Before Vernon Gholston There Was This Guy

The real purpose of the combine isn't to identify good and bad players. It's to identify good and bad GMs. Specifically the GMs who are dumb enough to take it seriously.

 

Can someone lock, delete and ban this BOOZER guy for even mentioning the name Vernon Gholston?!?!?

(i kid, i kid; but still mentioning his name is a huge party foul).

 

On a more serious note. The combine is not a wasted contest. It does show athletic ability. I rather go by game tape and film but if a player was awesome in college with performance and then puts on a show at the combine; there's a good chance he's the real deal. Now a player who barely produced in college but yet performs lights out during the combine could be an example of a combine warrior. Look @ Polite. He sucked during the combine and we drafted him. His combine was a reason to NOT draft him. Anyone who feels the combine is worthless is wrong.

 

I feel bad for Gholston. He apparently was dealing with a lot of personal demons (severe depression and such) during his tenure in the NFL. It wasn't like he wasted his talent like Manzel or Leaf.

But nonetheless, the combine is only one piece of the puzzle and probably the least reliable. We made that mistake with him, and also with Lam Jones.

 

Yeah, ya know, because, no good players ever came out of Ohio State since Gholston. True.

 

Nice piece, thanks for sharing!

what stands out to me is what a great job Tampa Bay did in that draft, taking advantage of Philadephia’s desire to draft a future bust, while quietly grabbing two future Hall Famers.

 

Gholston wasn’t even a combine warrior. He did test well at the combine but he also had crazy production at OSU too. Didn’t he have the record for most sacks in a season in college?

 

Wow has to be one of the greatest drafts ever.

On Gholston, I think he might be the biggest bust ever not just the Jets entire NFL I don't think he even had one sack here & was coming off the bench. Rex had gimmick packages just to get him on the field I remember.

Why does this happen to the Jets? How could one team be SO wrong so many times?

And their track record of drafting in round 2 ain't much better than round 1.

 

why can’t we have nice things

 

This is the first time I heard this. Not that I'm doubting you, but I'd like to read about it if there is a source. Thanks.

 

That’s what @HomeoftheJets said, it shows who the good and the bad GMs are.

 

Game film! Use the combine to meet/interview the players to make sure they're not knuckleheads, but, who cares how many times they can bench 225, can they tackle?

 

Combine is great at finding players with natural speed. The one thing that can't really be coached up much. WRs and DBs who run a 4.2 40 will go early and often.

Everything else in the combine like long jump, bench press, wonder-lick (my college nickname), etc, is worthless.

 

Yeah Gholston is one of the weirdest prospects of all time. Not only did he test great at the combine, he was a beast in college and absolutely dominated some stud offensive tackles. If you're in the Big Ten that means you're playing against Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin offensive tackles every year.

It's hard to even understand how he couldn't even get activated. I always felt as though Mangini did him a disservice in not just fucking throwing him in there by like week 9-10 of his rookie year. But he couldn't even find a team after that so I guess he struggled that much.

 

“This guy” was a lot better than Gholston.

I don’t care too much about the Vernon pick. He was the consensus selection and there weren’t a lot of game changers in the 2008 Draft, there was a lot of third-round value in the first. Unfortunately, we picked the sub-UDFA talent.

 

I just tried Google to find the source again, and it seems to be gone now. It wasn't a long expose, if I remember correctly. Just a blub about how his mental health contributed to his performance, and how he's now running some therapy organization in NJ to help others dealing with similar problems. Seems like a decent guy. It's too bad that things didn't work, but it looks like he's come to terms with it.

 

Thanks. I've always been curious how a guy with supposedly so much talent could spend three years playing defense and not record a single sack. The law of averages almost dictates that any schmo (which includes me) playing DE or LB for that long given the propensity for QB's to move around in the pocket, would find himself in a position to make a play behind the line of scrimmage by just being in the right place at the right time. Only on the Jets can the laws of the universe be defied.