Quote:
Originally Posted by mavericknyc1980
Maybe Im not giving this guy enough credit but why number 30. Is he better then Reed, Ayers, Houston, Wilkerson, Heyward or Taylor???
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at this point "better" means nothing unless you are talking about as a prospect, and how their skillsets, experience and potential translate to the next level.
As prospects, they all have negatives.
Reed has never even played the position from a fundamentals standpoint that he would play in the NFL. In other words, he's going to have to relearn football fundamentals. Imagine going to medical school to be podiatrist, but you get drafted by a dental firm...sure it can be done. But Reed has to relearn how to be a football player on two feet instead of three (well, two feet and a hand in the dirt). This is the largest gap to bridge and one that many ppl -- even GMs -- simply assume can be done. This is what happened to Gholston. The player was simply not a LB. Martez Wilson already is...
Houston has experience both at DE and OLB (different people will give you different feedback on the results of his play at either). His college career would seem to indicate that he probably has the greatest potential as a pure playmaker of Reed/Ayers/Wilson/Houston. But he gives inconsistent effort, which at the NFL level is totally unacceptable, way worse than being a poor athlete, and now has a red flag for failing a drug test.
Wilson has experience playing in a number of different LB positions, inside, outside, odd-man-front, 4 down. He was a HEAVILY recruited high school DE. He has the body-frame of a DE -- not of a LB. He looks more like Jason Taylor than David Harris. But playing 3 years at LB means that he has already stabilized all of the necessary LB fundamentals. This is NOT a raw prospect. Moreover, he is the one of 2 or 3 best pure athletes of all the LBs in the draft class. In fact his timed 40 measurement is at the very top of all LBs. His athletic ability gives him the highest possible ceiling of all of these players. His aforesaid versatility would be a tremendous boon for Rex and
make his defense potentially vexing for QBs to figure pre-snap. Speaking of Rex, Rex PERSONALLY went to the Illinois ProDay...
Ayers is a bit of a conundrum to me. He plays fast on tape, but at the combine where Wilson ran 4.49, he couldn't even break 4.8....when you watch him on film, he shows natural ability to "bend the edge" -- integral to getting to the QB at the next level. despite the fact that he doesn't measure well, Ayers is a player i like a lot. not as athletic or versatile as wilson, but with specific strengths.
Wilkerson, Taylor, and Heyward aren't even comparable positionally.