Thoughts On The 2009 NFL Draft
by Beergut on Apr 27, 2009 2:00 PM CDT
11 comments
- I think that if Stephen McGee had been at any other program besides Texas A&M after last season, he would not have been drafted. McGee played in six games all of last season, three of which he started. After injuring his shoulder, and being supplanted by Jerrod Johnson as the starter, McGee's season, and his career, was essentially over. After three years as a running quarterback under Dennis Franchione, McGee's pro prospects were already slim. I think Mike Sherman's experience as an NFL coach and general manager paved the way for McGee to get a shot in the League, and McGee's performance at college all-star games and at the Combine solidified his status. I think the fact that a player who received so little playing tme in the last season was able to be considered by the League and then drafted in the fourth round speaks volumes about our coaching staff. I hope high school recruits, especially quarterbacks, are taking note of the fact that our head coach's connections in the League basically placed a player in the NFL; if I'm a recruit, I want to play for someone like that.
- Darcel McBath of Texas Tech was drafted before Graham Harrell; I never would have beleived that would happen if I hadn't seen it.
- Mike Goodson may see some time at slot receiver and returning kicks for the Carolina Panthers. He was a solid receiver coming out of the backfield catching passes for us, so I think he can make a go of it as a receiver in the League, if needed. With DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart already on their roster, Goodson may start out as more of third-down back in the Panthers' offense.
- Biggest surprise of the Draft to me: Chris Ogbonnaya was drafted, while Quan Cosby was not. Ogbonnaya was a marginal college running back; Cosby was a star college wide receiver. I don't care about his lack of height, you can either play this game or you can't, and Cosby can definitely play this game. Some team will luck into him by picking him up as an undrafted free agent. Meanwhile, I'll be surprised if Ogbonnaya sees the field as a Ram.
- I loved the Vikings pick of Percy Harvin in the first round; having him and Adrian Peterson on the field at the same time gives Minnesota all sorts of options on offense.
- I think taking Phil Loadholt in the second round was a reach for Minnesota; a player who I believe will ultimately end up a RT in the League could be had later in the draft.
- The worst pick of the first round had to be Darrius Heyward-Bey by Oakland. Forget his 40 time, you don't pass over a talent like Michael Crabtree for someone who is a marginal college receiver. But again, we are talking about Al Davis, who also took Fabian Washington in 2005 just because he ran a 4.25 at the Combine, despite the fact that Washington was just a solid-but-inspectacular player at Nebraska. Davis seems to think drafting guys for a 4X100 relay is more important than drafting football players.
- Heyward-Bey would be the pick for the biggest bust in the first round, if it weren't for the fact that Detroit took Matt Stafford #1 overall. While Stafford may have been the best QB available, that speaks more to the weakness of the QB class this year than it does to his talent.
- I think USC has an 8th string waterboy who is looking like a pretty solid prospect for the League in the 2010 NFL Draft.
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It sounds like
McGee disagrees with you. After reading some of his comments, I’m under the impression that he sincerely believes that A&M is the reason he wasn’t drafted higher.
I am sure you are aware of the comments I'm talking about.
But the link is:
http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/04/stephen-mcgee-certainly-has-a-lot-of-con.html
“I’ve always viewed myself as being a first-round quarterback some day,” said McGee, a lifelong Cowboys fan. “Obviously, I had some things happen to me that mainly I couldn’t control. Just despite all that, I’m so thrilled to be in Dallas.”
McGee, who was fiercely loyal to Dennis Franchione when they were together at A&M, didn’t specifically mention his former coach. But he made it clear that he felt his talent was wasted in College Station.
