2015 NFL Combine

[12intheBox]

Wow

 

[rdlkgliders]

Is it just me or does there seem to be much less interest and posts about the combine this year?

 

[Mackeyser]

I think after last year, folks got wise.

Go crazy for the Combine and by the time the Draft gets here, you look like the Unibomber and your posts resemble his rantings... not pretty. So I think folks are pacing themselves.

Either that or like me, they play WoW like me and their damned Garrisons take for F'n ever to build up... /sigh.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Is it just me or does there seem to be much less interest and posts about the combine this year?

I have very little interest in it.
I did here on the radio today that the TV ratings were up 91%.
That's huge.

I would like to see them measure "Nasty and Mean".

 

[rdlkgliders]

WoW, That's a huge ratings jump.

I think after last year, folks got wise.

Go crazy for the Combine and by the time the Draft gets here, you look like the Unibomber and your posts resemble his rantings... not pretty. So I think folks are pacing themselves.

Either that or like me, they play WoW like me and their damned Garrisons take for F'n ever to build up... /sigh.

Are you a PC only Gamer? or do you own a console? PS4 and X1 for me. game of choice Destiny

 

[Mackeyser]

It's worse than that. I'm a Mac gamer. So between that and being a Rams fan, I'm truly a glutton for punishment...LOL.

I don't console game because I have a seizure disorder, so it's compounded. PC/Mac games, especially Blizzard have been sensitive to issues and in 6.1 just released a big colorblind tool. For a game many thought was moribund, that's a lot of resources for a QoL improvement. And they tend to keep the flashing lights to a minimum which I like. Plus, my meds give me hand tremors. A second med helps with that, but I'm what's referred to as a "clicker". I'm not a noob, but my fingers just do whatever the hell they feel like doing and when I had keybinds, I pressed the wrong button all the time. The *slightest* bit of adrenaline would make my hands shake like I was Katherine Hepburn. Not a fun way to play.

Can you imagine trying to console game in an earthquake? Yeah... I'll probably play Diablo 3 on the X1 when my son buys it since I also have that on my computer, but again, I think my son only wants me to play the console for HIS entertainment... don't laugh, that's not funny... well, it's kinda funny, but I don't wanna give him the satisfaction...

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/26/devin-smith-ohio-state-nfl-draft-combine/

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

T-Minus 63 Days: The Combine’s Myth Busters
Devin Smith can only go deep? That's not what it looked like in Indianapolis. How Smith, and five other large-school prospects, used the combine to prove they have patched up perceived holes in their games
By Robert Klemko

INDIANAPOLIS — I’ve spent the last two weeks downplaying the import of the scouting combine—at least the version we see on television. So as we put the combine to bed and look forward to various pro days, here’s one thing the Underwear Olympics is great for: dispelling myths about prospects.

More than 330 players participated last week in Indianapolis, and each of them came in with something to prove. Ohio State wide receiver Devin Smith knew he would run a good 40, and everyone expected the former NCAA sprinter and high jumper to post excellent measurables. But what no one expected, and what Smith was pining for, was positive reviews for his route-running.

Primarily a deep ball threat at Ohio State, with big-armed Cardale Jones finding him downfield consistently late in the season, Smith disappeared in some games (during one three-game stretch last season he caught four passes total). The conventional wisdom in the scouting community was that Smith was a one-trick pony with questionable intermediate route-running. Thus, Smith spent the better part of his combine prep fine-tuning his cuts at EXOS in San Diego. Rather than take a break after winning a national championship and participating in the Senior Bowl, he bypassed a chance to spend some time at home in Akron and began training immediately.

Smith averaged four more yards per catch (28.2) than anyone else in the nation last season. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

“I wanted to work on the slants, the ins, the outs, curls,” Smith says. “Everybody knows I can go deep. I’ve displayed that throughout my whole career. It kind of frustrates me when people say that’s all I can do because I know I can run all the other routes. I ran them all in high school and college.”

And he ran them all in Indianapolis, to positive reviews. He caught almost everything, too. Said one NFC scout: “He looks like your classic guy who was hamstrung in a system and got pegged, when in reality he can do a lot.”

Sixteen teams interviewed Smith, projected as a second-round pick. Educated guess: The Raiders, Rams, Chiefs and Ravens will be in the Smith market come April.

