Favorite Draft Analyst?

[rams56]

Of course we all have our own opinions as self proclaimed draft-nics.....but which draft analyst do you tent to lean toward or agree with most? What qualities make him your go to?

Go Rams..........

 

[12intheBox]

I'm a big fan of Daniel Jeremiah. He doesn't rely on extremes to make his arguments / I could listen to him talk football all day.

 

[thehammer]

I follow Byran Brouddus, Phil Savage, Zach Whitman, Aaron Wilson, Dan Jeremiah, Josh Buchanan, Matt Miller and Tony Pauline on twitter for draft news

 

[DaveFan'51]

I Like Cosell, because of all the film he watches, BUT hands down, for me, It's Mayock. He played and he seems to have a really good track record in picking BPA's, and placing them in the rounds they'll go! I just trust his analysis!

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I like Cosell more than the rest because his opinions really stand alone. He is not swayed by combine results as much as the rest of them, he is not afraid to have differing opinions and you never see him jump on any bandwagons. He really seems to stay objective.

Plus as a private contractor he is not steered by NFL Network or ESPN

 

[LACHAMP46]

Somebody remind me to check back on this poll later...It's funny who has the lead right now and it's who I voted for...But I listen to all of them, but I can see the truth more in the one guy....but even the no-names, guys like us have great insight...Guys can see more of local prospects...Guys were all over Hackensack in here, I got a chance to catch a bunch of Penn St. games and I see the talent, but I also see the flaws...I wonder how'd he do against real pass rushers? But his arm & delivery are classic...I kinda like the ex-players that were average...I also like the BR writers Ryan Riddle/Matt Bowen...they tend to tell it like it is....

 

[Stel]

I listen to what most of them say, but like Mayock the best.

 

[Boston Ram]

Honestly and not trying to be funny, but I believe more about what is said on this board. No, we don't have the inside information or get to interview the players but we watch the film on these guys. Everyone is open and honest and in most cases don't have an agenda with agents putting bugs in our ears.

Everyone who posts an opinion or break down of a player has actually watched the guy and has informed an opinion based on that only. And when they haven't seen him play they will state that also.

To be completely honest these guys are not any better than any of us, they just have more resources and can information we are not privy to.

 

[Boston Ram]

I do find that Bucky Brooks is always ahead of the curve when it comes to players falling or rising. If shows a player falling or rising I tend to put stock in that because he always seems to call a faller before the rest of the pack.

 

[Warner4Prez]

Corey Chavous. I love the work he does at draftnasty.com and he's a former Ram, so it's a double whammy.

 

[Dodgersrf]

ROD's very own Jerry, hammer and Mr . Walker, of course.

 

[RaminExile]

I think Mike Mayock is the best. I also like Merril Hoge and Todd McShay. Hoge rips guys early and often (see when he said anyone who took Manziel was a fool) which leads to accusations that he's just being contrarian (and of course he has statistics on his side because a lot of guys do end up "busts" or at least performing below the level analysts see them performing at). Mayock is if anything too kind. He always sees the ceiling. Most guys never reach their ceiling.

What I really want to hear from analysts is not how good a guy is athletically and what their ceiling is - but what traits do they have. What kind of hand use do they show consistently? Do they make concentration catches etc. These are the things that don't really change in players (they work on them but basically a guy who comes into this league say, weak at the point of attack, is basically going to leave it weak at the point of attack - so I think this is where you can best see the likelihood of guys succeeding long term), and Mayock does that well.

I also like Frank Caliendo as Mel Kiper Jr for the lulz.

 

[Selassie I]

The best draft guys have jobs in the NFL.

The so called gurus would be employed by NFL teams if they were worth a shit.

 

[rams56]

The best draft guys have jobs in the NFL.

The so called gurus would be employed by NFL teams if they were worth a crap.

I'm not so sure. A long time ago my brother and I tried to break into the NFL as scouts. As hard as we tried we could not even find a way to get an interview. We both are former players and coaches at many different levels after high school. As it turns out Waffle ( our d-line coach) is from our home town. We never met him until just 5 years ago. We had since stopped coaching and had families. .... he implied scouts personal department and gms....generally didn't even have sports management skills or even former coaches but were instead former business management majors who were friends of friends. Since...we have been draft nicks for 20 years. And are developing a matrix to measure and predict and are developing our own website.....but weather you like my analysis or not.... I feel there are exceptions, and I believe there are at least a few people on this board who can do better if not more......just my opinion. ...and I'm nobody.........

