2012 Draft Prospect: Vontaze Burfict = Bill Romanowski (what is the Risk/Reward)

I think it’s a flawed analogy, only because Romanowski is really smart, and driven with his smarts. No idea how smart Burfict is but I saw reports that he had to be fed play-calls regularly, like he didn’t really know what he was doing.

The other thing about Romanowski is that a lot of the information about how much of a all-around bad dude he was didn’t come out until after his playing career was over. When he spit in that receiver’s face, I remember people being pretty shocked, like it was out of character or something. Later on you hear about how he broke some guy’s finger under a pile, on purpose, and was laughing about it. I think more people would have had a problem with him being a Bronco – despite his talents – had more of that been known while he was playing.

I think opposing offenses relaxed a little when Romo decided to move on.
The guy had a football brain though, so it remains to be seen if Burfict is as switched on.

But….
That era is past in the NFL. Romo got worse here in Denver or I just didn’t hear about it in San Fran, not sure which. I was not shocked when he spit at the player at all. There was shock and that surprised me ;) I would have to say no to players like Suh. We don’t need that.

no thanks.
The MLB has to be the QB of the defense. This guy couldn’t think his way out of a brown paper bag. Add to that the fact that he was benched at the end of the year by his college coach – stay away.

Overpursues, takes bad angles, gets lost during plays, lets opposing players get in his head, has a tendency to go for the “kill-shot” and miss tackles - Does this sound like the guy you want in the middle of the field LEADING the Broncos D?

Let the Pats draft him and see if Belicheat can make something out of him.

As Tune said above, this analogy is flawed – actually, it’s beyond flawed.

The knock on Burfict isn’t that he’s a dirty player – it’s that he’s stupid. He can’t play assignment-based football. That’s why he ended up on the bench his senior year.

Bottom-line: Romo, for all his faults, was a winner. Burfict is a loser.

I’m not sold on Hightower also, but anyway I don’t want Burfict here. If the AZ State benched him a couple times, something there is very wrong.

My plan A is to coach Nate Irving well and let him play this year to gain experience and be our stud mike soon

My plan B is moving after Te’o in 2013 if Nate shows he isn’t our solution.

Not in the 1st round though.

Isn’t that the way it goes sometimes?

Short story about Rill Romanowski. I was down range and my wife was back at FT Bragg. Bill was doing a book tour and came to see the troops. I told my wife she had to go get an autograph from him. She waits in line in the hot August sun for an hour and finally gets in to see Bill. He signs a football for her (me), then asks her if she wants to try on his superbowl ring. She does, said it was huge. Unfortuantely she didn’t get a picutre. She had he seemed like a really nice guy. She had no idea who he was. Bill offered her a free faiders poster too. She said no thanks, I dont’ think my husband would like that, he is a Broncos fan. He said, " Ah , I can understand that". Oh did I forget to mention she was 8mo pregnant. Great woman!

And is also apparently leaving for the draft because of failing grades and constantly had to be told what plays were being run on D by another linebacker. When that linebacker got hurt early in the season (I think it was McGee but not sure) Burfict was on his own and had no one helping him. The results show that he struggled without him. Awesome highlight reels but also whiffs on a lot of tackles and we had enough of that from Mays. I’d hesitate to take him even in the second round. I think some team takes a risk on him in the middle/late 2nd round, definitely not a 1st rounder.

If we can get him at the end of the 2nd round then OK, not that much risk and high ceiling, but here are some key differences

Romo was very good in coverage or at least could cover

Vontaze is awful in coverage and likely would be a 2 down player at best

Romo, while a pain in the ass to the opponents, outside of his stint in Oakland, was always considered a good teamate

Vontaze has never been considered that

Romo had a high football IQ

Vontaze has a mediocre football IQ