2014 NFL Combine Winners and Losers

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Jeff

Jeremy Gallon

There weren’t as many “losers” this year as there have been in years past and I think that speaks to how athletically impressive everyone is now-a-days. The winners are more difficult to narrow down, but I selected three for each day, except for day 2. If you want to see more in-depth recaps on guys who helped themselves and see some clips from the Combine, check out each of my daily recaps that are linked at the end of this post. There were plenty of more winners than just the 13 I listed.

Day 1 Biggest Winners:

Taylor Lewan, LT, University of Michigan- Taylor Lewan showed up to the Combine and was the fastest offensive lineman there. His 4.87 40 with a 1.64 10-yard split is very impressive given his height. A 30.5″ vertical and 29 reps on the bench isn’t bad either, and he certainly brought himself into the conversation for best tackle.

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2014 NFL Scouting Combine Recap Day 4: Defensive Backs

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Jeff

The defensive backs always work out on the last day and the last day is always the shortest. By this time most of the people watching are burned out, but this group wasn’t a group to sleep on.

Deion Sanders made some good points early on about why young corners struggle in the league and quite frankly, I never thought about it this way before. It really makes you think twice about wanting a corner high in the draft, and it’s a good thing the Lions didn’t take Dee Milliner like I wanted them to last year.

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2014 NFL Scouting Combine Recap Day 3: Defensive Line and Linebackers

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Jeff

Day 3 was a disappointing day for me, but only because NFL Network spent most of the time talking about Jadeveon Clowney. It seemed like once every 20 minutes they were bringing up his name and as soon as he didn’t participate in every drill, you knew it was all over. Everyone spent most of the time questioning Clowney’s “heart” and “love for the game.” Warren Sapp was brutal to listen to, despite a few good one-liners, he was mostly an idiot. At one point, Sapp said there was nothing on Clowney’s tape that said he was draftable outside of his three sacks, which is in a video further down in this post.

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2014 NFL Scouting Combine Recap Day 2: Quarterbacks, Runningbacks and Wide Receivers

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Jeff

The highly touted quarterbacks never seem to throw at the NFL Combine and they always miss an opportunity. Throwing at the Combine will not make or break your draft prospects, but I feel like it’s strange that they never throw. If you’re the best, why not go out and prove?

Blake Bortles was the only one of the four highest rated quarterbacks to throw at the Combine and this is a big win for him. He didn’t shy away from the competition and got a chance to show off his skills while Jonny Manziel, Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater just hung out. At least Manziel and Derek Carr did all of the measurable drills. This isn’t an uncommon thing though, Andrew Luck and RG3 didn’t throw. But the quarterbacks are only throwing around 20 passes, in shorts, and NFL evaluators don’t even care if the passes are complete because they know you’re not familiar with the receivers. So why not throw?

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2014 NFL Scouting Combine Recap Day 1: Offensive Linemen, Tight Ends, Special Teamers

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Jeff

Taylor Lewan

Obviously this is far later than I would have liked to be posting this, but exams were a bit more of a pressing need. The big key to take away from the NFL Combine is that a bad Combine won’t kill your stock, but a good one can help you out a lot. The Combine is just a small part of the draft process. It’s more important for the lesser-known guys to have good days than the big names, because the big names are highly touted for a reason. The eye in the sky does not lie, and game tape is still the best way to determine a player’s abilities.

The NFL Scouting Combine consists of 11 groups each holding certain positions that take the field for drills over the course of four days. Group one has kickers, special teamers, and some offensive linemen. Group two is all offensive linemen, and group three is the tight ends. Groups four and five consist of quarterbacks and wide receivers, and the running backs are in group six. Groups seven and eight consist of defensive linemen and group nine has the linebackers. Groups 10 and 11 hold the defensive backs.

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Michigan Football 2014 National Signing Day Recap: Defense

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Jeff

I was hoping that this recap was going to have some other players to discuss, but the guys that Michigan got is nothing to turn your nose up at. They will be big impact guys, maybe not right away (not including Jabrill Peppers), but down the road they will contribute. Here’s the outlook for the offensive players for this class in case you missed it. And here is an outlook for the 2015 class of the recruits they are targeting and how many players they make take for each position.

On a separate note, I wanna know how much Comcast paid to get XFinity put on all these Signing Day logos for a day.

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Michigan Football 2014 National Signing Day Recap: Offense

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Jeff

Just like last year, this year’s National Signing Day was particularly uneventful for Brady Hoke and the Michigan Football team. Seven players signed early enrollee player paperwork and that left nine more players to sign their Letters of Intent on Wednesday, all of which had their paperwork in by 10:53 a.m.. The class was looking to be an elite class by snagging De’Shawn Hand and Malik McDowell, but both of those fell through. Michigan offered a few other players, mostly running backs, closer to Signing Day but nothing came to fruition with the change at offensive coordinator. This class is quite small, coming it at 16 players, and the class for 2015 will also be small, since it should project between 13 and 16 players. This is what happens with a young team and now it is time for player development; this isn’t a highly rated class but it has potential. Here is a look at the defensive players for this incoming class.

Michigan Big Board (By the way, anyone notice Comcast paying money for some advertising on Michigan’s Signing Day board? Yeesh)

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Senior Bowl in Review: Stock is Rising

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Jeff

After looking at the players who saw their stock fall a bit during Senior Bowl, it’s time to take a look at the players that helped themselves the most. Here is the official Senior Bowl box score for you to browse, though it is important to note that the practices are infinitely more important than the game and most scouts don’t even stay for the Senior Bowl game.

https://twitter.com/DustinFox37/status/427187828657623040

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Senior Bowl in Review: Stock is Falling

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Jeff

Every year there is a group of players that watch their stock take a hit during Senior Bowl week. It’s unfortunate, but guys get put into new schemes and get surrounded with players they aren’t comfortable with and they struggle. They also get exposed in the individual drills, which is where the biggest knocks on them occur. It’s important to note that the Senior Bowl is very subjective, as is the rest of the scouting process, and there were also plenty of guys who saw their stock rise. An example of that subjectivity?

Personally, I think Tajh Boyd had a terrible week, as well as the other North QBs, but that doesn’t make him “undraftable.” Here’s my rundown of players who watched their stock fall during the Senior Bowl.

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The Detroit Lions proved they are the same old Lions and hired Jim Caldwell

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Jeff

Before I get into slamming the Detroit Lions for this hire and ripping Jim Caldwell’s resume and coaching ability let’s get a few things out of the way.  I would love nothing more than to be wrong about this.  I would love for someone one year, two years, three years or however long down the road to find this post, comment on it or send it to me and tell me I’m an idiot.  I want Jim Caldwell to be successful.  I want Caldwell to be successful as much as anyone.  I’m not going to sit here and hope that he fails just so I can say that I was right.  I’m still going to watch Lions games and show up to Ford Field and cheer for them.  This hire doesn’t change that and only a few things could make me dump this team.  I’m sure he’s a great guy and certainly has the support of a lot of players and people in and around the league.  But, at the end of the day, this was an underwhelming, bad hire by the Detroit Lions.

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