I'm taking a look at the incoming rookies, quickly. Kind of scanning the top, position by position.
QB Any teams looking for a QB for next season will need to hit free agency or the trade market because there are no starting options in the 2011 class. John Herring is at the top of my list, default rating is 77. He has low volatility and pretty good accuracy and arm strength but he's unlikely to improve on his mid field of vision and pass release while his look off defense is poor. He's rated 71 by my weights and 2nd QB is rated 65. Move along, nothing to see here.
RB I see 2 first round picks unless you're willing to take a sub 80 speed guy. Anthony Kam and Nicholas Reyes are the 2 I would consider first round material.
WR There are 13 WR rated 71 or higher by my weights, then the next guy is a 65. If you want one, better get one quick. Of the top 13, 2 have no business being drafted as they have sub 60 speed. There are 3 of the remaining 11 that have speed in the 70's that could be useful but I prefer 80+ at the skill positions. In no particular order, the 80+ speed guys are Thomas Gonzales, Jessie Anderson, Cesar Perry, Joseph Cooper, Giuseppe Jones, Andrew Day, Michael Warner, and William Norris.
TE David Herrington will likely be one of the top players off the board, even with high volatility. He has 84 speed at 252 lbs, with a ceiling that's very high. His player card makes it look like he'll likely bust by our standards, but if he only loses a few points he should still be a very productive player at one of the skill positions. Edmund Rodriguez and Benny Davis also have the size/speed to be converted to RB but they may be better suited staying at TE. The rest of my top 8 TEs lack speed (<70), though Ramon Joyce has the skill set of a first rounder.
OL I see 3, maybe 4 first round possibilities. Thomas Jensen will likely be the top OL picked unless someone really wants a center. Terry Crow and Brett Bell are the top 2 center prospects with Thomas Harvey as the maybe first round guy. Depends on how you feel about his lack of elite strength.
DL Good news if you want DL as there looks to be some pretty decent options with low volatility. I have 10 on my list rated 70 or higher, and 8 of those 10 have at least 70 speed. Five of those are listed as DT, meaning a move to DE would increase speed some. I like Charles Riggs, Armando Hoffman, Manuel Murphy, David Smith, James Becker, Francisco Ambrose, Richard Fox and Jason Gadson.
LB Bernard Sanford is my top rated LB prospect with a 90 rating, followed by four in the 80's and 7 more in the 70's with the lowest rated 74. This is where my "tier" stops as the guy after 74 is rated 67. Out of the top 12 on my list, just 4 have 80+ speed: Bernard Sanford, Joseph Green, Daniel Thomas, and Kenneth Green. Willie Brown has 78 speed and Franklin Reyes has 72, with the other half all below 70.
DB I usually check just the CB list, then select my safeties from there so I found only 7 on my list rated 70 or higher. Jackie Jones, James Hedrick, and Fritz Cunningham all have elite, 90+ speed while William Austin can't drive a DeLorean with 88 speed. Howard Kuhn has 76 speed while James Pierre and Vernon Christopher wore cement shoes at the scouting combine when running their 40 yard dashes.
K Obviously no kickers will go in the first round and imo none are draft worthy. Easy for me to say with a 7th year kicker having 100 kick strength and accuracy. Emmanuel Hatcher will likely be drafted by someone needing a kicker and they'll hope he booms, because with 81 accuracy ceiling and 64 volatility, a bust likely makes him unusable. He does have excellent kick strength potential. Only one other kicker is rated 80 or more for me and that's Lonnie Sakamoto, who has 77 kick strength ceiling and an 89 accuracy ceiling with 84 volatility. Sakamoto would be serviceable or more with a decent boom. Harvey Holcomb might also get a look as his accuracy has nowhere to go but up. It's currently 68/71 but with 92 volatility, a huge boom is possible.
P I see up to 5 punters that might be worth taking a chance on, although most of us don't care too much about the position I suppose. Just don't mess things up. None of the top 5 punters profile as kick holders however.
Last edited at 5/30/2024 4:38 pm
