- submitted by Long Ball, DOF

How did you do on the Chapter 4 test?  Ready to take it a step further?  OK, you have just been promoted to General Manager of your favorite NFL team – there’s a reason you got the job, your team has not been doing well, you have an impatient billionaire owner and you have to get value on your first draft – or there may not be a second draft (how’s that for impatient?)

While it’s true that drafts are measured by later-round gems, you cannot afford to miss on any of your choices in the first 3 rounds.  You are well aware of the failure rate of early round selections invested in quarterbacks and wide receivers, running backs have become somewhat of a commodity, and then, out of the blue, you remember “Professor Long Ball used to extol the virtues of the Big Uglies!”

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 - submitted by Long Ball, DOF

Should we sub-title this chapter “The Pretty Boys of the Big Uglies”?  Speed-demon pass rushers have been in great demand since the great Deacon Jones coined the term “sack” to define the tackle of a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.  If you have ever watched film clips of Deacon Jones terrorizing quarterbacks, you would take issue with the definition “the tackle of a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage” – but that’s a topic for another post.

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 - submitted by Long Ball, DOF

The 2010 Draft Class is deep in interior defensive linemen.  “Professor Long Ball, why did you say interior defensive linemen?”  I am so glad you asked – when analyzing the Big Uglies on the defensive side of the ball, we have to consider the positional requirements of the 4-3 versus the 3-4 alignments.  Would you believe both alignments evolved from the old 5-2 “Monster” scheme?  How about a brief history lesson before looking at the prospects?

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 - submitted by Long Ball, DOF

While the offensive tackles are protecting the outside space and often face the opposition’s best pass rushers, strength up the middle is no less important, as it forms the “bubble” of the quarterback’s pocket.  A triumvirate of center and two guards is essential to both the running game and passing attack of a pro offense.

There are differences in the blocking techniques of interior linemen versus tackles – the first is an ability to maintain a low center of gravity, from the inertia generated upon initial contact through the maintenance of the block.  This is true whether blocking for the run or the pass – guards and centers must get below the pad level of the opposing DT’s (and/or DE’s and LB’s, if pulling).  Where length and long arms are a benefit for the OT position, that is not necessarily true for OG and OC.  In addition, short, choppy steps are the preference for interior linemen (once again, whether pass protection, straight-line or cross-blocking, or pulling for a sweep), as opposed to the longer kick-slide step of tackles.

Let’s look at the guards and centers together, since there will be some overlap – we’ll start with the guards, since some of the tackles we previously analyzed may end up as guards.

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 - submitted by Long Ball, DOF

Hello and welcome back to the trenches – it’s that time of year again when old Long Ball takes a long, hard look at the prospects that really make things happen in a football game:  the Big Uglies!  As I stated last year during my analysis, my philosophy has always been that I don’t care if you run a pro-style formation, shot-gun, run-and-shoot, Wildcat (single-wing) or the wishbone . . . . if my big guys whip your big guys, I’m gonna win!

Don’t be surprised if my personal rankings don’t necessarily fall in line with the Big Board (even though I am responsible for the Big Board LOL!)  Let’s start with the high-dollar position of offensive tackle – you know the drill, click and read . . . .

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Submitted by Long Ball, DOF

In 1859, Charles Dickens penned the absolute best opening of any novel in modern day prose – it would no doubt amuse him that “A Tale of Two Cities” would be applied to American Football. Nevertheless, I could not help but visualize the irony involved in the playoff game between Baltimore and Indianapolis.

For those of you younger than the author of this blog, a history lesson is in order: once upon a time, the Indianapolis Colts were known as the Baltimore Colts and the Baltimore Ravens were known as the Cleveland Browns. Confused? Click below for continuation of the history lesson.

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If we look at the current Consensus Mock Draft,  for the Steelers in the first round here’s the picture:

There are some guys you’d hope might fall somehow…. However, Spikes and McClain have been snapped up.  The big Tackle Davis from Rutgers has been taken.  The premier nose tackle in Dan Williams made it past Miami and Denver only to be snapped up by the 49ers.

Every year it seems that there is a parting between the top tier guys and the next bunch.  This year it looks like that drop off is right around #16 or so.

So who’s left at 18?  There are some good value guys hanging around.  Bulaga is a pretty safe bet as a RT.  Charles Brown could develop into a good LT.  Iupati would be an upgrade at RG.  The Steelers could upgrade at all of these positions.  Last year any of these OL guys would have been a quality pick.

This year things are different.  This year deficiencies at Safety and Corner became apparent.  This year James Farrior and Deshea Townsend lost a step.  This year Casey Hampton and Ryan Clark are free agents.

The depth at linebacker is severely depleted.  Larry Foote’s departure erased a lot of  the depth at ILB.  Bruce Davis did not make it as an OLB.  In fact, the Steelers were very fortunate to stay healthy at outside linebacker.  The OLB backups were shuffled extensively based on their abiliy to play special teams.  This shuffling is a not so subtle indicator of the backups’ discardable abilities on defense.

So who’s here at #18 to fill some of these voids and what are the other options.

Sean Witherspoon has purportedly been scouted by the team (Tweeted by Jim Wexell).  It’s an unusual news item since Witherspoon is mostly thought of as a Will LB in a 4-3.  However, He has great skills, great leadership and a good football IQ.  The Steelers would look at him for use as an ILB most likely.  The conversion might seem like a big deal but considering he’s going to spend half a year at Dick LeBeau University before he has any idea what he’s supposed to be doing, it’s probably not a huge deal.  The knock on Witherspoon is that he might not be good enough versus the run, making him essentially another version of Timmons.