Said Smith: “I just feel like, with the offense we were in, we’re just gonna run the go because we’re so good at it. We’ve got a big-armed quarterback so we used that to our advantage and did it a little more than other teams.”

A lot more. More than half of Smith’s catches in 2014 went for 25 yards or more. In addition, Smith lined up as a gunner on the punt team, and didn’t realize it was a big deal to have the best receiver playing special teams until Urban Meyer pulled him aside after the Wisconsin game junior year and congratulated him on a punt team stop inside the opponent’s 10-yard line.

“He called it solving the mystery,” Smith says. “He saw not just my play grow but everybody’s play grow.”

Smith was uniquely capable for all that running. He starred on the Buckeyes’ track team up until his junior year, never taking more than three days off between seasons. After the Orange Bowl in early 2014, Smith would wake up for 6 a.m. football workouts, then class, then track workouts in the early evening. The last time he took a week off of running?

“Probably sixth grade.”

Such was his reputation for speed that his 4.42 40-yard dash disappointed some, including one AFC scout I spoke with: “He ran just O.K. for a legitimate deep threat. He was expected to be much faster.”

It’s the combine. Everyone’s a critic.

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DRAFT

Five well-known players from big schools who stepped up in Indianapolis and dispelled some of the biggest concerns surrounding their games.

1. Stephone Anthony, ILB, Clemson
Knock: One-dimensional
Anthony ran a 4.56 40-yard dash and a 4.03 20-yard shuttle, demonstrating an ability to cover ground no one expected. “In theory,” said one AFC scout, “that changes his scouting report from a two-down guy to a possible three-down linebacker.”

2. Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon
Knock: Not “pro ready”
The second QB on most draft boards gets downgraded for thriving in an offense with simplified reads. We keep hearing he’s not “pro ready” like Jameis Winston, who spent far more time under center (we’ll get into the fallacy of the “pro ready” tag later.) Here’s what one scout told me about the chalk talks Mariota had with several teams: “He did much better on the board than expected and his football IQ was surprisingly good.”

3. Landon Collins, S, Alabama
Knock: Too slow
Collins posted average agility numbers but stunned some scouts with a 4.53 40 time, fifth best among this class of safeties. Celebrated as a run stopper and criticized in coverage, Collins made a few teams take a second look at the tape with his straight-line speed.

4. Angelo Blackson, DT, Auburn
Knock: One-dimensional
Blackson challenged the notion that he’s little more than a gap plugger by weighing in at 318 lbs. and still posting impressive 10-yard shuttle and 20-yard dash times. Said one NFC scout: “He may have opened the door for a lot of these teams who were thinking he was just a run stuffer.”

5. Vic Beasley, OLB, Clemson
Knock: Undersized
Going into this combine, you had to wonder if Beasley was physically capable of setting the edge in the run game. He was listed at 230 lbs. with relatively short arms and a narrow frame. Beasley answered those concerns by showing up in Indianapolis at 246 and dominating every measurable drill he participated in.

BETTER KNOW A PROSPECT

Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images

Normally we reserve the Better Know a Prospect portion of the column for guys likely to be picked in the later rounds, but seeing as this guy’s combine performance made headlines, and I can’t exactly peg him to a round, Paul Dawson might be the exception. I’ve heard everything from first round to seventh on this guy, all from sources I know and trust (which goes to show how varied and inexact the scouting formula remains). I think the truth is somewhere closer to Round 1.

Some called Dawson the best linebacker in the class prior to the combine. Then the TCU product arrived in Indianapolis. He weighed in light for a linebacker at 230 and ran a 4.93-second 40 with a 28-inch vertical leap and 9-foot, 1-inch broad jump. For comparison, a year ago 302-pound Nevada guard Joel Bitonio broad-jumped nine-and-a-half feet and he recorded a 32-inch vertical. Add to that Dawson’s admission that he was tardy “a lot” to meetings at TCU (something coaches were happy to leak to scouts), and Dawson begins to look like draft season’s biggest free-faller.

So what will save him? I had the pleasure of meeting Dawson to go over his film. We watched TCU’s destruction of Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, and I really came to understand what he was all about. He operates on a cocktail of intense film study and a quick trigger. He can get engaged by nimble offensive linemen, but more often he’s sidestepping them and knifing towards ball carriers. On one first-quarter play, he sniffs out a misdirection run based on the solitary observation of a wing back aligned too far to the inside. He memorizes the attributes of the opposing tight ends and receivers to understand what the opponent might do in various personnel sets.

