2010 NFL Off-Season Rumors and Reports (Week 3)

[CultBrennan59]

Redskins schedule a private workout with Sam Bradford the 15th of April according to Jason Reid of the washington post

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by CultBrennan59

Redskins schedule a private workout with Sam Bradford the 15th of April according to Jason Reid of the washington post

breaking news, it's been pushed back till the day AFTER the draft

originally it was april 20th but then bradford wasn't ready, he would've done it on the 25th but he didn't want to conflict with the schedule of the draft itself

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Trample the Elderly

Breaking news: Laron Landry traded for a grilled cheese to Buffalo. (Not the team, but the actual city) Laron will be in charge of the monkey cages at the Buffalo Zoo. His responsibilties include cleaning monkey feces and getting the piss knocked out of him by the gorillas.

Coach Shann-y-han said, quote: "Laron has been a vulgar err . . valuable part of our team, but when a deal like that comes along you just can't let it get away."

General Manager Bruce Allen has denied reports that he has considered trading falling-star RB Clinton Portis for a pack of Kools. "I'm not a big smoker, and I discourage our nation's youth from picking up a nasty habit like cigarettes."

You heard it here first folks.

[Pocket$ $traight]

Originally Posted by Trample the Elderly

Breaking news: Laron Landry traded for a grilled cheese to Buffalo. (Not the team, but the actual city) Laron will be in charge of the monkey cages at the Buffalo Zoo. His responsibilties include cleaning monkey feces and getting the piss knocked out of him by the gorillas.

Coach Shann-y-han said, quote: "Laron has been a vulgar err . . valuable part of our team, but when a deal like that comes along you just can't let it get away."

General Manager Bruce Allen has denied reports that he has considered trading falling-star RB Clinton Portis for a pack of Kools. "I'm not a big smoker, and I discourage our nation's youth from picking up a nasty habit like cigarettes."

You heard it here first folks.

That is funny. What would be really funny is a safety tandum of Doughty and Horton. Our defense would look like Denver's in Super Bowl XXII every game.

[Trample the Elderly]

Originally Posted by Pocket$ $traight

That is funny. What would be really funny is a safety tandum of Doughty and Horton. Our defense would look like Denver's in Super Bowl XXII every game.

I'd like to see one of them playing SS and have a beast FS. They can both change up and play special teams and cost less than Landry.

[Pocket$ $traight]

Originally Posted by Trample the Elderly

I'd like to see one of them playing SS and have a beast FS. They can both change up and play special teams and cost less than Landry.

This sounds like the "Why did we sign LJ and why haven't we dropped Portis" arguments because there are dozens of 1500 yard young runningbacks just waiting for a team to sign them.

We could get a beast at safety with the 4th pick. Oh wait a minute, we still need Tackles, Guards, a linebacker, a runningback and a possibly QB.

Well, I am sure we can get a starter at one of those positions with the 5th rounder we would get for Landry.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Pocket$ $traight

Sammy, maybe you have explained this but why are you 1000% sure about Clausen? You don't waver at all, I just want to know why you think he is an absolute no brainer at 4 when historically the draft is a glorified crapshoot.

Given the fact that if we pick him and he is a failure, like many of the ND QBs, we are screwed for years.

Great question. Here's what's gone into my opinion on Clausen:

1) First I want to put it out there that I'm an ND fan. I hope that doesn't automatically dismiss my evalution in people's minds. For the record, I wasn't a Powlus or Mirer fan and while I like Quinn, I can certainly understand him falling in the draft and he's a totally different QB from Clausen.

That being said, I watch a good deal of ND football. ND during Clausen's tenure certainly hasn't been a team that out-talents it's competition week in and week out. ND doesn't have many games where they simply "throw their jerseys on the field" and get a win, like OU, Texas, Florida, USC, etc. ND hasn't had much of a D and the OL has been average at best (very suspect at worst). Clausen carried ND offensively this year, he engineered 4th Qtr wins or put ND in position to win against Michigan, Mich St., Purdue, Washington, USC (would've gone to OT if WR hadn't fell), BC, UConn and Stanford. Did he crap the bed against Navy, absolutely. But that game was the exception, not the rule.

