As part of the draft process teams will bring in prospects for visits and will travel to conduct meetings or private workouts with prospects. Teams are allowed to have 30 prospects visit their facility before the cut off date of April 27th. I've compiled a list for each team that shows which players a team has shown interest in. The list includes the player, the type of meeting (dinner, workout, visit), the date of the meeting, and the source who is reporting the meeting. Throughout the list there are some blank spots where the type of meeting and date should be. This is because the source who is reporting the meeting does not specify the date or what type of meeting it is and I do not want to guess as to the type of meeting it is.
It's interesting to see the prospects that some teams are using one of their 30 visits on. There are a lot of names that the average fan might not recognize. These are players that are emerging late in the draft process and have intrigued the eyes of scouts throughout the league. Some of the names that stand out; Cody Latimer, Walt Aiken, Phillip Gaines, Walter Powell, Carl Bradford, Robert Herron, Billy Turner, DeMarcus Lawrence.
Before I put the list up I want to stress a couple of things. This is an incomplete list. Once again, this list is not a finished product. I know that there are some past visits/workouts/meetings that are not on the list. I'm making edits to the list whenever I have the time, but I thought it would be a good idea to put this up to give people somewhat of an idea who is visiting and where. Second, I did not list players whose workout was part of a team's local pro day. Teams have pro days for prospects who attended college or are from the team's area. I chose not to include them on the list as several players invited are not serious draft prospects and I originally started the list to track official visits.
The list is in the order teams will pick at in the 2014 NFL Draft. I'm unable to paste tables into posts on this site so I'm instead posting images of the table. I will post the links that are referenced in the table below the image of the table. This will be the first of three posts and will contain the teams picking from first to tenth.
How Has St. Louis Spent The Picks Acquired In Their 2012 Trade With Washington?
Following the 2011 season the Rams once again hit the reset button after going 2-14. Head coach Steve Spagnuolo and GM Billy Deveaney were fired and were replaced by Jeff Fisher and Les Snead. The 2012 draft featured two of the best quarterback prospects the draft had seen in a long time, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Fisher and Snead were tasked with deciding whether they were comfortable moving forward with Sam Bradford, who was selected with the first overall pick in 2010, or if they wanted to choose Griffin who was certain to be available at number two. Ultimately the decided that the best course of action was to trade down and move forward with Bradford as the team's quarterback. St. Louis would end up trading the second overall pick in exchange for Washington's first round pick in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and a second round pick in 2012. In 2012 St. Louis traded the first round pick they got from Washington to Dallas in exchange for Dallas' first round pick and their second round pick. The Rams still weren't done dealing though, they traded the second round pick they received from Dallas in exchange for Chicago's second round pick and their fifth round pick.
The following year the first round pick that they had via the trade with Washington was the 22nd overall pick. Earlier in the draft the Rams traded several of their own picks to Buffalo for the eighth overall pick so they could select Tavon Austin, specifically their first, second, third, and seventh round picks. The Rams used the pick from Washington to get back into the third round in a trade with Atlanta. Atlanta received the 22nd overall pick and a future 2015 pick and Atlanta sent St. Louis a first, third and a sixth round pics. Once again the Rams traded down with the pick received via the RGIII trade and turned it into multiple picks. They were able to replenish some of the mid round picks that they lost in the Buffalo trade but still were able to select twice in the first round. The sixth round pick they received from Atlanta they paired with their own sixth round pick and traded it to Houston for a fifth round pick.
The Rams were able to turn Washington's 22nd overall pick into Alec Ogletree, Stedman Bailey, and Zac Stacy. In his rookie year Ogletree had one interception which he returned for a touchdown, 1.5 sacks, 117 tackles, six forced fumbles, and played in 97% of the defense's snaps. Bailey did not have a reception until week nine, but he became a part of the passing game towards the end of the season. Following the bye week Bailey had a reception in every remaining game and even scored his first touchdown on a 26 yard rush in week 16. Stacy is perhaps the most notable of the group as he appears to be the Rams running back of the future after an impressive 2013 season. Stacy rushed for 973 yards and seven touchdowns his rookie season. Starting in week 5 Stacy rushed for 50 yards or more in every game but two.
