CBS had us taking him at 7 (Seattle's pick at the time) 2 weeks before the injury. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft...in-top-10-jaguars-select-edge-rusher-at-no-2/
Watson at 2 does have merit if you consider his ceiling is higher than any WR prospect in the draft. He is currently a more complete player than Burks, but a significantly better athlete. Burks is lower in my ratings. As WR he is raw. He was schemed open to get touches. He doesnt give good enough effort in the run game. He too easily looks to get out of bounds, and doesnt have good good lateral agility to make defenders miss when he has the ball. Yes, hes thick, strong, has long speed, and can shrug off arm tackles, but hell have more trouble with this in the NFL. He isn't athletic enough for me to risk a 1st round pick on with his current limited WR skills. Your Anti-London bias has really shielded your eyes from the truth. London is a significantly better WR at this point. I'd also say he's a better athlete in the majority of measurable categories. Burks will not succeed unless he goes to a specific system to manufacture touches while he learns to play the position. London can play in any system and be successful.
Watson has no merit being the second best WR in the draft. That’s pure click bait by Simms. He did nothing in division 2. Absolutely nothing. Not 1 dominant performance not 1 100 yard game. Not 1 multiple TD game. His film is mediocre at best. He is the definition of work out warrior + fast riser = bust. Mark my words. London is different because at least he is dominant in one aspect of the game that gives him a glimmer of a chance to be a professional football player. He can go up and get it better than any prospect I’ve seen in a while. His 50/60 ball ability is special no doubt. The thing is that’s it… that’s all he can do. His hands are just ok, his feet are slow and most of all he’s injury prone because he gets blown up with bad body positioning. I think he will be a bust because he won’t be able to stay healthy. Burks is a play making stud that has been a football player since high school. He was s 4 star recruit, ran every route possible, has unbelievable hands, football speed, played against the best competition and thrived, clean off the field, clean with injuries and most of all has the ability to take over games with his dominance. Did it against Alabama, Texas A&M, OL Miss not some cupcake division 2 teams or weak division 1 teams. I’ve watched the film and I’ve said my piece. Let’s see where the chips fall
I know you like burks a lot as like a top 3 player in the draft but honestly the more I watch I don't understand how anyone can have anyone other then wilson and williams as the 1 and 2 in this class. I understand williams slide with the injury but seems he'll be ready for the season and is ahead of schedule so not really a concern. I can understand the ratings of the rest of the guys differing a lot but for me no olave has moved up to WR3 dotson is 4th and london is 5th. those are my top 5 guys as of now and I expect all 5 to go into the 1st but if dotson fell out of the 1st i'd make a move up to 33 with jax and take him right away
Williams was my #1 before the injury then I had Wilson and now I have Burks. Wilson is good but I got to say that Day system scares me. He is schemed open a lot with Olave taking double teams deep. His tape is really something you need to dive into the details and it’s a bit unsettling. Wilson got a lot of 1-1 vs LBs and slot receivers running intermediate routes.
i mean burks was scheme open a lot and use in the slot alot. so was london. and both london and burks couldn't get seperation against anyone really which concernsme about both. our system likes guys who can get seperation fast. i'd rather have dotson over a burks or london but ideally i'd trade back at 10 and take wilson, williams, or olave whoever is there. we could likely trade back to 20 with pitt form 10 if a QB they like falls and we can grab olave at 20 it seems and get an extra 2nd plus more
The reason I chose to reply is it triggers me when people label kids as busts before they've even played a down in the NFL, let alone a season or two. It also triggers me when people label these kids something that is factually incorrect. Statistics are nice and all, but without context they are meaningless. What offense/scheme was deployed, what was the player asked to do, what did said player do with the opportunities given, On the plays where the ball didn't go his way, did he execute as asked? Regarding Watson, yes he played in division 2 against lesser competition. That is a valid concern. However, he proved via the senior bowl and athletic testing that he can compete against higher competition. Regarding his production, NDSU is run heavy team, and Watson was 35% of the entire teams REC yards. He capitalized on the opportunities given. He easily could have been more productive if given the opportunities/targets. Agreed, I'm done arguing over these WRs. I'd encourage you to take a look at Joe Blewetts analysis of Burks and London when they're released. It will help illustrate what ive tried and failed to convey.
Here was live cast he did. Check out at the 48/9 min mark, he will show a few clips of Burks and London. While, I don't always agree with him, i do on these two players.
Roughly 10% of draft prospects bust… how does that shock you? 40% of first rounders bust… why would it trigger you to think a player playing in division 2, playing in a pro style offence with very little success and only good measurements not bust. He’s got an uphill battle to make a NFL pension never mind be a contributing factor on a team. Watson is a poor man version of Van Jefferson.
