Thank you guys for all your praise. Now, to address some of the issues brought up.
Dol-Fan Dupree said:
made me wish I watched the game. Good read as always. Long as always as well .
Well, you know me man.
Lazy1 said:
Mcneal if he doesnt change position is a major major project. Even if you were impressed with how he perfomed in the shrine game.... you should'nt have been. A scrambling qb's dream is to have a defense not prepare and have a game plan in stopping you from running wild...
As I was trying to say in the main post, his converting first downs with his legs did not impress me. What impressed me was A) He always kept his eyes up looking for the pass and only ran when he really had to, B) The passes he threw were accurate rockets with a pretty spiral and great trajectory, C) His ball placement was very good. Over the middle and on the skinny post the ball was placed nice and high where the receiver could stretch for it (and never behind the receiver), on the other stuff it was lower toward the front hip where it needed to be, and of the three deep passes two of them were directly in front of the receiver so he could catch it on the run over his shoulder, and the third was a slight underthrow to where Watkins could go up and make a play in single coverage. Basically McNeal put on a clinic on ball placement. He also put on a clinic on overconfidence in your arm. Remember, the PASSES are what haunted me, not the runs for a first down. McNeal sat in the pocket and completed passes, allowed an offense to work for him...this is not the stuff that a WR convert like Michael Robinson does. And not for nothing, but I've yet to see Jay Cutler show as good ball placement as Reggie McNeal showed (in that one game, mind you).
Finfan54 said:
Ck, do you bring your laptop and write as you watch? Incredible. Good stuff. Tanks bro!
Actually I was up in Gainesville during the game itself visiting my gf, and I was using her laptop downstairs while the game was on to post in my thread in the Draft Forum as the game wore on...posting my thoughts as the game happened so that I could revisit the thread and collect them into one solid piece.
mbsinmisc said:
As usual, great job. Given my druthers, and the likely way the draft breaks down, we will probably pick a QB in the second or third round. Of these three who would you pick CK?
I would wait until the 3rd round and draft Croyle or McNeal, whichever is available (and if both are available, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). I would try not to draft Whitehurst until the 4th if I could get away with it. If neither Croyle nor McNeal were available in the 3rd, I would maybe think about taking Whitehurst to make sure we got ourselves a top level QB prospect instead of some guy who will sit 3rd string for 4 years. BUT! I reserve final judgment on where to draft these guys until just before the draft, because even if you evaluate a guy as a 3rd rounder, if everyone else is evaluating him as a 5th rounder you'd be nuts to take him in the 3rd round, because you could get away with having him in the 4th or 5th.
As for people being high on Brodie...there are still a few things that disturb me. His accuracy at the Senior Bowl has not been good at all so far. That disturbs me. He's basically working in the homefield offense. Mike Shula brought with him to Alabama a derivation of the same Norv Turner offensive playbook that they had in Miami when Shula was the QBs coach here. So now Norv is running the offense at the Senior Bowl and this should be the hometeam playbook for Brodie yet he's still been very inconsistent in his throws. I think he'll work that out as the week progresses, and I expect to hear a far better report on him in today's and tomorrow's action...and for him to follow that up with a strong showing in the game itself. But keep in mind, if he disappoints me by not showing strong today, tomorrow, and Saturday...then my opinion of him could change a bit.
And btw, Whitehurst isn't perfect in OT games. If I'm not mistaken the Miami game went to OT this year and he lost to us.
