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Bunting: Late Pre-Draft Buzz
I chatted with the NFP's Wes Bunting this morning and got a second opinion on some of the bigger draft rumors to float this week.
Cowboys Nation: The rumor mill has spun out of control in the last couple of days. A lot of rising and falling. I'll throw some stuff out: Stephon Gilmore is now a top 10 player. Courtney Upshaw has fallen out of the 1st. Bruce Irvin may get into the late 1st. Riley Reiff could really fall.
I could buy one of those rumors, but there are about six of them out there now.
Wes Bunting: I'm hearing Shea McClellin.. Have you heard Shea McClellin might be a top 20 pick now?
CN: That was one I heard and I was trying to figure out who would want him that high? Maybe the Chargers? Maybe the Bears?
WB: I would say Chargers, maybe? The Bears? That makes a little bit of sense, but there's not that team up there that you look at and say, "yeah! That's a great fit for him." You think Packers and Patriots at the end of the 1st as better fits for him.
I don't know how much I buy it. Now, do you want to talk about the rumors?
CN: Absolutely. We've discussed these players to death. I think the readers want to know where these guys might go.
WB: I was talking to a director of college scouting the other day and we were going over corners, and he told me that Gilmore is the hot name right now and Kirkpatrick is falling a bit. Now, he still thinks Gilmore is the 2nd corner off the board and Kirkpatrick is the 3rd. He didn't tell me top 10. He said top 15 for Gilmore and mid-to-late 1st for Kirkpatrick.
I asked about Janoris Jenkins and he said fringe 1st rounder, so he could fall into the 2nd. But, he thinks those are the four 1st round corners, with Jenkins possibly falling.
He mentioned as high as 8 to Jacksonville for Gilmore but the thinking is they're looking for wide receiver. I have a hard time thinking Gilmore goes top 10, but that's me.
CN: Who are the fits? I put it up last night and one reader said he had seen Jacksonville and Carolina mentioned as possible teams on Gilmore.
WB: I did hear Jacksonville on Gilmore, and I'm hearing a lot of buzz, and take this for what it's worth, about Fletcher Cox at 9 to Carolina. I don't know if it's true or not, but Cox is the player I'm hearing Carolina likes.
CN: I've seen that teams in that mid-top-10 range are also looking at Michael Brockers really hard.
WB: It's funny. I've heard Brockers in that range and I've also heard he's falling, like he could fall to the mid-to-late 1st round range.
It's like anywhere from 6 to 32 is where Brockers could go. Thanks a lot. Okay.
I really do think more 4-3 teams have him as a later 1st round pick and more 3-4 teams have him as a top-15 pick.
CN: That makes some sense. We look at these players and often want to give them a hard overall rating, not thinking the player might be a scheme-specific guy and the team you might be talking to uses a scheme the player might not fit so well, so you'll get a more negative report.
WB: If I'm the Cowboys and he's sitting there and it's Brockers and DeCastro, that's a really tough call.
CN: Speaking of 5-techniques, I got it that Dallas is bullish on Derek Wolfe. Now, Mel Kiper has been really high on Wolfe and said he could be this year's Tyson Alualu pick, the big wow who goes much higher than expected.
WB: I've gone back and I've watched him. I put him in my latest mock as a 3rd, to the Packers. I'm not a huge fan from a ranking standpoint. But I think his ceiling could be 2nd round, maybe 3rd round.
CN: I was a bit surprised by it, and I went back and read your rankings and they lined up with what I heard, that he's a high motor guy with good hands. It seems that there's a difference in opinion on his ceiling and some teams think it's higher than you do. The NFL Network's Michael Lombardi was also talking about Wolfe as a 2nd rounder a couple of days ago.
WB: I think this happens every year with some defensive linemen who get hot at the right time and for me personally, I'm not going to move a guy, but that's me. I hope he becomes a good player. He can be, but I would have a hard time taking him that high.
CN: If somehow we could put on some of these invisible cloaks and walk into all the war rooms and look at their boards we would find incredible variations in player rankings once you get past the top 6-10 players.
WB: If people knew what NFL draft boards looked like. When I go back and talk to scouts after the drafts, you hear some crazy things. There was one a couple of years ago that told me his team had Nate Davis, the quarterback from Ball State, rated as a 1st round pick. And there was no need to take a quarterback, so they didn't take him.
Fans would be shocked if they knew some of the grades. Dan LeFevour got a 2nd round grade from a team. And these guys washed out. If fans knew how different the boards were? It's not like the draftniks where I'm a little different from this guy, and he's a little bit different from the next guy...
NFL teams are really different.
WB: We got one look at a Dallas board two years ago and there's NaVorro Bowman with a 1st round grade. The draftniks all had him as a 3rd or a 4th. That amazed a lot of people at the time but you look at him now and realize that they were onto something.
Next: Risers and fallers, Alabama linebackers, wide receivers, possible 1st round crashers and 2nd round droppers.