St. Louis has turned their second overall pick from the 2012 NFL Draft into seven picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts. Those seven picks have brought the Rams four current starters; an emerging WR, a RB that has been a disappointment, and a guard that is no longer on the team. Could St. Louis have spent their picks from Washington any better than they did in the 2012 draft? One of their needs going into the 2012 draft was an OLB, they would spend a first round pick on this position the following year. Linebackers Lavonte David and Zach Brown are two players who were selected shortly after the Rams selected Pead and are playing well on their current team. If they wanted to go offense with that pick Rueben Randle and Dwayne Allen are two offensive players that were selected shortly after the Rams picked Pead. Three players that could have helped the Rams and were picked in the fifth round, after the Rams selected Rokevious Watkins, are Marvin Jones, George Iloka, and Vick Ballard. Jones has done a nice job in Cincinnati as their second receiver and showed great improvement in his second season in the league. Ballard led the Colts in rushing his rookie season and RB was still a need for the Rams then as Steven Jackson was approaching the end of his time in St. Louis and Zac Stacy wasn't on the team at this point in time. Safety was another need for the Rams and Iloka has done a great job on Cincinnati's defense.
Could the Rams have done a better job using the picks obtained from Washington in 2012? Probably, but you're almost never going to bat a thousand when it comes to drafting players. The most impressive thing about how the Rams have used their picks from that deal is that they have been able to take two first round picks and by trading down turn those two first round picks into seven total picks in two seasons. And when trading down they still managed to stay in the first round in both drafts. You can't complain when you're able to get four to five starters in exchange for one first round draft pick. The most amazing thing about this trade is that the Rams still have Washington's first round pick in this years draft. That pick is the second overall pick in the draft, the same pick that the Rams were able to trade in 2012 and in return get the picks that they would use to select players that are cornerstones of the franchise moving forward.
Tight end Jace Amaro had a breakout season in 2013, finishing in the top ten nationally in several receiving statistics. He was the top tight end in the nation in yards, receptions, yards per game, and receptions per game. Even when including receivers, Amaro led the Big 12 in yards and receptions. The junior decided to forfeit his final year of eligibility to enter the NFL Draft. He is viewed as one of the top two prospects at his position in the upcoming draft.
Although the Red Raiders lost to Oklahoma State this past season, statistically speaking the game was Amaro's best. He had a season high 15 receptions and 174 yards. In the video you'll see how Amaro can turn short receptions into long gains and how he does a nice job navigating the field after making a catch. Amaro rarely lines up as a traditional tight end on the line with the offensive linemen. He is almost always lined up as a wide receiver in the slot. Since he is rarely lined up as a traditional tight end you don't get to see him block as a traditional tight end. Most of the blocking he does in this video is as a wide receiver on screen plays and draws. After watching Amaro in this game I believe that blocking is definitely something that he'll have to work on. He doesn't dominate smaller linebackers and defensive backs like you would expect someone with his frame, 6'5 260, would.
Justin Gilbert is the next cornerback to have a video of himself in coverage on Draft Analysis. The video features Gilbert vs West Virginia, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Gilbert and Darqueze Dennard appear to be the consensus top two cornerbacks in this year's draft class. While Dennard is more a physical corner, Gilbert is more of a finesse corner and possesses great speed. In addition to being a terrific cornerback Gilbert is also a talented kick returner.
The selection of plays in the video above are passes that were thrown to the man, zone, or area that Gilbert was covering. Some things to keep in mind when watching the video:
At the end of the West Virginia game Gilbert throws a punch and is ejected from the game. As a result he was suspended for the first half of the Kansas State game.
Against Texas Gilbert makes an interception at the end of the first half. However he injured himself on the play and missed the rest of the game.
As a result of the injury he suffered against Texas he was not used in his usual role against Baylor. Gilbert played sparingly during the game against the Baylor Bears.