“I would be late to meetings, and that’s my fault,” he says, “but I would be the last guy in the building watching tape on the other team.”

How many Ole Miss games did he watch prior to the Peach Bowl?

“All of them.”

In the fourth quarter, there’s a play that still irks Dawson. Ole Miss is threatening at the TCU 9-yard line on third down. The running back motions left in a ploy to freeze the linebackers, but Dawson ignores him, anticipates a wide receiver screen and probably would’ve picked it off for a 91 yard return if he hadn’t been—get this—too early.

“They do a lot of screens in goal line, when they need like five yards for a touchdown,” he says. “It’s the same play Laquon Treadwell broke his leg on earlier in the season. I was telling everybody I would pick off that play, and I just got too excited.”

Imprudence on the field was one reason the converted high school wide receiver didn’t start until the sixth game of his junior season. He would occasionally forget assignments and just sprint to the ball. Before his first start, against Kansas in 2013, he dove into the film study and saw results: 17 tackles against Kansas on his way to 91 stops as a junior. A year later he collected 136 tackles, 20 TFL, six sacks and four interceptions. With the All-America nod, the press was overwhelmingly positive until the TCU staff started talking.

“I’ll just google myself when I’m bored and see what people are talking about,” Dawson says. “I told myself I had to stop reading all that.”

If he reads one last thing on the internet, let it be this: The team that drafts Dawson will get a football player, if not a track star.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I don’t care if a guy at the Combine talks passion. I care more if I see it on tape by him going full blast 100 percent on every snap. The Combine is all about measurables. It is an important part that helps you make decisions—but only after watching the tape. And even then, you still don’t know how it is all going to turn out. What we are all doing is making a very good, calculated, educated, theory-based guess.”

—Carolina Panthers running backs coach Jim Skipper, entering his 33rd season as a professional football coach, to SB Nation’s Thomas George.

STAT OF THE WEEK

For this week we might as well rename the section Stat Guy of the Week. That title goes Marcus Armstrong, a software engineer and Jets fan living in Boston who brings us a unique way of looking at prospects via his no-frills site, mockdraftable.com.

Armstrong compiled combine data going back to 1999 and created digital representations of the percentile each player achieved in each combine event relative to his draft class position. The data is represented in the form of a polygon, inspired by a Madden franchise mode feature some years back. A big data “spread” indicates a top performer.

“Back in the day, for franchise mode, you’d get to see the draft prospects laid out on a 5-dimensional spider chart,” Armstrong tells me. “I always thought that was a great way of visualizing the space, so when I ended up with this whole database of measurables, I pretty quickly reached for it as a great way to get context for the relatively opaque numbers that the combine gives you.”

The results can be deceiving. Calvin Johnson and DeMarcus Ware earned huge spreads, but so did Logan Thomas and Taylor Mays. For added kicks, Armstrong fixed it so you could compare each player to other positions. For instance, you can see how AJ McCarron would’ve compared to the 2014 defensive ends (uh, not well).

For a more practical application, look no further than the immaculate spread of Clemson DE Vic Beasley, who, at 246 pounds, would have ranked in the top half of cornerbacks in the three-cone and 20-yard shuttle agility tests.

If you’re like me, this sort of thing never gets old.

Jason Lisk of the Big Lead laid waste to a recent draft axiom, “pro-ready,” used most often to describe quarterbacks. I’m guilty of using it and having only a vague sense of what it means. Lisk provided a list of guys described as pro ready in recent years, and it includes the likes of Brandon Weeden, Ryan Lindley, Matt Barkley, Ryan Nassib, Zach Mettenberger and David Fales.

Lisk: “When players have been described as ‘pro-ready’ or not ‘pro-ready,’ it seems to have little predictive value in determining whether they are ready to play professional football at a high level, immediately or in the future.”

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/26/post-combine-roundtable-2015-nfl-draft-free-agency/

MMQB Roundtable: From the Combine to Free Agency
Our staff discusses the top takeaways coming out of Indy and looks at what’s in store for Ndamukong Suh and other stars expected to hit the market next week

The MMQB is stealing an idea from our friends at Golf.com, who run a fun feature called Tour Confidential, in which their staffers discuss the events of the week on the PGA tour. We ripped the idea off, proudly, and today are debuting The MMQB Roundtable.