Go Rams...........

 

[Memphis Ram]

I prefer the opinions of the fans of each individual team. I don't visit as many message boards as I used to, but there's LOADS of info to be had by the fans.

BTW, Tony Pauline is probably one of the best draft guys there is out there.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

The best draft guys have jobs in the NFL.

The so called gurus would be employed by NFL teams if they were worth a crap.

That lifestyle is a grind. I can see why they would jump at a shot to be writing or even Moreso, on TV, but they need some personality. Man guys just don't have it. Jeremiah is borderline on the personality part. The network jobs would pay better too I bet.

LaConfora comes across as a zero.

I imagine once these guys quit scouting that they only get part of the info from their scout buddies. Eventually the sources would be less reliable because teams probably don't want guys they are paying to collect information and analyze to be giving away primo info. Eventually they get out of the loop on the down and dirty. Even from a scouts point of view, if you do all of the leg work why just hand out all your information for free? I would give tidbits at best.

But then I imagine the guys that made it to the big time did it by continually feeding the network people with free intel...so maybe there will always be a few.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I'm not so sure. A long time ago my brother and I tried to break into the NFL as scouts. As hard as we tried we could not even find a way to get an interview. We both are former players and coaches at many different levels after high school. As it turns out Waffle ( our d-line coach) is from our home town. We never met him until just 5 years ago. We had since stopped coaching and had families. .... he implied scouts personal department and gms....generally didn't even have sports management skills or even former coaches but were instead former business management majors who were friends of friends. Since...we have been draft nicks for 20 years. And are developing a matrix to measure and predict and are developing our own website.....but weather you like my analysis or not.... I feel there are exceptions, and I believe there are at least a few people on this board who can do better if not more......just my opinion. ...and I'm nobody.........

Go Rams...........

Just like 99% of the jobs out there anymore. People rarely get hired anymore unless they know someone, or the job is not that great to begin with. It's not what you know but who you know and in some cases who you blow.

 

[jrry32]

I'm not so sure. A long time ago my brother and I tried to break into the NFL as scouts. As hard as we tried we could not even find a way to get an interview. We both are former players and coaches at many different levels after high school. As it turns out Waffle ( our d-line coach) is from our home town. We never met him until just 5 years ago. We had since stopped coaching and had families. .... he implied scouts personal department and gms....generally didn't even have sports management skills or even former coaches but were instead former business management majors who were friends of friends. Since...we have been draft nicks for 20 years. And are developing a matrix to measure and predict and are developing our own website.....but weather you like my analysis or not.... I feel there are exceptions, and I believe there are at least a few people on this board who can do better if not more......just my opinion. ...and I'm nobody.........

Go Rams...........

I know that struggle.

I will say this much, though. No matter where you start and how you got your start, you learn so much from doing it and being around the people in the industry that it does make a difference. For example, there are some positions I know well and some positions that I don't. And it's just hard to learn the advanced intricate things about the positions that I don't know well without being around people who know that position intimately. That's the advantage you gain while working for a NFL organization.

I definitely think there are people out there who are naturally good at it. I do think like anything else, there's a degree of "naturalness" to being able to spot talent. And from there, it's just developing that skill. Anyways, the point I'm making is that it's definitely a friend of friends league. You are almost never going to break in without connections or something seriously amazing on your resume. Just too few spots and too many people that want to do it.

I do wish you luck on the matrix and hope you succeed with that. I'm always open to new ways of evaluating as long as they're useful.

Anyways, I'm digressing from the point of the thread. My favorite analyst is Josh Norris at rotoworld. I certainly don't agree with him anywhere close to all the time but I respect the guy's balls. You can tell he watches film and he goes with what he believes rather than what the consensus is. He'll go against the grain and he'll stick to his guns. He's not an insider or anything but I respect him as a talent evaluator.

The best insider imo is Bob McGinn. His pieces around draft time are incredible. Some of the best reads around in terms of inside information.