As part of an ongoing series DraftAnalysis.org will be looking at the past five years of team’s drafts to see how teams use their picks and what strategies are used in the draft. The next team in the series is the New England Patriots.
No other head coach in the NFL has the autonomy over a team's draft process than Bill Belichick has with the Patriots. Owner Robert Kraft has given Belichick complete control over football operations for the team. When looking at the type of player's the Patriots draft it's clear that Belichick has a certain type of player that he wants to play for him. Some have been critical of Belichick for frequently trading down in the draft and for using high picks on players that are are seen as a low value by other talent evaluators. Here are the Patriot's draft picks over the past five years:
Importance of Seniors
The first thing that jumps out when viewing the type of players Belichick drafts is the amount of seniors he selects and the scarcity of players with only three years of college, true juniors. Over the past five years Belichick has only drafted a third year junior twice. That happened in 2010 when he selected tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Unlike the two previous teams we've analyzed Belichick has rarely used a first round draft pick on a true junior. Vince Wilfork and Laurence Maroney are the exceptions. During an appearance on a podcast Scott Pioli, a longtime front office assistant under Belichick, talked about how Belichick placed a premium on high character guys who had their degrees. The reasoning behind this is because it helps to create a locker room that is always in harmony and rarely a volatile situation. Belichick's preference for experienced mature players is best evidenced by the 2009 draft. Belichick had 12 overall picks and spent nine of them on redshirt seniors and the other three on fourth year seniors.
The fourth year of college must mean a lot to Belichick because he has shown a willingness to select redshirt juniors. Belichick has spent first round draft picks on redshirt juniors as recently as 2012, DE Chandler Jones, and 2008, LB Jerod Mayo. Jones is currently the team's best pass rusher and led the team in sacks while Mayo is a team captain. In 2011 Belichick drafted redshirt juniors Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley, and Ryan Mallett. Mallett has served as Tom Brady's backup QB, however Ridley and Vereen have become big parts of the offense. Ridley was one of the leading rushers in the league last year and Vereen has turned into Tom Brady's most reliable target out of the backfield. Despite being injured for most of the season Vereen still managed to lead all Patriot runningbacks in fantasy points.
Perhaps the fourth year is important to Belichick because by that point in an individual's college career they most likely have their degree. Pioli specifically mentioned players with degrees when discussing what Belichick was looking for. If he does in fact place a great deal of importance on a player having a degree, maybe it's because it shows him that the player is able to finish what he starts. Belichick and Brady's offense is recognized as one of the most complex and hardest to learn in the league. Maybe he thinks if someone can't finish their college degree then they won't be able to understand his system.
Value
Another staple of a Belichick draft is that he doesn't care if a guy who he values as a third round pick might be available as an undrafted free agent. He doesn't care what draft experts from TV think, Belichick is going to draft that player when he wants to. The two most prominent examples of this occurred when Belichick spent a 2012 second round selection on Tavon Wilson and a 2013 third round selection on Duron Harmon.
The selections of Wilson and Harmon bring up another trend in recent drafts by the Patriots, the selection of players not invited to the combine. As you can see in the table below the Patriots selected 10 players over the past five years that weren't invited to the NFL combine. This makes it even more clear that Belichick does not care about the opinions of analysts like Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. Belichick evaluates talent differently, so what might be an UDFA to most people could be worth a second round pick to Bill Belichick.
Coaches
The Patriots have often selected multiple players from the same school in the draft. Often it's a sign that Belichick has great respect for their college coach and possibly a sign that he feels these players have been adequately prepared to play his style of football. This happened in 2008 with Urban Meyer at Florida and most recently in 2013 with players Greg Schiano coached while at Rutgers. It appears that recently Belichick has become fond of selecting players from Gary Patterson's TCU program. In two of the past three drafts the Patriots have selected a player from TCU.