On Tuesday night three MMQB reporters who spent last weekend at the combine in Indianapolis—Peter King, Jenny Vrentas and Robert Klemko—connected by instant messaging to exchange views on a range of topics as the NFL exits the combine and heads into free-agency, with the draft still a little more than two months away.

Topic 1: What player helped himself most at the combine?

Peter King: Kevin White of West Virginia, the receiver, helped himself a lot. He justlooks like a top receiver. A taller guy who could be Larry Fitzgerald/Mike Evans productive in year one … and he runs 4.35. He may have leapfrogged [Alabama wideout] Amari Cooper in Indy.

Jenny Vrentas: [Hobart offensive lineman] Ali Marpet is one answer.

King: Love that pick, Jenny! Ali Marpet of Hobart, the tiny school that plays teams like Worcester Polytech. Fastest lineman at the combine. Had a good Senior Bowl. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but he might be a second-day pick.

Robert Klemko: Clemson OLB Vic Beasley. What a ridiculous performance … 6.9 in the three cone and 35 bench reps of 225 pounds. I hate to say this, because I think we overvalue the combine, but I think he may have moved into the top third of the first round with that performance.

Vrentas: You know what I dislike about the bench press, though? It discriminates against guys with long arms. And long arms are good in the NFL!

King: That’s why you rock, Vrentas.

Klemko: It applies to Beasley … 32.5 inch arms were one of the shortest for a pass rusher.

Topic 2: What will Tampa Bay do with the first pick?

Vrentas: I think the Bucs will take Jameis Winston. I think they’ll see a quarterback who is ready to run a pro-style offense right away, and that will distract them from the off-the field question marks.

King: Take Jameis Winston, providing all the intel comes up clean. Seems too obvious—again, unless there’s a lot of baggage the Bucs find in discovery.

Klemko: Jameis. I think the Buccaneers and the Glazer family are looking for a face-of-the-franchise-type of passer as much as they’re searching for a winner. The Bucs consistently rank in the bottom five in attendance every season and haven’t had an iconic player on offense in decades.

Even when they were contenders, the stars were Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp and John Lynch. I think they see this pick as an opportunity to grab a pro-ready quarterback who may not be a sure thing but will certainly put the national spotlight on the franchise. They’ll take Jameis … right after they figure out how and why he threw all of those interceptions.

King: I do think Jameis would be able to handle the bullcrap that goes with being the first player picked … again, if he is pretty clean when the Bucs delve into his past.

Vrentas: One thing about those interceptions—that’s the nature of passing in a pro-style offense. You are learning to put the ball in those tight windows. I spent a while talking to an offensive coach about the college quarterback coming from a spread attack versus a pro-style offense.

The skill and ability to throw into narrow passing windows is one of the aspects that sets apart the great quarterbacks in the NFL. Winston has that, even if it led to more interceptions in college. Marcus Mariota, who ran a college spread offense, doesn’t. That doesn’t mean he can’t learn, but it’s more of a question mark as to whether he can.

Topic 3: Whither Mariota, if Winston goes number one?

Vrentas: I have a hard time seeing Mariota drop past the Jets at six. Put another way: If he gets to the Jets at six, I think they should grab him.

King: I believe Mariota will go in the top six picks too. In fact, I think there will be competition to move ahead of the Jets and take him in the top five. I did my ridiculously early Fine Fifteen mock draft this week, and I’ve got the Eagles trading to number five to get him. With his potential and his too-good-to-be-true persona, someone’s going to gamble he can make the transition from spread to regular NFL offense. Or semi-regular, if you’re talking the Eagles.

Klemko: I don’t think there’s a way he gets past six, but I can remember everyone saying the same thing exactly 10 years ago when Aaron Rodgers fell all the way to 24. Mariota still has a pro day and a deep investigation into his football traits ahead of him, and like Jenny alluded to, he’s not necessarily ready to contribute right away, which was one knock on Rodgers. If he somehow fell beyond six, I think there’s a good chance the Bears snap him up at 7, depending entirely on the new staff’s evaluation of Cutler happening right now.