I chatted with the NFP's Wes Bunting this morning and got a second opinion on some of the bigger draft rumors to float this week.
Cowboys Nation: The rumor mill has spun out of control in the last couple of days. A lot of rising and falling. I'll throw some stuff out: Stephon Gilmore is now a top 10 player. Courtney Upshaw has fallen out of the 1st. Bruce Irvin may get into the late 1st. Riley Reiff could really fall.
I could buy one of those rumors, but there are about six of them out there now.
Wes Bunting: I'm hearing Shea McClellin.. Have you heard Shea McClellin might be a top 20 pick now?
CN: That was one I heard and I was trying to figure out who would want him that high? Maybe the Chargers? Maybe the Bears?
WB: I would say Chargers, maybe? The Bears? That makes a little bit of sense, but there's not that team up there that you look at and say, "yeah! That's a great fit for him." You think Packers and Patriots at the end of the 1st as better fits for him.
I don't know how much I buy it. Now, do you want to talk about the rumors?
CN: Absolutely. We've discussed these players to death. I think the readers want to know where these guys might go.
WB: I was talking to a director of college scouting the other day and we were going over corners, and he told me that Gilmore is the hot name right now and Kirkpatrick is falling a bit. Now, he still thinks Gilmore is the 2nd corner off the board and Kirkpatrick is the 3rd. He didn't tell me top 10. He said top 15 for Gilmore and mid-to-late 1st for Kirkpatrick.
I asked about Janoris Jenkins and he said fringe 1st rounder, so he could fall into the 2nd. But, he thinks those are the four 1st round corners, with Jenkins possibly falling.
He mentioned as high as 8 to Jacksonville for Gilmore but the thinking is they're looking for wide receiver. I have a hard time thinking Gilmore goes top 10, but that's me.
CN: Who are the fits? I put it up last night and one reader said he had seen Jacksonville and Carolina mentioned as possible teams on Gilmore.
WB: I did hear Jacksonville on Gilmore, and I'm hearing a lot of buzz, and take this for what it's worth, about Fletcher Cox at 9 to Carolina. I don't know if it's true or not, but Cox is the player I'm hearing Carolina likes.
CN: I've seen that teams in that mid-top-10 range are also looking at Michael Brockers really hard.
WB: It's funny. I've heard Brockers in that range and I've also heard he's falling, like he could fall to the mid-to-late 1st round range.
It's like anywhere from 6 to 32 is where Brockers could go. Thanks a lot. Okay.
I really do think more 4-3 teams have him as a later 1st round pick and more 3-4 teams have him as a top-15 pick.
CN: That makes some sense. We look at these players and often want to give them a hard overall rating, not thinking the player might be a scheme-specific guy and the team you might be talking to uses a scheme the player might not fit so well, so you'll get a more negative report.
WB: If I'm the Cowboys and he's sitting there and it's Brockers and DeCastro, that's a really tough call.
CN: Speaking of 5-techniques, I got it that Dallas is bullish on Derek Wolfe. Now, Mel Kiper has been really high on Wolfe and said he could be this year's Tyson Alualu pick, the big wow who goes much higher than expected.
WB: I've gone back and I've watched him. I put him in my latest mock as a 3rd, to the Packers. I'm not a huge fan from a ranking standpoint. But I think his ceiling could be 2nd round, maybe 3rd round.
CN: I was a bit surprised by it, and I went back and read your rankings and they lined up with what I heard, that he's a high motor guy with good hands. It seems that there's a difference in opinion on his ceiling and some teams think it's higher than you do. The NFL Network's Michael Lombardi was also talking about Wolfe as a 2nd rounder a couple of days ago.
WB: I think this happens every year with some defensive linemen who get hot at the right time and for me personally, I'm not going to move a guy, but that's me. I hope he becomes a good player. He can be, but I would have a hard time taking him that high.
CN: If somehow we could put on some of these invisible cloaks and walk into all the war rooms and look at their boards we would find incredible variations in player rankings once you get past the top 6-10 players.
WB: If people knew what NFL draft boards looked like. When I go back and talk to scouts after the drafts, you hear some crazy things. There was one a couple of years ago that told me his team had Nate Davis, the quarterback from Ball State, rated as a 1st round pick. And there was no need to take a quarterback, so they didn't take him.
Fans would be shocked if they knew some of the grades. Dan LeFevour got a 2nd round grade from a team. And these guys washed out. If fans knew how different the boards were? It's not like the draftniks where I'm a little different from this guy, and he's a little bit different from the next guy...
NFL teams are really different.
WB: We got one look at a Dallas board two years ago and there's NaVorro Bowman with a 1st round grade. The draftniks all had him as a 3rd or a 4th. That amazed a lot of people at the time but you look at him now and realize that they were onto something.
Next: Risers and fallers, Alabama linebackers, wide receivers, possible 1st round crashers and 2nd round droppers.
