Great article on Brady

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/8157078

I wish the Skins could make picks this good in the latter rounds. It doesn't seem that hard to me... if you're a professional football coach you should know what makes good players good and great players great. It is not always(or even often really) how fast you are and how big you are but more about your mentality. Just seems like everyone gets caught up in the things we should worry least about and ignore the heart and character of guys. Heard a quote on PTI the other day referring to drafting in the NBA versus the NFL. In the NBA they have to draft on "Spec" meaning the numbers. This makes sense since just about zero college juniors or seniors are getting taken nowaydays it seems and they're dealing with 18 and 19 year olds. How can they possibly accurately evaluate their intangibles at that age? But in the NFL the guys are older and have much more experience and body of work on which to judge. Doesn't seem like rocket science to me. What do you all think?

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/8157078

I wish the Skins could make picks this good in the latter rounds. It doesn't seem that hard to me... if you're a professional football coach you should know what makes good players good and great players great.

Well, I'm not sure what to say other than it's not easy picking players. There are so many intangibles and unknowns.

If it was easy Brady would have been a first rounder. If it was easy there wouldn't be flops and busts.

Brady was a backup for most of his college career, and had Bledsoe not gotten hurt, we still wouldn't know who Tom Brady is.

Brady was a scrawny nobody in college. If somebody had said that he would have turned into the Brady of today, they would have been called insane.

I have no idea what the knocks on Brady were when coming into the league. I am sure his arm was average and his accuracy the same. But doesn't it seem like if a guy has intangibles, as Brady clearly does, a pro football coach should be able to see some of those. It's like the saying about "not seeing the forest for the trees". Coaches and scouts focus so much on how hard a guy throws and how fast he is but ignore whether the guy is a nut or whether he always seems to win. I am not saying you go out and draft Eric Crouch even though he obviously doesn't have the skill set necessary to be an NFL qb, but if you're looking at an average skilled player who has been exceptionally successful that should mean something and at least should attract attention. Seems like everyone completely ignored him coming out of a major program and didn't even bother to do their due dilligence to see if the kid maybe, just maybe, had "it". I'd rather have an average talented guy who puts his heart and soul and has a good head on his shoulders than an uber talented knucklehead who can run a 4.1 40 and throw the ball 90 yards but doesn't care about much other than money and image and couldn't read a defense in Madden 05.
I understand it is hard to make picks but it seems like they make it harder on themselves by ignoring what probabaly amounts to half of what will determine if the guy is successful. I am not talking about first round or second round guys because they obviously spend ridiculous amounts of time poking and proding these guys physically and mentally. I am talking the 3-7 types guys where teams are made. In these rounds you're already talking about the guys who aren't quite as fast or aren't quite as strong so why not draft based on the other stuff? The stuff you can't really quantify but the stuff that football professionals should be able to simply see and comprehend.

I'd be willing to guarantee a lot of time is spent by scouts and coaches trying to pick up on the intangibles of players. These are multi-million dollar investments we're talking about. It's just such an inexact science though. You're trying to predict what kind of player he may become.

You can't measure a guy's heart or work ethic. And at the time a player is drafted compared to 10 years down the road, a player can do a complete 180 in terms of work ethic and understanding of the game. That's why it's not uncommon to see QB's develop so late in their careers.

Well, Danny Wuerfell had "intangibles" I think it is safer to go with the guy with the big arm that put up big numbers. There is still no guarantee of success. Brady was a huge surprise. So much of a surprise that there still continues to be articles written about him being drafted in the 6th.

Just look at Ramsey. Big arm, tough kid, graduated early from Tulane with a double major, he's married and seems pretty grounded, he's got a great work ethic, he seems to have all the physical and mental tools to make it work.

Even with the entire package seemingly in place there's no guarantee he'll become a star or even just a solid QB.

I hope we can see the beginnings of the new WASHINGTON dynasty forthcoming this Fall. I want to hear stories about how Ramsey was benched, Ramsey came back from adversity to become the All-Pro he is today.

Again im going to say, its all about the system you are working in. Ramsey used to look so natural and comfotable now he has happy feet and just throws dump offs. I hope he spends a lot of time working with receivers int eh off season, getting on teh same page and comfotable within the system.