King: The difference between this and Rodgers was there weren’t as many teams then that needed a quarterback. The Packers benefited from that. This year, the Rams, Browns and Eagles, at least, are in the quarterback market.

Klemko: In 2005 the Dolphins picked at 2 and decided to stand pat with a 34-year-old Gus Frerotte. The Lions at 10 were in Year Four of Joey Harrington and decided to wait until the fifth round to pick a quarterback—Dan Orlovsky. There was just something about Rodgers that made people uneasy, and it could happen with Mariota and his handful of career snaps under center. Let’s say the Eagles decide the price is too high to trade up, the Rams run with Bradford and wait until next year, and the Browns sign Josh McCown and resolve to groom Johnny Manziel and Connor Shaw … It could happen.

King: Good points. I like ’em a lot.

Topic 4: Have we reached a saturation point with combine coverage? (Lord, please?)

Klemko: Selfishly, I like going to the combine because you get to finally meet and socialize with the people you’ve been texting with all year. In terms of practicality, I think the combine is important for two reasons, neither of which necessitates a media onslaught: prospect interviews and agent-team meetings on current NFL free agents. But only a handful of people are actually asking questions about those things. Mort needs to be at the combine. Schefter needs to be at the combine. You need to be at the combine, PK. You all are. But everybody huddled around the press conferences? Waste of time and money.

King: I’m conflicted on this. A lot of those 1,071 media who attended this year are actually NFL employees. Some teams had five, six, seven people from team websites in Indy to cover the combine, and to interview people like us. NFL Network probably had 200 people, in front and behind the cameras, at the combine. So though it’s still an insane number of media people, 500 or 600 members of the news media (and not the NFL-supported and -funded media) is a bit of a different story.

Vrentas: Those coaches and GMs come in for their press conferences, and they are in the media area for two-plus hours going up and down the radio row. It wasn’t that way, even five years ago, when I started going. Never want to complain about people being media-friendly. But that’s a big chunk of their day.

King: Yeah, the press conferences are a waste of time. It would be better if each coach/GM saw the national guys in a scrum, then their locals in a scrum, then talked to the TVs. We just don’t get much out of it, normally. In my case, I usually wait for coaches or GMs I need to walk out, and then walk with them as they return to the workouts, or in between talk-show spots. That’s what I did with Jeff Fisher this year, and he was pretty good about some Competition Committee points.

Vrentas: You learn far more at 10 p.m. at Prime 47 than at a podium.

King: True, Jenny. But sometimes you need to get guys on the record. Those sessions at restaurants or bars are great for information, though.

Klemko: Bengals.com doesn’t need to be there with eight guys to interview Mark Dominick and Peter King, but the NFL will do and try anything to expand its brand. I’m shocked the opening of free agency isn’t a national holiday yet. NFL people call the combine Spring Break for coaches, and I see why. Kind of entertaining to watch all these football geniuses stumbling around darkened bars.

King: Robert took me out Saturday night. I am still recovering, but I loved it. I would never go to 110-decibel clubs. I met some interesting people I didn’t know. I appreciate Robert looking out for me.

Klemko: It was pretty funny. Here’s all these 20-somethings wearing Gucci and Jordans and midriffs in 30-degree weather, and here’s Peter with his hands in his winter coat and a smile on his face. I wish we took pictures.

Topic 5: Should the combine move to different markets?

Klemko: I suggested that, and then I think it was Albert Breer who told me there’s no other city in the middle of the country with such a concentration of hospitals, hotels and an indoor stadium.

Vrentas: I get why it’s Indy. Convention town, plenty of hotel rooms, central in the U.S., they have something like three MRIs at the stadium. Plus, football people like routine.

Klemko: Wouldn’t it be such a huge pain if you actually had to DRIVE around the combine town?

King: Love Indy because of that. Cab into the city, and then you never have to get in a car again until you leave. Albert’s right. I think Indianapolis is the perfect city for it: centrally located in the country, with everything walkable, and all the medical facilities (for combine medical exams) very close.

Klemko: Albert’s always right.

Topic 6: What do we think about the draft being moved to Chicago this year?

Klemko: Why didn’t this happen a long time ago? Seems like you really only need one great venue to run it, as opposed to needing ideal infrastructure in a city for the combine … Personally, I can’t wait to take everyone to Pequod’s, Union Sushi and Au Cheval, the very best in the city IMO.

