Wednesday, March 23, 2011

What's the hype?

Everyone is totally in love with Cam Newton and personally I can’t see why. If you look at last years class Tim Tebow was practically a clone of Newton except Tebow didn’t like to cheat. But then everyone said he was only worth 3rd or 4th round pick, while they think Newton is a top ten pick. The only guy that put Newton in that range was former Houston GM Charlie Casserly, who said he wouldn’t draft Newton till the mid 4th round. If you look at Newton he has arm strength and is a good runner, but what QB coming out of college doesn’t?



The key to being a good NFL player is accuracy, you look at Sam Bradford from last year and her was known for being accurate, as was Matt Ryan. Then you look at the strong armed and good runners that came out and you have guys like JaMarcus Russell and Achilles Smith, to only mention a few. I think another problem with Newton is that he was only in College for a year and Achilles Smith was also a one year wonder in college. I think if Newton would have stayed in college for longer teams would have figured him out and slowed him down.



I personally think that out of all the dual threat QB’s that have come out over the past 3 or 4 years the only one I’d say has potential to maybe turn it around is Vince Young and that is because he has nice accuracy. Another thing to look at is how many dual threat QB’s have won super bowls and that number is ZERO. Donovan McNabb was the only one to get their and he still wasn’t able to win it. Many look at Josh Freeman as an example of a good dual threat QB that is succeeding in the NFL, but how often does Freeman run? Not very often.



Another thing that isn’t in Newton's favor is his character issues. First he was dismissed from the University of Florida for stealing a students laptop and then through it out the window when the police came to arrest him. Then when he was being recruited but Mississippi State his fathers asked for 250,000 dollars, but Mississippi State refused, so Newton went to Auburn. Some say he didn’t know anything about it, but how can your favorite school give you a scholarship and then it just happened that Newton decided to go to Auburn right after they refused to give his father the money?



I think if people wanted to say that Tebow was a 4th round pick then they need to say that Newton is, because Tebow showed he was a consistent winner for 3 years and he showed he has character, both of which Newton does not have.

Gabbert's Pro Day Report

Blaine Gabbert needed a good pro day at Missouri to assure scouts’ that he was the best QB in the draft and that is exactly what he did. Gabbert had by far the best pro day for a quarterback this year and only had one uncatchable ball in his fifty attempts, while Cam Newton had eight. He also showed of his footwork, as well as his arm strength.




In attendance at his pro day was the Lions GM, the 49ers GM, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, Titans GM, Titans Head Coach Mike Munchak, Titans offensive coordinator, Vikings Head Coach Leslie Frazier, Bills GM and Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan to only name a few. The word from his pro day so far is that he majorly impressed everyone and that a lot of the coach’s and GM’s present, said they were changing their plans to say longer in Columbia, Missouri so that they would be able to spend more time with Gabbert.



There is also news that the Panthers may be open to trade their number one overall selection to be able to compile some more draft picks, this meaning that if a team with a later pick wanted to move up to take Gabbert that would be possible.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Super Bowl Champs!

     The Green Bay Packers become the 2010 NFL Champions with their win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. After finishing the season with a 10-6 record they made the playoffs as a Wildcard team. They drove all the way through the playoffs to face the Steelers in the Championship who had also won the Super Bowl as a Wildcard team in 2005. The Steelers were attempting to get their 7th Super Bowl win in the teams history and the Packers their 4th.

     The game with both teams having the ball once but both couldn't score. Then after the Steelers punted the ball back to the Packers Aaron Rogers led them down the field and took the led on a 29 yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson to go up 7-0. The Packers then Kicked the ball of and a few plays later Steelers Quarterback Ben Rothlisberger was intercepted by Packers safety Nick Collins who returned the ball 37 yards for the Touchdown putting Green Bay up 14-0 with 3:20 left in the 1st quarter.

