatile backer out of Wake Forest.

Other questions will be: (1) offensive tackles and where do they fall and in what order? (2) the Cleveland Browns at five are a true wildcard because they could go so many different ways on defense or grab a playmaker on offense like Crabtree. (3) Which receiver (if they take a WR) do the Raiders take? Would they pass on Crabtree for the speedsters Jeremy Maclin or Darrius Heyward-Bey?

Below is my final two-round, first day mock draft. Tomorrow I will post rounds 3-7 for the second day (or Jerry’s day).

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NFL Draft Junkie: Episode 5 – The Final Push

I don’t have a ton of time this morning after all of the Mavs-Spurs stuff has been completed, but I do want to provide a few items that are on my mind.

LATEST COWBOYS FEELINGS:

From what I hear, and what I have written, the Cowboys have a few decisions that they may need to make. Obviously, the beauty of the draft is that often the decisions will be made for them, and therefore, it could be an absolute no-brainer by the time the choice gets to them. Or, if everything is gone, you might actually look to trade out of there. Truth be told, at #51, it would seem that you generally have 5-10 of your Top 50 on your own board available, as teams never have a board that agrees with everyone else’s.

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2009 NFL DRAFT: Final Positional Rankings

We are hours away from Draft Weekend and the rumormill is going crazy. Do the Lions pull the trigger on Stafford (Yes, they should), will any high-profile players (like Braylon or Anquan) be draft-day trades (my guess is no), and how long will Jerry Jones sit around and wait before he finds the urge to trade up for a safety, receiver, or simply the best player available (This is anyone’s guess)?

Make sure you check back here Saturday morning for the final SEVEN round mock draft before the first pick at 3 PM. Oh, and we hope you join us throughout the day as we will be live blogging leading up to the draft and throughout most of the first and second rounds.

There are so many opinions and talking heads out there who change their mind by the minute and hinge on the latest buzz instead of watching game tape and do some actual…what’s the word…scouting? Trust your eyes – that is the best tool when ranking each position.

So without further ado, my final positional rankings for the 2009 NFL Draft:

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NFL Draft Junkie: Episode 4 – Safeties

I wanted to get back into the NFL Draft picture today, with the Spurs-Mavs allowing us a day to catch our breath.

There are some very interesting things going on in the NFL world this week as the current state of the economy combined with the feeling league-wide that the rookie salaries have gone insane have caused many, many teams to attempt to trade down. Trouble is, if you are going to trade down you are going to need a partner and that is what is troubling many teams.

I have been collecting various informational items that I will be using for our NFL Draft coverage on the Ticket on Saturday, and figured some of you would find this useful as well:

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2009 NFL DRAFT: Prospects Have DFW Ties

I think stating that Texas is proud of their football might be an understatement. Many people think of the high school ranks when talking about Texas football, but let’s not forget about strong representation the Lone Star State has each year on the last weekend in April: the NFL Draft.

The NFL Draft has always included an impressive number of Texans, whether homegrown or prospects who attended a Texas college, school, or university. The 2009 NFL Draft is no different with close to 40 players who have ties to the state of Texas and a legitimate chance to be playing professionally next season as rookies in the National Football League.

While the Cowboys might not have a first round pick, Dallas will still be well-represented in the early first round as three of my top four prospects in this draft come from the DFW area (QB Matthew Stafford, WR Michael Crabtree, OT Jason Smith). Below I list the top 20 prospects from the state of Texas for the 2009 NFL Draft and give my prediction to where they might land come draft day. Note the players hometown is in parenthesis.

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2009 NFL DRAFT: What Will The Cowboys Do?

The NFL Draft is a little more than a week away (Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26) and we know about as much about the Cowboys’ draft plans as we did back in January. While this blog post will focus on the Cowboys, over the next week and a half, we’ll also feature some hometown prospects and do a full seven round mock draft next Friday.