Another coach that Belichick must feel prepares players well for the NFL is Bobby Petrino. Over the past five years he's drafted three players coached by Petrino, most recently Jake Bequette and Ryan Mallett. The selection of Bequette is another example where many people felt Belichick drafted a player to early. Once again though, Belichick often doesn't agree with the media on a player's value. Belichick's familiarity with Petrino's players probably made him feel secure that the player would work in his system. The selection of Mallet demonstrates how much Belichick trusts him. One of the biggest knocks on Mallett during the draft process were questions concerning his character and some believe that is why he fell to the third round. It's possible that Petrino assured Belichick that the questions concerning Mallett's character were blown out of proportion, leading Belichick to draft him in the third round.
The college connection New England is most well known for though is the one it shares with Rutgers. As previously mentioned Belichick spent three picks on players from Rutgers in 2013. Belichick obviously likes the way that coach Greg Schiano coaches his players as he has selected four over the past five years. Based on the results it looks like Schiano's players are very well suited to play in New England. For instance, this past year Logan Ryan was able to come in to New England and be one of the league leaders in interceptions. Similarly, Devin McCourty was drafted out of Rutgers in 2010 and as a rookie was named to the Sporting News All Pro Team and voted to the Pro Bowl.
When the sample size is expanded from five years to the 13 that Belichick has been the head coach in New England it shows the head coach he has drafted from the most is Nick Saban. Saban was Belichick's defensive coordinator when Belichick was the head coach in Cleveland so this is not surprising. Saban has produced draft picks for Belichick at each of the last three schools he has been the head coach at; Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama.
FCS
One last interesting note about Belichick's drafts is that he rarely uses draft picks on players who have not played at the FBS level. Since his first draft in 2000 Belichick has only selected four players who did not play at the FBS level. In comparison the Ravens organization has selected eight in just the last five drafts. Clearly Belichick values players who have faced talented competition during their collegiate career. One might view Belichick's drafting of unheralded college prospects who weren't invited to the combine as his alternative to drafting players from smaller schools. He has drafted more prospects that weren't invited to the combine than most other teams. This could indicate that Belichick would rather try to get more out of an unheralded player who played at a more competitive school, than draft a small school player who hasn't proven himself against elite competition.
As part of an ongoing series DraftAnalysis.org will be looking at the past five years of team's drafts to see how teams use their picks and what strategies are used in the draft. The next team in the series is the New York Giants.
The Giant's on the field success over the past five years, including winning a Super Bowl, can be attributed in part to the way they've built much of their roster via the draft. In the front office, Jerry Reese has been the team's general manager since the 2007 season. Reese was promoted to GM after serving as director of player personnel for the Giants between 2004 and 2007. The head coach, Tom Coughlin, is the third longest tenured head coach having held the title since 2004. Here are their picks over the past five drafts:
The Giants appear to have a fairly similar draft strategy to their fellow NFC East team the Cowboys. Like the Cowboys the Giants have spent the last five drafts using their higher picks on juniors who have a lot of potential but not much experience. They have used that strategy in four of their last five drafts, the exception coming in the 2011 draft. Perhaps Coughlin and Reese felt like after losing two of the team's last three games and missing the playoffs that the Giants needed more leadership and maturity in the locker room. All of the players they drafted in the draft following that season had been in college for at least four years and half of them were captains in college.
With the exception of the 2011draft, the Giants have frequently spent their picks in rounds one through three on juniors with high upside. The results of taking risks on those young players has been mostly positive. The juniors they selected with those picks are; Hakeem Nicks, Jason Pierre-Paul, Linval Joseph, Chad Jones, David Wilson, Rueben Randle, Jayron Hosley, Jonathan Hankins, and Damontre Moore.
Nicks has been a productive receiver for the Giants since they drafted him, he was the team's leading in 2010 and has been one of the team's top three receivers every year since entering the league.
The following year they made somewhat of risky selection when they took Jason Pierre-Paul in the first round. Paul was born in Haiti and didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school. He then spent two years at two different community colleges before playing one season at USF. They made the selection despite having defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck already on the roster. However their pick paid off as Pierre-Paul is now one of the best pass rushers in the league and was a crucial part of the Giants' 2011 Super Bowl.
