Monday 15 February 2010

Mel Kiper and Todd McShay in the lab

8 comments:

Matthew Baldwin said...

I'll give Kiper the edge over McShay on the ongoing Clausen debate.

a) I don't think McShay's point about Clausen being maxed out or already hit his ceiling because he's been around good coaching is a valid argument. When did "high football IQ" become a handicap?

b) In the 2006 draft, Kiper correctly prophesized that Cutler would be the best of the big 3; Young, Leinart and Culter.

(Cutler has his issues and he struggled with a new offense, no line or weapons, but he's far better than Young or Leinart IMO.)

Brian S said...

I would much, much rather draft a "maxed out" QB who is already accurate and intelligent than draft the next Jamarcus Russell based on future potential growth.

The immaturity thing does bother me, though. Pete Carroll plus undisciplined players is a bad combination.

Unknown said...

Nice to see ESPN still has a big production budget in this economy =)

Spare me the "lab" nonsense unless Kiper dresses up like Doc Brown and McShay throws on the orange vest and does his best Marty McFly.

Rob Staton said...

I like the way they both rolled their sleeves up and loosened the tie to give that added 'busy day at the office' look.

Patrick said...

I still for the life of me can't figure out why they BOTH have Colt McCoy at #3? Am I missing something? How can both of them be so high on him? I like Zac Robinson and Sean Canfield much more than McCoy.

Matthew Baldwin said...

I was puzzled by Colt McCoy at 3 as well. Dude has a noodle for an arm and isn't much better than Graham Harrell last year IMO.

BTW: Isn't Harrell already out of the league?

Rob Staton said...

I believe Harrell has started a coaching career and has indeed given up the playing side of things after an unsuccesful stint in the CFL.

McCoy for me will really struggle to have an impact in the NFL. Kiper had him in his top ten (big board) earlier in the year. Rob Rang had him going to the Seahawks in the top ten of an early mock draft. For me - he's always been nothing more than a mid-late round pick. I don't think he'll ever start in the NFL as anything other than a backup stand-in.

Kip Earlywine said...

Wow that was really entertaining, as were some of the comments here. I normally like McShay a bit more than Kiper- as Kiper tends to be the Paula Abdul of draft punditry- he's so incredibly positive and upbeat about everyone that it makes it hard to take some of his praise very seriously. McShay tends to be more critical and is willing to take an unpopular position (like with Clausen).

Anyway, despite that I found myself agreeing with Kiper this time. Tebow is definitely the highest risk QB in that his delivery issues make him extremely unlikely to be a good NFL QB combined with the fact that Tebow will probably be a 2nd round pick.

Clausen is high risk, but he's not even as risky as Bradford. I appreciate that McShay is being tough in his evaluations but I thought his reasons against Clausen weren't all that persuasive.

I liked that both had Bradford #1.