King: The players walking a red carpet on Michigan Avenue will be cool to see—if that’s what they’re going to do. I think the draft should move around. There’s not a perfect venue in New York (the place in Chicago is even a little small), but I could see the kind of rotation that one day will bring it to rabid cities like Seattle and Green Bay. Why not?

Klemko: I think it should go to the city with the first pick. Who says the NFL can’t plan a draft in five months?

King: Logistical nightmare. But an interesting idea. Never say never with this league.

Klemko: Around Week 14 you’d have an idea of which two or three teams, and then you send out the NFL envoys and say, hey, the draft might be here. You’re welcome.

Vrentas: But what if the team trades out?

Klemko: Set it at the end of the year and don’t sweat it if it changes.

Vrentas: Plus, that might be too late to book the right venue in that city for the right weekend.

Klemko: The NFL forced the governor of Arizona to veto a social policy bill. They can find a venue.

Vrentas: I’m surprised it moved from New York, to be honest. It always felt like the perfect big stage to match this jump off a cliff these guys are taking. You know what else I’m surprised by? That they scheduled the draft the same weekend as the Kentucky Derby. I guess the draft will be in rounds six and seven at that point, but why compete with the same Saturday afternoon window?

King: Good point.

Vrentas: They should have been doing it in L.A.

King: At the Kodak [editor’s note: now Dolby] Theatre! Julianne Moore in February, Jameis Winston in April!

• WHO IS LYNDEN TRAIL? Andy Staples on the draft’s biggest mystery man

Topic 7: Pretty huge free-agency class coming up.

Klemko: Which of these guys do you think gets re-signed? Jason Pierre-Paul. Randall Cobb. Justin Houston. DeMarco Murray. Julius Thomas.

King: Free agency, to me, isn’t a clear picture until we see what happens with guys like Suh and Pierre-Paul. I say both end up back with their teams. Justin Houston, tagged. Cobb, back with the Packers, somehow. Julius Thomas lands somewhere. Don’t know where. Peyton Manning will not be pleased. DeMarco Murray, for some reason, I see signing elsewhere. I can’t see Dallas making him a $9-million-a-year player with significant guarantees.

Klemko: Opening the door for Adrian Peterson in Dallas.

King: Yes. Adrian the free agent would be best for the Murray-less Cowboys, or Arizona. The Cardinals would love Peterson.

Klemko: Back to Suh. If he is unwilling to settle for less than J.J. Watt money, I don’t think it can work out in Detroit. What a talent hitting the market. Would he be the best DL free agent since Reggie White?

King: Yes, but I think Detroit would franchise him rather than letting him walk.

Vrentas: For a cool $27 million I think.

Klemko: Via Dave Birkett, who covers the Lions: “If he’s franchised, Suh will make about $26.9 million next year and count the same amount against the cap, with another $9.7 million in ‘dead money’ that’s already been paid out also on the Lions’ cap. That’s $36.6 million total, or roughly 25 percent of next year’s projected $143 million cap.”

King: That’s a whoa.

Vrentas: That’s a no.

Klemko: People love rhymes.

Vrentas: Except for you. You hate poems.

King: Klemko loves haikus. Let’s all do an NFL haiku.

Klemko: I honestly don’t know the rules of a haiku.

King: Five-seven-five … five syllables, then seven, then five on the last line. Like:

Yo Adrian! You out?Jerry Jones awaits freedom.Just wait till April.

Vrentas: Your first line’s six syllables. Here’s mine:

Indy sure was cold But Jameis Winston warmed Many a GM.

King: Your second line’s six syllables.

Klemko: “Mine:

Haikus make the best Sportswriters sound like dummies So lets just stop it

Vrentas: WOW.

Last topic: Best nugget you took away from the combine.

Vrentas: Said one coach: “There are 300 million people in the U.S., but we can’t find 32 NFL quarterbacks? As coaches, we’re messing it up.”

Klemko: Everybody hates the Patriots. Not just media … coaches, players and agents too. So many people were delighted to see Belichick slammed on Deflategate, no matter how silly it was/remains.

King: Probably that the Bucs are leaning toward thinking Winston’s problems are due to immaturity, and not because he’s a bad guy. That leads me to believe he’s the leader in the clubhouse with the draft two months away.