a strange confluence of factors. I hate to prioritize injured players, especially at LB, where some pure atleticism is just about required these days, but his production and skills after his transfer ahd him on every watch list in the country. The ACL literally caused a disappearing act, and the end result is a big question mark… But I just can’t ignore what he HAD… The injury was the type that players come back from all the time, and he had an abnormally long recovery time, which I don’t know whether it is significant or not. I want to say that the recovery time was good, because it wasn’t rushed, but on the other hand, oftena long recovery time is indicative of a player who doesn’t have the mental toughness to push stridently through the painful, difficult parts of the rehab…. I’ll be curious to see if a team with good talent evaluating ability picks him up (like a Ravens or Indy team).

I’ve looked at three players more than anyone else in this draft: Rey is one of them. He does have a leadership, and I would actually qualify it as a “quiet” leadership, except the first thing you might think of is DJ or Champ…when it is nothing like that.

Doc is right, he is fiery and respected. At first he was just fiery, and considered a hothead, but events outside his control, and a few events that he probably regrets, have transformed him. He acts much more mature, and he takes everything so much more seriously. You have to have met polynesians to get an idea of the passion that lies beneath their (exceedingly) calm demeanors, but if you have, than know that Rey is no exception to that rule. He is a young man in the best sense of the term.

What I mean by “quiet” leadership, is that he is understated in dealing with others, unlike DJ and CHamp who simply don’t speak until it is necessary and then they call people out. A leader should never be visibly frustrated with those he is intended to lead, it makes them look like they aren’t in control of the situation, and DJ and Champ are routinely NOT in control of the situation. Rey’s “quiet” form of leadership seems to be more in the form of well chosen words, and well spoken phrases, which is something I appreciate.

But on the field i think he is primarily a “fiery” guy, and chooses to motivate by example. I think the two aspects considered together say that he is learning HOW to be a leader, as I never saw him really “lead” in any of the games. This was partly because the team was loaded with talented guys, so it wasn’t necessary.

The short answer is, Yes, Rey could be a leader. Hopefully he won’t go in the top 11 and we will have a chance to get into the long answer.

St.Louis is the first team on the board who could legitimately target Rey without being accused of reaching. 11 teams is one heck of a gauntlet for Rey to fall through…

I have all the same questions about English that I have about DOOM: can he play OLB primarily as a standup rusher? Can he drop back into coverage? Does he have enough lower body strength to anchor against the run?

I don’t know how to assess Denver’s plans for OLB, except to hedge towards the idea that has been coming up around here lately, that McJedi and Nolan will build with what we have, and try to get the best available players wherever they have the bullets to do so. In that case I would say English won’t be in the plans as he is similar to what we have in DOOM, Moss and Crowder,, without being significantly better in any area, except that he was super productive rushing out of a three point stance, adn I doubt he gets permission to do that in the NFL… And for the record I would be beyond bummed if the Chargers got Moreno. I hope he ends up in the NFC…

For the film, I go with torrents. You can download any game you want, pretty much. Time is the deciding factor, but it is actually a little better this year. I was on a trend of getting more and more names int eh database, and not being organized enough to get them done, but I have been able to little by little layer organization into the process. The big one this year was “mass producing” the templates for the players I wanted to look at ahead of time, and then filling them in whenever I got a chance, instead of doing each one as a separate occurrence. The result was a list that I could slowly check off over time, which increased motivation (I finally had a sense of making progress instead of falling behind), and which created a tangible goal to work towards. Of course, it is great that Guru created this place where I can actually turn all of that into something useful! :) Also, the list was ready to be filled out as of Aug last year, so I have been working on this batch for some time. There are midseason adjustments and players added, and a big crunch about a month ago where I tried to add any names that came on the scene in the last year (this is usually offset by guys who just sort of disappear).

As to seeing so much, you watch in layers, evaluating a set of qualities at a time. The more you do it the fewer times you have to rewind and watch again. And, coincidentally enough, there are a number of articles scheduled to come up in the next month or so where I list the qualities that I am evaluating, and when applicable, any clues or indicators that you can specifically watch for, such as how a players back shoudl be aligned when they are coming out of their stance, etc… Those posts will be coming out under the MHR University heading, so keep your eyes peeled!

The thing about size, probably with any position, is that it is more a set of ranges, so it would actually need to be covered pretty comprehensivbely to set up the standard. Note that it isn’t so much “ideal weight” or “ideal height” but a combo of the two. For example, the ideal size of a good ILB (to me) might be 235lbs if he is 6’0, but 260 if he is 6’3". You would also want to have a general idea of body fat or build, and the type of frame a guy might have. Rey is a great example of this. When he weighed in at the Senior bowl it was surprising how soft he looked (not fat—not even close, but just mildly soft) considering how powerful he is on the field. Coupled with his frame which looks like he could be 10 lbs heavier, easily, and you have a player where size isn’t really important, because he can change, quickly. But I have to admit, in this case I didn’t list size on the first two guys because they have been covered so extensively that I wanted to save the space for talking about other things. Both James and Rey are good sized MLBs. For the record they both are about 6-2, 240-250. Rey has had some weight problems in the past, where he puts on weight without trying, but he played generally lighter this year (he used to be up in the 260 range) and he weighed in at the Senior Bowl at 250 I think.

After those two, I only felt compelled to mention it if their size stood out in some way. Generally, later round ILBs are undersized, it is almost expected. When you see a guy from some school that only won 2 games, and no one’s talking about him, but he mans the ILB spot at 6’3, 262, it seems like you have the foundation to work with, or take a chance on. It is only one piece, of course, but sometimes it is a big help in separating which guys are worth taking a look at. One reason not to make a big deal out of guys that are undersized is that the NFL is littered with players who had good to great careers who could be considered undersized. Basically, if the talent is there, size is secondary.

To Beckwith specifically, the last size I have for him was 6’1", 230 with kind of a wiry frame. My impression is he can’t add much weight, so teams need to like where he is at if they think his talent is worth taking him. He is a great athlete, though, so some team may very well think that. I would suspect that any team planning on the 3-4 would think he just isn’t big enough to take a high pick risk on.

And yep, I’m definitely having fun! MHR is a blast around this time of year!

Rey definitely will be too good to pass up. No matter what, I want leadership with our first pick in the draft, whcih is a reason to lean away from raji and towards Rey… but a lot of teams should be thinking along those lines.

There are only a couple players I think should be 6-star per year and really I don’t see how Rey would fit on that list. I really only see Crabtree and Curry in that range in this draft. Rey is good, but especially considering how recent USC prospects have done I fear it might be a bit more of being surrounded by so much talent. In the NFL he won’t be able to get away with some of the gamble plays he made in college.