Receiver Rueben Randle is one of the juniors selected by the Giants in the 2012 draft. Randle was seen as a raw prospect who had received great praise when coming out of high school but played in an offense at LSU that did not throw the ball much. He did not receive much playing time during his rookie season but led the team in receiving touchdowns this past season and started two games.
In the most recent NFL Draft the Giants spent a third round pick on Damontre Moore. Moore decided to leave Texas A&M early and at one time was viewed as a top five pick. However because of character concerns and his performance at workouts Moore's stock fell. Moore played mostly on special teams this year but could turn into an impact player like other juniors the Giants took a chance on.
Of the nine true juniors the Giants drafted between 2009 and 2013 only one of them wasn't on the roster in 2013, the exception being Chad Jones. Jones was severely injured in a car accident that occurred shortly after he was drafted. The injury ended Jones' football career, however he is currently a pitcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization.
As the table below shows, the Giants like to spend the majority of their draft picks on experienced college football players like redshirt seniors to create a core group of players that they know are hard working and well respected. They will use anywhere between one or three picks a draft on juniors with high upside that could turn into really special players. Their selection of juniors has been superb, getting a good return from almost all of them. Their selection of players based on the side of the field they play on has been almost even over the past five years, selecting 19 offensive players, 18 defensive players, and one special teams players.
* The asterisk denotes that Jim Leavitt also coached one of the players the Giants drafted, Jacquian Williams, although he was not the coach at USF when Williams was drafted.
As part of a series here at Draft Analysis we thought it would be interesting to look at the ways teams have drafted over the past five years. Mostly we'll be looking at teams that have had the same general manager and head coach for roughly five years to see if they have any sort of recurring style that they like to use when drafting. In each draft class we'll look at the size of the draft class, positions selected, college experience of players selected, the college coach of players selected, and various other factors.
First up in the series is the Dallas Cowboys. In addition to being the owner of the Cowboys Jerry Jones also serves as President and GM of the club. The current head coach of the club is Jason Garrett, a position he's held since taking over for Wade Phillips during the 2010 season. Let's take a look at their draft classes:
One of the trends that jumps out upon looking at the Cowboys last five drafts is their first round selections between 2010 and 2012. In these three drafts the Cowboys selected a junior and then seniors or redshirt seniors for the remainder of the draft. The strategy in those three drafts appears to have been to take risks on young inexperienced players with high upside and to follow that by selecting seniors with four or five years of experience, many of whom were captains on their college team. This strategy appears to have worked out well for the most part. Dez Bryant had character concerns and didn't play at all his junior year of college due to the findings of an NCAA investigation. However, he has put up great numbers over the past two seasons; he has started 30 games, had over 1200 yards receiving in both seasons, and caught 25 touchdowns. Their 2011 first round selection Tyron Smith has blossomed into one of the best left tackles in the NFL. Their 2012 first round selection, Morris Claiborne, has struggled thus far in his young career due to injuries, but he can't be written off after just two years in the league. Claiborne was a risky selection by the Cowboys as he had only received extensive playing time during two of his three years at LSU.
The strategy of using the remainder of their draft picks on experienced seniors and captains also appears to have been somewhat successful. Some of the seniors or redshirt seniors they took in rounds two through seven have become key players of the team. Sean Lee, drafted as a RS SR from Penn State, is probably the best example of this. He’s one of the Cowboy’s team captains and a key player on their defense. Other examples of successful draft picks that were used on seniors after the first round are Bruce Carter, DeMarco Murray, James Hanna, and Kyle Wilber.
In 2013 the Cowboys chose not to use their first overall pick on a young player as they had in the previous three drafts, in fact they were more conservative. They traded down to for the 31st pick in the first round in exchange for a third round pick. With their first two picks they picked established college players who were leaders on their college teams. Using the extra third round pick they received in the trade they were able to select Terrance Williams, a WR from Baylor. Williams would end up finishing third on the team in receiving yards and touchdowns. This more conservative approach from the Cowboys seems to have worked out as the player they traded down for, Travis Frederick, would start all 16 games and be named to the All Rookie Team.
