A Good friend of DD.com {who lives in Indianapolis} recently had the opportunity to have a few beers with several NFL scouts in Indy for the combines. He picked the brains of three in particular and here are some of the hi-lights that he can remember. Not a scientific survey by any means, but a few honest opinions from actual scouts who get paid to make these judgments. QB Jay Cutler – All three said he is the best quarterback in the draft. All the physical tools and has the smarts too. QB Matt Leinart – Good quarterback but all were concerned by his physical limitations - arm strength and overall athletic ability. Floats too many balls. QB Vince Young – None wanted to touch him in the first round. Too much of project to make the transition. QB Brodie Croyle – Nice player, good arm but his size/frame is a concern. Known in scouting circles as "Gilligan" due to his thin build and he doesn’t appear to have the frame to hold much more bulk. RB LenDale White – One would take him as the first running back off the board. That scout liked Reggie Bush too, but said LenDale can play for anyone, while Bush needs to be used properly in the right system. RB Laurence Maroney – Solid back. One cut style runner with good speed. RB Deangelo Williams – Good back. Past injuries not a major concern. Comparisons to Barry Sanders off base, however, scout felt. He’s not on that level. OT Jeremy Trueblood – One scout called him "useless" and gives him a 6th round grade. Expects him to be out of the league in three years. (That's just one scouts opinion). OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson – Clearly the best of the offensive lineman in the draft, but not on the Jon Ogden/Orlando Pace level. DE Mathias Kiwanuka – Will get drafted too high, according to one scout. Should be drafted in the 3rd round, but will get picked in the first by somebody. DT Haloti Ngata – Great player when he wants to be. Motivation issues. DE Mario Williams – Physical stud. Can dominate when he wants to. Also needs to be motivated. LB A.J Hawk – The real deal. A throwback who can do it all. Is everywhere on film. =========== DD.com comment: We like Vince Young as an athlete and a quarterback, but we warned our readers before he declared there would be some issues and NFL teams in the top 5 wouldn't be going completely crazy for him, unless he had stellar workouts and soothed some of their fears regarding his footwork, arm and run-first propensity at times. Young has refused to participate in Indy, so the workout display must wait another while. Because we don't follow the entire "draft pack" on the Net that had him pegged as an absolute top 3 prospect, we took a ton of flack, particularly on various message boards where we were consistently branded morons and idiots for not toeing the Kiper-line -- projecting Young as a super blue-chip prospect. I guess we'll see in time, but it seems Vince has more doubters in NFL circles than Mel and others led the kid to believe when he was debating whether or not to enter the draft early. We still project Young as the 10th overall pick to the Arizona Cardinals, but we'll just wait and see how this plays out before we drop him or lift him in our rankings. http://www.draftdaddy.com/blog/blog.cfm
Jabba I believe it is your personal opinion as well but I agree about Vince Young. In terms of how I would evaluate him as a player, I would say that he has probably the greatest potential of any player in the draft. With that said I would not waste a high first round pick on a player with POSSIBLE POTENTIAL. Also, I think many teams would prefer Matt L. in the draft over any othr QB simple because he is a safe pick. In other words has little potential of being a bust. Matt will be good enough to help his team in the NFL. Although, he may not become a franchise QB. What do you think of my opinions JABBA?
I think you're right Phil Savage seems to be the only NFL personnel man who has been willing to go on record with his evaluations of Young, Leinart and Cutler ... he does so again in the NY Times just yesterday ... and he pretty much echos your sentiments Savage views Leinart as the safest pick ... he says at worst you should hit a clean double {he likens ML to a consistant doubles hitter} ... I've always felt the same way about Leinart, that's why I have him in my TOP 10 Overall, but not as high as most folks ... it's just a personal preference with me, I like more of a Gunslinger Vince Young he likens to a BOOM or BUST Guy, only he uses another baseball analogy .. he says you'll either strikeout or hit a homerun .. but he also believes you will have to design a specific system to accomodate VY, with lots of shotgun and rollouts, and perhaps exclusively shotgun .. in this regard Savage agrees with my assessment, VY is not a classic drop-back pocket QB, and he also agrees that classic drop-back pocket passers is what the NFL prefers for the most part, but someone might make an exception {with a high pick} for a phenominal athlete like Young Lastly, Savage is high on Cutler ... likes him a lot ... I get the impression he shares my view on Cutler as well, that he's the best of both worlds ... classic drop-back passer, bit of a Gunslinger, and a pretty good athlete as well {when all else fails} ... but Savage views Leinart as the safer pick {and I actually agree with that assessment, though I believe Cutler has the bigger upside by virtue of his 44 Magnum and Gunslingers mentality} Anyhow, the initial post was simply some scouts observations as relayed to draftdaddy by one of our friends in Indy ... those were not my assessments or anyone at DD ... but I do tend to agree with most of the info they shared
