By Kip Earlywine
Height: 6'7"
Weight: 280
Unofficial 40: 4.83
Positives:
-Big, tall, and strong
-Sometimes decent bull rush, edge rush
-Good tackler
-Hard to move
-Good stats in 2008 (16 TFL, 10 sacks)
-Can play 3-4 end or 4-3 end
-No character concerns, seems like a leader on the field
Negatives:
-Disappeared in 2009 (6 TFL, 4 sacks)
-Slow for a DE, lacks agility too.
-Might be better suited in a 3-4. In a 4-3 he'd be a LDE only
-Mediocre hand use and limited pass rush repertoire
-Will occasionally drop his head or misdiagnose
-Seemed to be dinged up a lot in 2009
My thoughts:
Wootton is a buy low player who should end up drafted in the 2nd or 3rd round. He's a bit of a boom or bust player, as shown by his 2008/2009 stats. I think he's almost certainly better than his '09 stats because he seemed to be suffering from smaller injuries a lot last year. However, I think its meaningful that Wootton pretty much disappeared once he was only 80% or 90%. To me that indicates that he wasn't a truly dominant player when healthy. He'll continue to have injuries from time to time in the NFL, and I'd hate to see him become completely shut down from them.
Wootton to me looks like a classic run stopping DE, and should probably be drafted by a 3-4 team. If he stayed completely healthy and had a best case scenario, he'd only be a little better than Lawrence Jackson, and Jackson is just now shaking off his "entry" years in which DE's typically struggle. So I doubt Wootton would make a lot of sense to the Seahawks, especially since they don't have a 3rd rounder. If he became a star, it wouldn't shock me, but he's risky and doesn't offer the kind of pass rushing upgrade the Seahawks are looking for, so he seems like an unlikely option.
5 comments:
Thanks Kip!
Yeah, one LoJack is more than enough. So given Carroll's 4-3 scheme, how many guys are realistic possibilities in the first and second rounds as pass rushing ends?
If JPP and Griffen max out their potential, they would qualify. But I'm not a big fan of either. Morgan, definitely. Brandon Graham had mind blowing stats this year (25 TFL!, 9.5 sacks), and he's extremely similar to Darryl Tapp. I don't think Graham will last to #40, but he deserves consideration there. Dunlap has potential but I don't like his work ethic and lack of production. Then you have Wootten. That pretty much sums up rounds 1 and 2.
Kearly, Is this write up a joke?
"Disappeared in 2009 " I think you need to research why his 2009 season was down before you say something like "I think he's almost certainly better than his '09 stats because he seemed to be suffering from smaller injuries". There's plenty of sources that have cited this fact.
By the way, the "smaller injuries" was a torn right ACL in the 2008 Alamo Bowl. He plays defensive end and needs his legs. He had ACL surgery and he didn't miss a game in 2009. He's a buy low guy that is going to surprise some folks at the combine.
"Wootton, at 6 feet 7, 280 pounds, is projected by CollegeFootballNews.com as a possible late first-round pick. He has to alleviate any fears the pros have after he suffered a knee injury in the 2009 Alamo Bowl and was slowed by a high ankle sprain suffered against Purdue last season."
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/college_sports/82662867_Audition_time_nears.html
1st anon- you called me "kearly." Are you from Fieldgulls or .net? Just wondering.
I didn't know about the ACL but this was just a quick POTD by request. I was trying to finish it in under 1 hour. When researching I did hear murmurs about him being slowed by injury in 2009 so I mentioned it.
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