Excellent draft crib sheet above and I will finish up with Nate Cottrell!
The
worst position in football is defensive back which is a direct result of the mostly pitiful play by black players. Like most drafts you can probably count on one hand black defensive back prospects who end up being solid to very good. The rest of them will be mediocrities or sheer disasters.
Now we are told this is the year of the wide (all black) receiver. There might be a star or two in the mix and some decent to good wide receivers in this mix. Still there is a symbiotic relationship between the universal crap DB play and black wide receivers putting up misleading stats because of that fact. In other words a lot of these so called "star" black receivers have mainly feasted on inferior talent and are usually overrated.
As I mentioned before expect a draft
larded up with countless black DBs and black WRs. More than half of the wide receivers will end up being wasted picks.
Weeding through this caste forest I see no reason why four white wide receivers shouldn't be drafted. None of them are
sure things but you can bet your ass they are better than at least half of the black wide receivers who are penciled in to get drafted.
Chris Finke--despite being ignored the first half of the season and a few bumps in the road Finke still caught 41 passes (he caught 49 his junior year). Notably Finke has returned a whopping 73 punts in his career. And he rarely fumbles. He messed up by running the 40 at the combine while injured but on film he looks like a 4.4 plus runner. Late round pick.
JP Shohfi-- Yale star helped propel them to the prestigious Ivy League title had a huge year with a 62-1012-10 TD stat line. Not a one year wonder either. He caught 55 passes in 2018. Like Finke he offers special team talent as a very solid punt returner. He is also a terrific
coverage fetch player. 7th round.
Dalton Schoen--4.45 runner where his speed is evident on tape. Penchant for clutch big plays. An upside player whose talent perhaps has not been fully exploited yet. Late round pick.
Mason Kinsey--becoming obvious this small school gem checks all the boxes including a terrific burst. Rightfully he needs to be knocked down a couple of rounds due to the competition he faced but even factoring in that at times he can remind people of a young Adam Thielen. Mid round.
So you mean to tell me with up to 35 or more wide receivers being targeted for the draft teams can't pull the trigger for four deserving white wide receivers?
It is worth remembering the stink we put up last year when RB Patrick Laird didn't get drafted. On 85 touches at Miami Patrick averaged 4.4 yards per touch. That is the exact number highly touted first rounder Leonard Fournette averaged his rookie year. In fact Fournette averaged 4.0 per touch his second year. How about another media hero comparison? LeVon Bell averaged 4.4 per touch his rookie season ( 2013). Last year Bell averaged 4.0 yards per touch. Throw in the fact Laird is a terrific special teams player ( see Finke and Shohfi) and a very smart high character player with leadership skills the fact he had to grovel through the free agent path really grates.
But the NFL draft has been mired for years now with their
lack of imagination. Below is an example of imagination.
Long time Triple-Option Georgia Tech changed the Offense for Nathan Cottrell's Senior season; one of the biggest disappointments they messed him over + Yellow Jackets were so bad! Cottrell flashed big play ability thru his career! If he has to be a WSTD on an NFL Roster..so be it! Swiss Army Knife RB/WR
I am going to pretend to be a scout so I will view the above synopsis through that lens. So my notes would read like this:
"OK Cottrell wasn't playing RB because they ditched the option his senior year. But when he was part of the option attack he was a big play performer averaging 8.2 yards per carry his junior year and 7.9 his junior year. Last season he did catch 3 passes for 60 yards and a touchdown but he was basically relegated to special teams and really shined. In previous years he returned some kicks but the one constant is the
sensational speed.
Swiss army knife? Well he isn't a QB like Taysom Hill but certainly one could envision Cottrell as a terrific special teams gunner and a gadget offensive player where one wants to get him space. Then the final puzzle came to me last night after reading the synopsis quoted above. When watching Georgia Tech games in 2017 and 2018 due to the option attack schemes Cottrell was relied on to do
excessive blocking. While not having the frame of a fullback to become a plow horse, Cottrell was a surprisingly very effective blocker. At times he was the
lead blocker. Fining a running back who can block these days is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Final score. A team should pick him as a 7th round flier. His versatility and blazing speed
clinch it."
Taking my scout hat off now. This illustrates the use of imagination in choosing players that will pay off in the end. Sadly the NFL scouting community has their noses so far up too many mediocre black skill players asses they can't go beyond their stale caste by the numbers draft analysis. Which is why CF is as good as any scouting outpost out there.