On its surface, there are few more elementary route concepts in football than the slant. There are different iterations, of course, but it’s an angular route designed to attack the leverage of a defense and have the receiver work in short areas to graze on any open space, and take advantage. There are receiver subtleties, […]
Maybe it’s time we start mentioning Trey Hendrickson as more than an afterthought when rattling off the Saints’ historically great 2017 NFL Draft class. The defensive end ranks third in the league with 7½ sacks through the midpoint of the 2020 season. No, we’re not talking Cam Jordan or Marcus Davenport, both first-round picks. I’m […]
Continuing our position-by-position preview of this year’s draft class, we shift our focus to wide receivers. As a scouting staff, we use common terminology to grade every trait that we evaluate. We use a 1-9 scale with a 1 representing a “Reject” grade and a 9 meaning a “Rare” grade for whatever trait we are […]
Growing up, Jacob Eason liked watching a Green Bay Packers legend. “A guy like Brett Favre, a guy like Peyton Manning, teams I watched play on Sundays, were big inspirations in the way they play the game,” the University of Washington quarterback said last week at the Scouting Combine. “Their toughness, their competitiveness, those are […]
Henry Ruggs III is the fastest player in the 2020 draft class. Much has been made over his 40-yard dash time, but one look at what he did on the field at Alabama the past two seasons make it obvious just how uncommon his speed is. It’s that speed that helped Ruggs, a four-star recruit […]
Since his days as a high school phenom, there’s been little doubt as to what Jerry Jeudy’s future would be. A five-star recruit and the third highest-rated receiver in the country by 247Sports’ composite rankings, Jeudy’s been viewed as an elusive receiver with breathtaking feet since he declared for Alabama … and he’s done nothing but […]
One Liner Tagovailoa is a highly accurate and clutch quarterback with great leadership ability and a winning pedigree, who will excel at the next level as long as he protects himself and stays healthy. Overall Tagovailoa was the quarterback in Alabama’s spread RPO-heavy offense. He played in 33 career games and started 24 the past […]
A year ago, the first cornerback didn’t go off the board until the 30th pick when the Giants traded back into the first round to take Georgia’s Deandre Baker, who had an up-and-down rookie season, which isn’t all the surprising for a rookie. Baker, it turns out, was the only cornerback to go in Round 1 — seven went […]
If the 2019 NFL Draft had several first-round prospects at tight end, the 2020 class will be lucky to have one go in the first 32 picks. There are no T.J. Hockensons or Noah Fants (Hockenson went eighth overall to the Lions, Fants went 20th to the Broncos), and there may not even be an Irv Smith Jr. (he […]
Anytime a player who was a first-round NFL Draft selection only a few short years ago is released by a team, the chatter starts. “Should (insert team name) sign him?” Such is the case for cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, who on Tuesday was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only a few years after they […]