“I’ve said all along that certainly if I would have been in a pro-style offense for all four years, I pretty much guarantee you that I would have been a first-round draft choice,” McGee said. "You know, I could have been in an offense that displayed my talent a lot better.
actually, I had seen the other comments he made, but in another article
“But first and foremost, I think any great quarterback will re-assign his own individual interests for the best interests of the team. At that time at A&M, that was to run the ball a lot more and feature our running backs. That was the strength of the team, so I did that. There was a lot of great lessons that I took from that. Maybe I would have been a higher draft choice, per se, but at the same time, I would have not have gone through a lot of the tough situations that I have, and I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. Hopefully, these lessons that I’ve learned the hard way in college will make me a better NFL quarterback.”
MacMahon seems to have gotten his quotes from several places; I’m not sure how the Leach quote fits into the story.
Maybe Leach should worry more about getting his QBs drafted, instead of worrying about who A&M’s coaches like or dislike.
I do not know why you brought up Leach.
I was talking about Stephen McGee believing that A&M might be the reason he isn’t a 1st round draft pick. I don’t know if he’s right because that seems awfully presumptuous of him, but he’s disagreeing with your assessment from above.
But since we’re on the subject, I could respond any number of ways. I could ask why Leach needs to worry about getting his QBs drafted, since we’ve had enormous production even out of walk ons like Cumbie, and we have the best stable of QB recruits at the program right now than at any other time in Leach’s tenure. We’re recruiting QBs better right now than we ever had under Leach, because prolonged historic offensive success, combined with the promise that you’ll get to put up NCAA Footballesque numbers, isn’t a bad recruiting tool. I might question whether Leach is really “worrying about” who A&M coaches like or dislike; I took the comment as more of a slap in the face of NFL programs who would pass on a fantastically successful CFB in favor of merely a mediocre one who maybe lost his job to injury but couldn’t win it back when he got better. But even if he did mean it vindictively, I think it’s an oversimplification to say Leach is really worried about A&M or what they do, maybe he just likes to mouth off and hasn’t thought of the comment since? Or I might go the other way, and ponder that maybe the reason Leach has had so much success over A&M is precisely because he worries about things that your coaches like or dislike.
McGee didn't say he wasn't a first round draft pick b/c he came to A&M
That is what you are extrapolating from his quote.
As to Leach, I’m not sure how much he worries about A&M, or if he worries at all; I just thought it was ludicrous that he made a comment about a player who doesn’t play for him, and one he doesn’t know at all. Leach is often humorous with some of his comments, but he has stuck his foot in his mouth several times these past few days.
Regardless of what kind of numbers QBs put up in Leach’s offense, those gaudy stats are not translating into NFL-ready QBs. The very fact that you can put in a physically limited walk-on like a Sonny Cumbie and put up gaudy numbers just attests to the claim that it is the system more than it is the players. This hurts the perception of QBs who come out of Tech, and I think it will eventually hurt recruiting, if it hasn’t already. I think Leach will continue to get QBs who can run his offense successfully (Harrell is a perfect example) who are not pro prospects, and will continue to be ignored by other schools because of that fact.
Potts may be the perfect test case for Leach’s system, b/c I believe he has the requisite size and cannon-arm that NFL scouts drool over, so we can see if he is labeled a “system” QB and ignored, or if they follow usual protocol, and draft the big kid with the big arm, regardless of system or stats.
if he goes to another school and the same things happen to him (option offense, injuries senior year, etc) i dont think he gets drafted. However, you put him in a system that plays to his strengths starting when he gets on campus, say texas, OU, OSU, LSU…whoever… I think he is drafted higher.
its all fodder now, he chose A&M and those things did happen, and he did get drafted. Here’s to SM having a great career as a member of America’s Team.
if, if, if
if he doesn’t get injured
if we had stuck with the ’04 offensive scheme
you can if yourself to death on this.
Fran ruined McGee, maybe forever. It remains to be seen. Leach was just upset his QB was not drafted. If Harrell and Daniel were smart, they would go to Canada and start for 3-4 years then come to the NFL. No point in fighting for 10 snaps per practice in an NFL training camp. Amazingly, teams are going to make Harrell TRY OUT for a free agent contract. They would be better served proving themself in the CFL like Flutie, Moon, and Garcia did.
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