Crap, Crap, Crap...

[Box_O_Rocks]

Crap, Crap, Crap...

NFL Network cites a report from Pro Football Weekly stating Kansas CB Aqib Talib (my #1 CB - FUDGE!!) admitted to testing positive for smoking marijuana three times while at Kansas. I guess Leodis McKelvin moves to #1. :sulk:

The same report notes WR Mario Manningham sent a letter to all the teams admitting to testing positive twice at Michigan. He had denied smoking marijuana during Combine interviews.

[shirtsleeve]

Crap, Crap, Crap...

NFL Network cites a report from Pro Football Weekly stating Kansas CB Aqib Talib (my #1 CB - FUDGE!!) admitted to testing positive for smoking marijuana three times while at Kansas. I guess Leodis McKelvin moves to #1. :sulk:

The same report notes WR Mario Manningham sent a letter to all the teams admitting to testing positive twice at Michigan. He had denied smoking marijuana during Combine interviews.

Isn't McKelvin the bigger harder hitting corner anyway?

[ParanoidPatriot]

yup, they say that these guys have been taken off several teams boards.

[Hawg73]

This story on Talib reminded me of this recent piece from NFL.com. Makes you wonder whether the "myth" was a rumor about Talib or just a general comment about league trends.


Buying into latest myth can get teams burned
By Pat Kirwan | NFL.com
Senior Analyst


PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Every so often, an apparent new trend pops up in the NFL that gets its legs for some unfounded reason. And it usually involves a concept that teams can get by with inferior players at a certain position.

As one GM said to me at the owners' meetings this week, "I hope the latest myth floating around here lasts until after the draft, because I want a certain position to fall to me." Another GM looked at me and laughed when I asked him what he thought of the latest myth.

I expect five players to be drafted in the first round at the position some people with a straight face now claim isn't that important -- cornerback. If teams pass on them because they buy into the new myth, they might regret it.

Before we get to the new concept floating around The Breakers hotel this week, here are two other ridiculous myths that have circulated around the NFL in recent years:

Myth No. 1: Just manage the game. After Trent Dilfer led the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl championship the idea that a team really didn't need a great quarterback to win it all started circulating. The myth said that a QB who could manage the game was good enough as long as the defense was above par. That myth caused a few teams to skip on quarterbacks like Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger. The fact is, the quarterback position is the most important one on the field. Sooner or later, every offense is going to have to run a two-minute drill to pull out a win and no manage-the-game guy can do that consistently in the heat of battle.

Myth No. 2: Don't waste a first-round pick on a running back. The Broncos had great success with their running game with late-round backs like Terrell Davis and Mike Anderson, to name a few over the years. The prevailing thought was that other teams should be able to succeed with late-round picks, too. How do you think the six teams that passed on Adrian Peterson feel about that concept? The Broncos' offensive line was pretty darn good and maybe, just maybe, teams made a mistake on their evaluation of Terrell Davis.

Those two examples lead me to the myth of 2008:

Cornerbacks are only as good as the pass rush: The Giants' Super Bowl victory has led some teams to conclude it was exclusively the pass rush with a bunch of average guys behind them in coverage that helped New York shut down the vaunted Patriots' passing attack. This myth should fade quickly, but a number of people came up to me this week and tried to make a case for downgrading corners.

I made a few points as I heard the corner situation unfold in front of me:

1. You can't play Cover 2 all day and have corners play the flat area every down. All an offense has to do is put trips (three receivers) to one side and the opposite corner is all alone. As for the pass rush, a three-step drop and a ball directed at the receiver who is being single-covered takes the pass rush out of the equation.

2. Down in the red zone, the fade route to a tall receiver really means the corner has to make a play on the ball and the rush will not be a factor before the fade is thrown.

Cornering the market
Pat Kirwan has four cornerbacks being taken in his latest mock draft:

6. Jets: Leodis McKelvin, Troy
10. Saints: Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Tennessee State
16. Cardinals: Aqib Talib, Kansas
27. Chargers: Michael Jenkins, South Florida

Kirwan's complete mock draft ... 3. Sometimes it's the jam of the corner on the receivers that sets up the pass rush.

4. Corey Webster is one of the Giants' corners who supposedly is just average. I asked Giants GM Jerry Reese about Webster and his first comment was, "Did you see the interception against the Packers?" Pass rush and corner play work hand in hand, just like an offensive line and a running back or a QB and his receivers.