2) Statistically he had a junior season that was better than both Mannings, Rivers, and Stafford. There's a great breakdown done by one of the guys at Walter Football that I've posted before.

WalterFootball.com: The NFL Matt Draft - Matt McGuire's NFL Draft Blog

Here another interesting link:

cfbstats.com - Jimmy Clausen 2009 Player Statistics - Notre Dame Fighting Irish

This is a split stats link on Clausen. A couple of things I noticed:
- Against teams with winning records his QB rating is slightly lower, however his TD to INT ratio was better against winning teams, while throwing an average of 7 times more per game, or close to 20% more. To me this shows that Clausen is capable of stepping up against better teams.
- In ND losses, his TD/INT ratio was actually better than in the ND wins, while throwing an average of 14 more times per game or 33% more. In the ND losses, the running game was non-existent and Clausen had the burden squarely on his shoulders, but he still performed well.
- His number of pass attempts increased throughout the year, from an average of 29/gm early on to 42/gm late in the season.
- Against ranked teams he averaged 42 att/gm with a QB rating of 122. 3TDs - 1 INT.

3) Clausen comes from a football family, he's had the experience of his brothers to draw on. He's also been the #1 QB in the country coming out of HS, now he's the #1 or #2 QB coming out of college. The guy understands expectations and pressure. Think being the Skins QB is pressure, ND QB has similar pressure

4) Clausen is a film rat and hard worker. Quinn was a gym rat, 25 reps in the bench isn't going to help you read a D, influence a safety and squeeze a throw into a tight window. Spending hours in the film room will. "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will never fear in 100 battles." Sun Tzu.

5) He's over 6' 2", height isn't a concern. He's over 220, size isn't a concern. Hand size....I've watched enough of him to see that he can throw the ball pretty damn good, "small" hands or not.

6) Clausen had great pro-style coaching, who's a better QB coach than Charlie Weis. Jaworski (whose opinion I respect) says both Bradford and Clausen have the skills to be NFL starters, so I don't see Clausen being a bust.

Clausen has above average NFL level physical tools (arm strength, accuracy), a high football IQ, and the attitude to be the guy in the spotlight, the guy that has to make the play. I think the "leadership" questions are a non-issue, there hasn't been anything concrete I've seen and Kiper (while not the all-knowing oracle) does have good connections within college football and he doesn't believe there's an issue.

Clausen is a franchise level QB. He's a guy that will be able to take an NFL team deep into the playoffs within 2-3 years. We have the #4 overall pick, a guy with a bunch of indicators that he will be a very good NFL QB is there, it's a no brainer he must be taken. Being in a high draft position doesn't happen often (hopefully) and to have a franchise QB there is an opportunity that can't be passed on.

If he busts, what have we lost...just a single 1st round pick. We won't have to trade up, or lose other players, or otherwise mortgage the future of the franchise. What if Okung turns out to be just a good LT, not Pro Bowl level? What good was the #4 pick then? We can get good LTs in a number of ways. A franchise QB is much harder to come by.

[Ruhskins]

^ Despite all of this, Clausen still seems to be second to Bradford in the eyes of many pundits (good points presented though).

[Pocket$ $traight]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

Great question. Here's what's gone into my opinion on Clausen:

1) First I want to put it out there that I'm an ND fan. I hope that doesn't automatically dismiss my evalution in people's minds. For the record, I wasn't a Powlus or Mirer fan and while I like Quinn, I can certainly understand him falling in the draft and he's a totally different QB from Clausen.

That being said, I watch a good deal of ND football. ND during Clausen's tenure certainly hasn't been a team that out-talents it's competition week in and week out. ND doesn't have many games where they simply "throw their jerseys on the field" and get a win, like OU, Texas, Florida, USC, etc. ND hasn't had much of a D and the OL has been average at best (very suspect at worst). Clausen carried ND offensively this year, he engineered 4th Qtr wins or put ND in position to win against Michigan, Mich St., Purdue, Washington, USC (would've gone to OT if WR hadn't fell), BC, UConn and Stanford. Did he crap the bed against Navy, absolutely. But that game was the exception, not the rule.