It will be interesting to see how Jerry Jones approaches this years draft. Following another disappointing 8-8 season will he use a similar approach to last year or will he return to an approach similar to what he used in 2012, trading up and selecting a player that lacks experience at the college level but has upside.
Here are some other tables that illustrate the Cowboys trends when drafting over the past five years:
Brady Hoke and Pete Carroll have asterisks next to their names because they coached a prospect for half or the majority of the prospects time at their college. In Hoke's case it's Gavin Escobar and for Carroll it's Tyron Smith.
The class breakdown table really does a good job illustrating how rarely the Cowboys do select a junior, and as I previously mentioned when they do it is often early in the draft.
Bob Stoops and Mike Gundy are two coaches who, as the table shows, have had players drafted by the Cowboys over the past five years. Both have prospects that are sure to intrigue Dallas this year. Both Justin Gilbert and Aaron Colvin are two of the draft's best cornerback prospects and the position is definitely a need for the Cowboys.
Our latest video is one of Darqueze Dennard in coverage versus five teams from the 2013 season. Dennard was a force in Michigan State's secondary this past year. The senior cornerback had four interceptions during his senior season and is one of the top prospects at his position available in the upcoming NFL Draft. The video is a compilation of plays where a pass was thrown to the receiver Dennard was covering. The compilation uses footage from Michigan State's games against Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Stanford.
This will probably be our final video of CJ Mosley. In the following weeks we'll be working on a CJ Mosley Analysis video, similar to the Anthony Barr one, and in the meantime Draft Analysis will release other NFL Draft related videos.
In his final game as a Texas A&M Aggie Johnny Manziel had a memorable performance, throwing for 382 yards and four touchdowns and completing 30 of his 38 pass attempts. Manziel showed off a little bit of everything in the game as he was able to complete passes while on the run and throw to his receivers effectively while standing in the pocket. One could make the argument that Manziel did not throw a bad pass all night. When you breakdown his eight incompletions they look something like this; one was a questionable no call pass interference, two were catchable balls that were dropped, three were passes down the field that were overthrown but not by much, one was thrown away due to pressure, and one was knocked away by a defensive back. The incompletion that was knocked away is really the only one where you could say he did not throw the ball nicely. Manziel didn't hit his receiver, Mike Evans, in stride on that throw and gave the defensive back a better angle to knock the ball away.
Once again, here's a chart of Manziel's passes from the game against Duke. The chart tracks where the ball was thrown from to where the ball was caught.
The Arkansas Razorbacks did not have their best season this year under new head coach Brett Bielema, however they did have arguably the best fullback in the nation on their team. At 5'10 240 pounds Kiero Small is one of the top fullbacks available in this years draft. The video above features Small vs. Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, and South Carolina. You'll see in the video that Small is not just a blocker, but is used in short yardage situations and can catch the ball out of the backfield.
If you still can't tell we're really big fans of LB CJ Mosley. Here's a cutup of his game against Auburn from a couple of weeks ago. Although he had a season high 14 tackles against Auburn, the Tigers did a good job taking him out of the game with misdirection runs. One of Mosley's best skills is dropping back into coverage and then tracking down the ball carrier. Against an Auburn team that primarily ran the ball he was unable to do that.
Here's another video of Johnny Manziel's passing attempts, this time against LSU. His performance against the Tiger's is stark in contrast to his passing performance against Alabama from earlier this season. Manziel's deep ball was not nearly as effective and he was not as accurate against the Tigers. Much of this could be attributed to the fact that Manziel is playing through multiple injuries. Against Auburn he injured his shoulder, against Mississippi State he injured his throwing hand, and against Missouri he injured his ankle.
Here's a video that went up on the Draft Analysis Youtube channel a few days ago. Michigan left tackle Taylor Lewan vs Iowa. Unfortunately the entire game was not available so it only includes the first half of the game and a portion of the third quarter.
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