We are at that stage of the pre-draft after the Combine, after the pro-days, after someone has marched the athletes out in skin tight clothing and prodded them like cattle at a slaughter house. Watched more film on them and explanation than my wife watching the movie Twlight and explaining to me why a vampire would play softball with an aluminum bat which I'm still not understanding and hat's p with the glitter? Back to my point in that when drafting there is a balance between tape what the player can do and running around in shorts which a player hypothetically has the potential to accomplish.
To have the best draft we need to balance the Bills need to find the balance between what is viewed on tape as the achieved and the potential of the combine and work outs. I'll explain with the top 2 tackles in this years draft.
Greg Robinson: He peaked interest through the season and really peaked interest at the BCS championship game. But, Jake Matthews was still locked in as the best LT in this years draft. People started seeing the tremendous upside and the gap between them got smaller and smaller and then the Combine. At the combine Robinson put up athletic freak numbers and made the switch from 2nd tackle int he draft to the first tackle in the draft. This was not based on tape, what the player actually achieved but rather the perception of the scouts, GMs and most importantly in this process the media for needing to write more stories to full our hungry appetites for football news.
Jake Matthews: Jake was the reigning tackle from the end of the 2013 draft to the start of the 2014 combine. When he was in pads and actually doing football movements trying to block for a QB of the skill set of Johnny Manziel he was regarded as the overall top tackle. True he was never viewed as aJ onathon Ogden type of dominating tackle but more so one that my not be a Hall of Famer but a polished plug in tackle right away where the worry of him failing were minimal. This was not achieved by the combine or the shorts portion of the drafting process. But rather the tape, watching him live. His achievements rather than potential.
What occurred was a classic Pre-Draft Madness where teams are trying to come up with draft boards and they are struggling to take into account what you know which is the tape, what you perceive as potential which is the combine and pro days. If you need another example of this look at the QBs Bridgewater and Manziel. Teddy Bridgewater has amazing stats, he looked good in the fall during football season the last two years. What happened? Didn't look good in shorts and had a bad pro day or as I like to call it basketball on turf. Bridgewater went from being the number 1 QB to being 3-4 based on some people perceptions and that occurred only after the football season stopped. If you look at Manziel he was viewed by some as undraftable, some as a late RD pick and for my example lets look at what Ron Jaworski the resident QB king at ESPN thought of him, he thought he was a 3rd of lower RD pick at the beginning of draft season. Bridgewater is rated above Manziel by Jaws by 3 rounds of draft boards. Then the pro-days happen and low and behold manziel does it in a helmet and pads and Bridgewater struggles Jaws vaults Manziel over Bridgewater for nothing more than perception.
What I want from the Bills is always the balance between potential and tape. Aaron Maybin is a perfect example a physical talent. However, the tape didn't reflect this, one year of achievements as a bulk sack artist gaining the majority of sacks with lower tier teams. The Bills overvalued the draft process and not the tape.
Go Bills