This post is a test run.  I’m hoping for this to be a weekly feature in the future.

Kansas City was the first and only loss the Green Bay Packers suffered in the regular season.  Rodgers’ numbers in that game: 17-35 (48.6%) for 235 yards (6.7 YPA), 1 TD and 0 INTs.  He was also sacked 4 times and fumbled once.  For comparison’s sake, Rodgers’ previous season lows in completion percentage and YPA were 56.9% (his only other game below 60%) and 7.8(!!!!), respectively.

Note: The Packers were also plagued by drops in this game.  According to ProFootballFocus.com’s Re-Focused Game Breakdown: “if you factor in the five drops, two throw aways and a spike, he was accurate on 68.8% of his passes.”

In order to slow down a passing game like Green Bay’s, you have to do a few things.  The first is to acknowledge going into the Keep Reading…

Matt Waldman, who owns the Rookie Scouting Portfolio website (which produces a fantastic and incredibly in-depth guide on skill position prospects for the NFL Draft), is hosting a fun team-building project.

There is a salary cap and all players are assigned a specific value.  You have complete freedom to pick a 53 man roster and explain the reasoning behind your selections, what type of scheme you’ll run, etc.

I put together a fast break, no-huddle offense centered around Four Verticals and am running Pete Carroll’s 4-3 Under defense.  I’ve got the best QB in football and maybe the best cornerback trio the league has ever seen.

Here’s a link to my Roster and the Q&A, respectively.

If you want to build your own team and submit it to Matt, here’s the Project Menu page.

Before I dig too far into my thoughts on Blaine Gabbert, I’d like to expound on what I look for when evaluating quarterbacks.  This is not a unique criteria applied solely to Gabbert – these are the same traits I look at in every quarterback I study.

First, we all know that television broadcast angles make it incredibly difficult to see all route combinations and coverages in their entirety – in effect, we cannot see things as the quarterback is seeing them.  As such, I try to make my focus on things that I can see on every play.  The following list is in a general but not steadfast order.  Understand that all quarterbacks have overlapping strengths and weaknesses and that no two quarterbacks are the same.  Instead of looking at these traits in a zero-sum “has it or doesn’t have it” mentality, think of it like a scale or spectrum, Keep Reading…

I’m in the midst of doing a fairly large write-up on what I thought of Blaine as a prospect, why his rookie year went the way that it did, and what he needs to work on to be a starting caliber NFL quarterback.

These are the exact same videos I’ll be basing my writeups on (I just cut them this past week). The first two are from his final year in college, the last four are from his rookie season in the NFL.

Please feel free to leave your opinions and insights in the comments section.

Here are my final position rankings and a tiered top 50 overall.

I only did the top 5 for position rankings.  Quarterbacks are ranked to 10, and I’ve linked to the scouting reports I’ve completed on them.  I wish I could go beyond a Top 50/Top 5, but one man can only do so much.

Enjoy the 2012 draft, everyone.

A note: I did not evaluate the interior offensive line position in-depth this year.  As such, I have not included them in my rankings (besides David DeCastro).

POSITION RANKINGS

QUARTERBACK 1. Andrew Luck 2. Ryan Tannehill 3. Robert Griffin 4. Russell Wilson 5. Brandon Weeden 6. Ryan Lindley 7. BJ Coleman (Scouting Report by Jimmy O’Brien) 8. Kirk Cousins 9. Nick Foles (No Scouting Report) 10. Brock Osweiler RUNNINGBACK 1. Trent Richardson 2. Lamar Miller 3. Doug Martin 4. David Wilson 5. Keep Reading…