I wonder who actually starts these myths. Is it the team that wants a corner to fall to them? Is it an outside observer who never coached or watched film? Or does someone actually believe you can get by with average guys?

Don't get me wrong, pass rush is a critical component to any football team, and the Giants' pass rush was great in Super Bowl XLII. But passing on a first-round corner later this month and reaching for a lower-graded pass rusher instead is dangerous business.

Chris Long (Virginia) and Vernon Gholston (Ohio State) will both be drafted before the first cornerback is taken because they are excellent football players. But soon after they come off the board, we will hear cornerbacks Leodis McKelvin, Aqib Talib, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Michael Jenkins called. Unless, of course, this latest myth has become a reality.

I doubt it.

[Box_O_Rocks]

Isn't McKelvin the bigger harder hitting corner anyway?McKelvin - 5'10" 190...

Talib - 6'1" 202...

:huh: :shrug::moss:

[shirtsleeve]

McKelvin - 5'10" 190...

Talib - 6'1" 202...

:huh: :shrug::moss:

Oh ok, but I thought I read somewhere that Mckelvin delivered the lumber? Hey, I am just beginning to lift the fog of thegamethatwillnotbementioned. I got a lot of catchin up to do. But at least I am back and thinking football. It took a lot and was a long journey.

[Hitman]

How bad is this?....Didn't Moss admit to smoking pot every month? :/

[patchick]

How bad is this?....Didn't Moss admit to smoking pot every month? :/

It's bad because he got caught, then did it again, then got caught, then did it again, then got caught....It's not so much a drug issue as a clueless immaturity and lack of self control issue. Do you want to place your faith (not to mention your awesome draft pick and tens of $millions) on that guy?

[Hitman]

Ohh.... LOL

I read it as "He admitted that he smoked it 3 times..." Oops...

[patchick]

Ohh.... LOL

I read it as "He admitted that he smoked it 3 times..." Oops...

Gotcha! :high:

At this point teams seem ok with a player admitting he's "experimented." But when visions of Whizzinators start flashing before your eyes, you have to drop the guy wayyyyyy down.

[Hitman]

Calvin Johnson and Gaines Adams both admitted to experimenting.. You never know I guess.

[southcarolina]

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/NFLDraft/Draft+Extras/2008/wwhi040808.htm


The way we hear it, Manningham, despite handling the situation poorly at the Combine with little guidance, is viewed as less of a character risk than Talib, who has been removed from more draft boards than Manningham, based on conversations PFW has had with nine NFL teams.

“There is no way I’d touch (Talib),” one team told PFW. “He’s gotten into a lot of trouble, and he still does not get it.”

“He’s got a laundry list of issues,” another team executive said of Talib's off-the-field behavior. “He’s not a one-time offender. Give a guy like him money, and it never gets better. It only gets worse.”

Talib was suspended for two games in 2006 for disciplinary reasons and has numerous non-drug-related issues that concern teams, although he has told teams that he has changed his ways since his daughter was born on June 22, 2007.

[chef]

lol, let's start a smear campian and hope he falls to 63

[TGIASM]

yeah, those herbs are sure bad for ya...:rolleyes:

[southcarolina]

yeah, those herbs are sure bad for ya...:rolleyes:

Well teams now dont want to draft the next Ricky Williams. This isnt a debate about the pros or cons of weed, its a question of whether the guy youre about to pay millions of dollars to has the maturity to handle it. And being a habitual discipline case (Talib) or a liar (Manningham) doesnt exactly lend credence to any claims they may have at having that maturity level.

[patsin°°]

IRVING -- The Dallas Cowboys had hoped to get an up-close look at Kansas cornerback and first-round prospect Aqib Talib on Friday at Valley Ranch.

But Talib did not attend the Cowboys' Dallas Day workout because of a scheduling problem with his other visits. The workout is designed for invited local-college or high school products. Talib, a Richardson Berkner graduate, is regarded as one of the top five cornerbacks in the draft and of high interest to the Cowboys.

Talib's presence would have greatly benefitted the Cowboys' evaluation, because he would have done drills with the Cowboys' coaching staff. Talib has not been invited for one of the pre-draft visits next week.

The Cowboys had 31 players at the workout, which lasted about three hours, including six from TCU. In the past, Dallas Day produced Cowboys receiver Patrick Crayton (DeSoto), former running back Tyson Thompson (Irving) and former cornerback Jacques Reeves (Lancaster).
.
Missed meet with cowboys