I honestly don't know how you can say London's feet are slow. He is quite clearly light on his feet when you watch him. He also led the nation in missed tackles forced per game - how could someone do that with slow feet? Sorry dude but I think it's pretty clear you just have a huge bias against London. I remember at one point you said you really disliked how he stuck his tongue out at someone after a play. I think your strong dislike of his personality is causing you to be incapable of objectively judging his play and abilities.
We’ll see what he runs at his pro day. To me he’s a 4.6-4.7 guy on film. The tongue thing is just immaturity and a character flaw. That has nothing to do with balls going right through his hands or getting blown up coming to ground or the broken ankle injury history he has. Like I said before I just don’t think he will be able to take the hits in the NFL with how he plays the game it’s too reckless. Maybe I’m wrong and he becomes one of the best red zone weapons in the league with his 50/50 ball abilities. Time will tell.
I did see London get separation/open on the film I've watched. I'm not too concerned with his 40, because of everything else he offers as a prospect. Although, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested to see what it is. My guess is high 4.5 to low/mid 4.6. Here a list of good WRs with 4.5/=4.6 40s. https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/the-...nfl-combine-and-still-had-pretty-good-careers
Yes, players don't work out, but before being labeled a bust, they should have the opportunity to prove it on the field. I'm not disagreeing that the majority of players fail to meet those expectations. I'm not campaigning that Watson is the #2 WR in the draft. I'm simply stating I can see why Simms has him as #2. That doesn't mean there isn't risk or more risk involved with him than others. He's definitely more projection than the other top guys.
Yes, that is a valid projection. I have been evaluating prospects for a while as a hobby. I’ve seen this song and dance before with work out warriors. John Ross was a perfect example. He was a mid to late first rounder than ran a 4.2 and became a top 10 pick. His film was very similar to Watsons with a very little sample size and not a real dominant stand out game.
Here’s the thing as I’ve said before. London has some special attributes no doubt about it. His 50/50 ball and being able to box out corners is definitely going to work in the NFL. Maybe, he has a chance to be a Michael Pittman type player as that’s who I see on film. However, my concerns are his injury history with a broken ankle and how many times he got shaken up coming to ground after the catch. He also looks slow coming out of breaks which leads to big hits once he gets the ball. His hands are also average, he has a lot of easy drops on film. I feel he’s a land mine and will struggle to be healthy for an NFL team and this is because his football IQ isn’t very good at all. It’s really clear on film he’s a basketball player trying to play football.
I could see 4.6, 4.7 seems a bit much. I'm thinking he'll run 4.5ish. I think his vert and 10 yard split will show that he's quick though, which I think is ultimately more important than being fast. Quickness is a factor in almost every play. Being fast will sometimes get you a touchdown when you wouldn't otherwise but it's not an every-play benefit like quickness is. Again, how could a guy lead the nation in missed tackles forced like London did if he wasn't quick or was slow to change direction? Think about it. Sticking your tongue out is a character flaw? Come on man, you're proving my point. You keep mentioning 50/50 balls as if those are the only kind London catches. He also caught a ton of short passes and got YAC. He ran quite a few different types of routes effectively.
not really. small windows against people who aren't good enough for the NFL look at dotson he's underrated. I like london a lot more then burks though. but if we are picking at 10 it should be williams or wilson
Over the last couple of months, you have been the most reasonable and rational that I've ever seen you, and we have agreed on more things than we ever have, but with this take you have gone back to totally ridiculous, over the top, irrational takes. C'mon guy, you obviously know that saying Watson only has good measurements inaccurate and over the top. If you watched game film of Watson then you should have some understanding of what NDSU's offense is and how it operates. It's fine if you don't like him, but you don't have to make the over the top comments to justify your opinion. Sometimes we just don't like a player for whatever reason, call it a gut reaction. We don't have to justify our opinions. You're too smart and knowledgeable to make stuff up or make clearly inaccurate statements like you have about Watson. How is Watson supposed to put up 100 yard games in an offense that runs the ball most of the time and he is mostly used as a blocker or decoy? How many passes did he get thrown his way each game and how long in between each pass did he have to wait? How was he supposed to get into any kind of flow or rhythm? In this past season, he only played in 5 games and he had 4, 3, 4, 6 and 4 receptions in those games. Still, in two games he had 91 yards receiving. In Andrew Golden's article, it states: "His average of 4.33 yards per route run is the best of the top 2022 receiver prospects, and it could’ve been even better if Watson improved on his drops." The only thing that concerns me is his focus drops. That could be fixed working with the JUGGS machine and getting the ball more regularly, but maybe not. I don't see him as just a workout warrior/great athlete. He's a complete football player. He's a team-oriented player. He showed at the Sr. Bowl what he could do. Unless there were some problems at Sr. Bowl practices that were not reported, I'd be willing to bet that the Jets are VERY high on him and have him as one of the top 2-3 WRs in this draft class.