With only one pick on the first day (2^nd round – 51^st overall selection), Dallas has some added pressure to get this one right. However, without any glaring weaknesses, the ‘Boys also have the luxury of taking one of the best players available or possibly packaging picks to trade up. Owner/GM/Master of his Universe Jerry Jones currently holds 11 draft selections in his hands (#51, 69, 101, 117, 156, 166, 172, 197, 208, 210, 227), but we all know that Jerry will wheel and deal whatever picks necessary until he comes away happy on draft day.

Jerry & gang are traditionally unpredictable when it comes to draft weekend, but let’s take a stab at five positions that will be of close interest to the Cowboys on April 25 and 26.

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Slew Of Announcements: Newsletter Returning, Happy Hour Coming, McCarthy Joining Our Rotation

I’d like to be a father, really would. But when you can’t even get a date, fatherhood seems a little bit too far down the road to see. That’s why in my new role, I’m adopting contributors like they are orphans. Our family keeps growing! Today we’re adding a few more, but first let me just say that my newsletter will be returning to a website near you soon. We anticipate the first edition of the Rangers newsletter to go out sometime next week. The signup form  and D-tails on the website should be available in a day or two. In the meantime, you can email me questions here.

Also, wanted to announce our first event, which I’m calling “Happy Hour with the Hit Men.” We’ll be talking baseball, sampling appetizers and generally having a fine time with Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Marlon Byrd and perhaps some other special guests at Pappadeaux on Oak Lawn in Dallas on May 11 from 5:30 to 7:30. There is no admission, just the hope you’ll join us for some appetizers and some dinner.  We’ll have a very casual mix-and-mingle event with some quick Q&A for the players. There will be some free goodies available at the restaurant and more made available here and in the HR pool. Not sure if the players will stick around for dinner afterward, but I will and I’ll be happy to talk baseball. Join us for ball talk, the sinfully delicious shrimp brochette (featuring all the major food groups: Shrimp, bacon, jalapenos and jack cheese) and some goofing around.

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NFL Draft Junkie: Episode 3 – Sanchez over Stafford

I have another few confessions to make ( Dave Grohl – Eat your heart out).

I confess that Rudy Jaramillo may, in fact, be pretty good at his job.

I confess that Terrell Owens was surely not the ONLY reason that the Cowboys tanked this year.

And, I confess that on this day, April 10, 2009, I am willing to declare that Mark Sanchez will be a better pro than Matthew Stafford.

Before you try to storm the castle with your torches, calm down.

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NFL Draft Junkie: Episode 2 – RB’s

Time for another examination of the NFL Draft. I realize that I will never be able to get to everything by April 25, so I want to take an email or two each week to let you know where I sit on various topics.

Just know this: I concentrate on the top 2 rounds. All I look at are about 70-80 players that the experts say are worthy of the first 2 rounds, then I take a crash course on them as thoroughly as possible. So if they are not thought of as 1-2 round talents, then I have significantly less time dedicated to them. I don’t see how anyone can know about all 250-300 players with any depth unless they are either A) doing this all year (like the Goose) or B) just stealing all of their opinions from some draft guide that sits next to them as they talk.

I am not a draft expert – I do not scout games – nor would I know exactly what NFL scouts would look for anyway. I watch. I eyeball. I watch the Senior Bowl, Combine, youtube, and many, many games I have recorded through the last college season to see who impresses me the most. That is my magic formula. I watch them.

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NFL DRAFT Junkie – Episode 1 – Aaron Curry

If there are two things I like, it is the NFL Draft and YouTube. So, it gives me great joy to prepare for the NFL Draft by using YouTube. I think we all should.

Last week, at that old blogging home, I tackled the controversial case of Alabama OT Andre Smith, which I think you should consider.

Well, today, after Wake Forest had its pro day on Monday, we must get comfortable with LB Aaron Curry as the player with the label “player in the draft that appears to be flawless in the eyes of the NFL scouts.”

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