In 2011, Tyron Smith started all 16 games for the Dallas Cowboys at the RT position, which he played at USC. The fact that he played RT in college was seen as a source of concern to some. Others pointed to the fact that he was reportedly only 280 pounds during his time at USC. Due to this, people questioned his run blocking ability, his strength, and his ability to add weight to his frame. He was also just 20, and despite starting for 2 years, he was looked at as raw.

Tyron Smith appeared destined to be a Late 1st, or Early 2nd round pick, mainly based on his tremendous upside. However, his post season weigh in of 307 pounds, combined with his monster Pro Day vaulted him into top 15 talks. While watching him as a college player, you could tell that he was more than just Keep Reading…

Most of you know Ryan Mallett’s story: highly touted pocket passer transfers from Michigan to Arkansas after the Wolverines bring in Rich Rodriguez and his spread offense.  Puts up pretty prolific passing numbers in the SEC.  Drug rumors off the field and bad decisions under pressure on the field kill his draft stock and he falls to the third round – to the New England Patriots, a team that knows how to develop quarterbacks over the long term.

While studying Mallett’s week one preseason debut, I noticed something contradictory in his game.  For a big, slow-footed quarterback, he is surprisingly adept at moving and re-setting in the pocket, as well as playing in confined spaces.  This goes back to his college days, actually.  While Mallett’s decision-making under pressure was really questionable during his college career, from a skillset standpoint, he always displayed the arm talent to make throws with bodies Keep Reading…

Aldon Smith declared for the 2011 NFL Draft after a sub-par Red Shirt Sophomore year. His sack numbers went way down, and a lot of people in the draft community seemed to be a bit ambivalent towards him as a prospect. Assuredly, he was greatly affected by a fractured fibula injury, but watching him play his RS SO year didn’t make him seem like he’d be an upper echelon pass rusher in the NFL, especially right off the bat. In addition to Smith’s down year, his combine numbers weren’t of the same caliber of other “freak” athletes either. Another thing was that it always appeared to me as  Smith looked better rushing from the inside, and had a lot of his production come from the DT spot. This was one of many reasons to question how Smith would fare in the NFL.

Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Keep Reading…

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…

In my last article, I opened by talking about how important a fit is to a prospect. This is perhaps most true for the prospects that are raw in certain nuances of their position. These players, who can almost be looked at as pieces of clay, are heavily dependent on the sculptor. On one hand, the sculptor can produce something beautiful, such as Vulca’s Apollo from Veii, and on the other hand, you might get something that looks like it came out of a high school ceramics class. Or even worse, something a toddler mashed together with Play-Doh.

A piece of clay that every offensive coach wants work with is one that is 6’4, 215 pounds, can run a 4.36 40 yard dash, and posts vertical leaps and broad jumps of 39.5 and 133 inches respectively. Of course, we aren’t talking about just a piece of clay at this point, Keep Reading…