     During the early moments of the second quarter the Steelers were able to get on the board with a Shaun Suisham field goal to make the score 14-3. The Packers quickly responded by adding another touchdown with a 21 yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings to make the score 21-3. The Steelers got the ball and in the closing moments of the 1st half drove down the field and scored on a 8 yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward making the Halftime score 21-10.

     The Steelers scored a touchdown early in the third quarter to make the score 21-17 and closing the Packers lead to 4 points.

     The Packers finally answered the Steelers score early in the fourth quarter with a score of their own on a 8 yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings to give Green Bay Quarterback Aaron Rogers 3 touchdown on the game and making the score 28-17. The Steelers wouldn't go away though and scored a touchdown on a long 25 yard pass to Mike Wallace, then the Steelers went for the two point conversation and completed it with a 2 yard run from Antwaan Randel El to make the score 28-25.

     The Packers then conducted a long drive which ended with a field goal to increase the Packers lead 31-25. The Steelers then drove down the field but in the end was not able to get a first down and keep the drive alive giving the Packers a 31-25 win.

     The Steelers suffered from bad plays with Roethlisberger through two interception and Halfback Rashard Mendenhall was stripped on the ball on the Packers 31 yard line. The Packers had their share of scares as All-Pro Cornerback Charles Woodson was taking to the locker room before halftime and was not able to return the game. The young corners for the Packers played extremely well and held Roethlisberger back without their best defensive player on the field.

     Aaron Rogers was also able to get rid of the conversation that he won't be able to fill Brett Favre's shoes after his departure from Green Bay in 2007. Rogers has now won the same amount of Super Bowl's as Brett Favre did and is in prime position to win many more.

     The Packers were many people's preseason favorite to win the Super Bowl but after a season filled with injuries, with Quarterback Aaron Rogers suffering two concussions and the Packers leading rusher Ryan Grant and many others being injured and ruled out for the entire season, the Packers were able to redeem the team potential in the postseason with a Super Bowl win. After all it doesn't matter how you start but how you finish. 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Draft Chatter

     Well the NFL draft is around the corner and although the NFL has started the lockout the draft will still go on. Now that most pro days are over for most of the high profile players (that is except for top QB Blaine Gabbert from Missouri who will conduct his on March 17) we have are beginning to see how the draft may turn out.

     Most are saying at the moment that Blaine Gabbert is the best QB, although QB Cam Newton out of Auburn has impressed many with his talents, but the question is still with his accuracy, character issues and playing the spread offense in college. The other QB's also have some of the same issues with Washington's QB Jake Locker not being extremely accurate, Arkansas's QB Ryan Mallet having character issues and Missouri's Blaine Gabbert coming out of the spread offense. The problem with Newton is that he shows great potential but instead of having one problem like most on the board he has all three. Also the spread he ran in college was more run based while Gabbert's was more pass based.


left to right: Gabbert, Newton, Locker and Mallet

     Gabbert meanwhile is considered very accurate, has good character and has the football IQ and work ethic to be able to convert to the NFL pro style offense, but some still have questions about how he handles Important moments in games and weather he can lead the team in a comeback when the pressure is on. Mallet meanwhile has defiantly the best arm of the class and used the pro style offense in College, but many people think he won't be able to be the leader on the team and the face of the franchise, as well as not making good decisions in the pocket when under pressure. Locker has a good arm decent accuracy and played a pro style offense in college, but scouts don't like how his accuracy is not very good in the pocket and he looks to run the ball before finishing his reads.

     The defensive class this year is very deep and has a very good class of defensive lineman such as Marcell Dareus out of Alabama, Da'Quan Bowers out of Clemson, Von Miller out of Texas A&M, Robert Quinn out of North Carolina and Nick Fairley out of Auburn to just mention a few.

     There are also some top notch cornerbacks in Patrick Peterson out of LSU and Prince Amukamara out of Nebraska. The linebacker class is a little shallow as is the offensive line class with no real standouts in those positions. The wide receiver class only has two big time receivers in A. J. Green out of Georgia and Julio Jones out of Alabama but it has great value in the later rounds.