Sergio Kindle was a great prospect going into the National Championship game and he shone brightly in the spotlight.  He would make an attractive candidate for an outside linebacker project.  This is another scenario where he’d be in school basically for the better part of a season learning the defense.  This would be a solid pick to address a real depth concern.

Patrick Robinson out of FSU is the top corner left at this point.  The Steelers drafted 2 corners last year and did not see much production from them.  In this kind of situation it’s really difficult as a fan to know how those guys are doing other than they’re not doing well enough to unseat the starters.  Burnett half cracked the line-up towards the end of the year, rotating with Townsend and Gay.  In my mind, Townsend Gay and Burnett are about equal in skill.  A talented corner could potentially move right into the #2 role. A quick glance at the big board shows a herd of corners with round 2 grades however so it might make sense to wait a round on this need.

At Nose Tackle, Dan Williams is already gone… you have Terrence Cody and Brian Price as possibilities.  Both are currently rated quite a bit lower than #18.  NT does not seem like a good value here.

One consideration here would be to trade down and get some additional early round picks.  My apologies to the prime time audience for the first round but this is a pretty sound idea.

So who might trade with the Steelers for this spot?

Kansas City is in the market for OL, showing an interest in multiple guards in fact.  They might be willing to trade Picks #36 and #52 for picks #18 and #113.

I asked the Online Draft Simulator what this trade would bring the Steelers and here’s the result for the first 4 rounds:

#36  Earl Thomas – Outstanding underclassman FS out of Texas.  Good value and it addresses a need.  Note that NT Terrence Cody and OC Maurkice Popuncey are still available under this simulation.

#51  Trevard Lindley — CB out of Kentucky will compete for #2 or #3 spot. This addresses a need and it’s a decent value.  Other corners such as Javier Arenas are still on the board.

#52 Darrell Stuckey — Top tier Talent at SS from Kansas boots Tyrone Carter from the team!  Potential to contribute right away on special teams and in nickel packages.  Polamalu get’s the understudy he’s needed for years.

#83 Vince Oghobase — The ODS picked a quality prospect at DE in the third.  Kam Chancellor (S) is still available in case you’d picked Cody at #36.  Toby Gerhart (RB) would be tempting here.  However  DT Jerrell Powe is still on the board and probably represents a more rare commodity than Oghobase.

All in all it looks like a pretty successful scenario.  Depending on your choices you have a couple of ways of getting 2 safeties, a corner and a Nose Tackle by the middle of round three.  Pretty solid start to a draft!

Once the Raiders (Al Davis) make the final call on the coaching situation, look for a more in depth discussion on the team needs and draft scenarios. For the time being we’ll look at the “real” or popular (in the case of Mike Leach) coaching possibilities for the Raiders in 2010.

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Rick McGlothlin, Senior Writer, Drafttek.com

 
So the regular season has been completed and the second season begins next Saturday with some new faces mixing it up in the post-season. There are some intriguing matchups to look at in the four wildcard playoff games set for next weekend, including three rematches of “yawners” on the final weekend. They should be anything but yawners this time ’round.

In the end, the St. Louis Rams managed to reap the reward of the first overall pick in next April’s draft, while the two #1 seeds in the playoffs finish the season with back to back losses. In the case of the New Orleans Saints, it’s been three consecutive losses. Not the sort of momentum a team wants heading into the playoff run, but at least they have homefield advantage throughout.

Here’s a look at the final results for Mac’s NFL Power Rankings in 2009:

1. Indianapolis (14-2) – Though losing their last two “meaningless” games, the Colts are still a powerhouse when Peyton Manning is on the field.

2. San Diego (13-3) – Whipped the Redskins with mostly reserves in the 2nd half and now look to make some noise in the playoffs.

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Rick McGlothlin / Drafttek.com Senior Writer

How aprapo that the Vikings go down on Monday Night Football the same weekend that the Colts get their first loss and the Saints stumble against the Bucs. The NFC playoff picture is pretty clear now as far as which teams will be playing - it’s only a question of seeding.  The AFC, however, is still a knock-down, drag ‘em-out affair that will go down to the wire. Meantime, the Colts “surrender” is getting ripped locally, as well as nationally while the Saints are teetering on the brink of a total implosion after the remarkably stunning collapse at home against the Bucs. So here are the next to last week of NFL Power Rankings, complete with a couple of changes that shouldn’t be too surprising but still makes for a shift that is felt through most.

1.(1) Indianapolis (14-1) – Most sports fans and those who travel around the country have probably heard of the phrase “Hoosier hospitality”, which underscores one of the best traits of the folks from this state and of the midwest in general. Nice people, easy going and friendly. Except when you decide to pull the rug out from under their feet and make one of the most clueless coaching / management decisions in NFL history. Up just 5 points with a little over 5 and a half minutes to go in the game (and having been just been pinned at their own 9 yard line following a punt by the Jets) Indianapolis coach Caldwell (most likely at the direction of GM Bill Polian) pulls Peyton Manning out of the game and inserts rookie QB Curtis Painter against the #1 defense in the NFL.

The collapse was on and so was the very uncommon response from the Colt faithful – which really can’t be reprinted here. Suffice it to say that the partisan crowd was extremely livid, boisterous and sometimes ……fanantical in their response. And it wasn’t directed at Curtis Painter per se, but rather the decision itself. No one wants to see a win turned into a loss – especially when you are pretty much driving up and down the field. But that’s basically what happened in Indianapolis in their game with the Jets and it will now remain to be seen if the players can just move on and put it out of their minds.
The only thing it shows for certain is just how valuable Manning is to this franchise, and should seal the MVP voting if wasn’t already. No other team in the league would self-destruct as much or as quickly as the Colts did post-Manning removal. It also just created havoc for some other teams with playoff aspirations.

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