2) Statistically he had a junior season that was better than both Mannings, Rivers, and Stafford. There's a great breakdown done by one of the guys at Walter Football that I've posted before.

WalterFootball.com: The NFL Matt Draft - Matt McGuire's NFL Draft Blog

3) Clausen comes from a football family, he's had the experience of his brothers to draw on. He's also been the #1 QB in the country coming out of HS, now he's the #1 or #2 QB coming out of college. The guy understands expectations and pressure. Think being the Skins QB is pressure, ND QB has similar pressure

4) Clausen is a film rat and hard worker. Quinn was a gym rat, 25 reps in the bench isn't going to help you read a D, influence a safety and squeeze a throw into a tight window. Spending hours in the film room will. "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will never fear in 100 battles." Sun Tzu.

5) He's over 6' 2", height isn't a concern. He's over 220, size isn't a concern. Hand size....I've watched enough of him to see that he can throw the ball pretty damn good, "small" hands or not.

6) Clausen had great pro-style coaching, who's a better QB coach than Charlie Weis. Jaworski (whose opinion I respect) says both Bradford and Clausen have the skills to be NFL starters, so I don't see Clausen being a bust.

Clausen has above average NFL level physical tools (arm strength, accuracy), a high football IQ, and the attitude to be the guy in the spotlight, the guy that has to make the play. I think the "leadership" questions are a non-issue, there hasn't been anything concrete I've seen and Kiper (while not the all-knowing oracle) does have good connections within college football and he doesn't believe there's an issue.

Clausen is a franchise level QB. He's a guy that will be able to take an NFL team deep into the playoffs within 2-3 years. We have the #4 overall pick, a guy with a bunch of indicators that he will be a very good NFL QB is there, it's a no brainer he must be taken. Being in a high draft position doesn't happen often (hopefully) and to have a franchise QB there is an opportunity that can't be passed on.

If he busts, what have we lost...just a single 1st round pick. We won't have to trade up, or lose other players, or otherwise mortgage the future of the franchise. What if Okung turns out to be just a good LT, not Pro Bowl level? What good was the #4 pick then? We can get good LTs in a number of ways. A franchise QB is much harder to come by.

Good explanation. I was definitely aware of his comeback resume. I am somewhat skeptical of his stats because a lot of these pro-style offense QBs put up good numbers.

It seems like he is a "love him or hate him" pick. His proponents cannot say enough good things about him while the skeptics make it sound like he barely belongs in the first round.

If Vinny signed him, I would throw up. However, I trust these guys to make the proper evaluation.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Ruhskins

^ Despite all of this, Clausen still seems to be second to Bradford in the eyes of many pundits (good points presented though).

True, but no one will know how this debate will play out for at least 2, possibly three years.

For us, the only folks that matter are the Shanahans and Bruce Allen. These guys will have watched more tape on both guys than any of the pundits. This decision will be a big part of their legacy, one way or the other. Get it right and they're geniuses, get it wrong and they're looking for jobs in 3 years.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by Pocket$ $traight

Good explanation. I was definitely aware of his comeback resume. I am somewhat skeptical of his stats because a lot of these pro-style offense QBs put up good numbers.

It's generally the spread offense guys like Bradford, McCoy, Lefevour, etc. who get inflated numbers. The spread uses smoke routes, bubble screens, regular screens, slants, and other short routes instead of runs. This gives easy completion stats and with teams with superior talent at WR, like OU, Texas, Florida, a lot of YAC yards that inflate a QB's numbers.

[53Fan]

You make a good case for Clausen Sammy, and you may very well be right about him. I won't pretend to know his future one way or the other. But I do have a couple of questions. You say if Clausen busts, what have we lost, just a single 1rst round pick. But if Okung is only "good", what good was the #4 pick then? I would rather have a good player than a bust. I think you may have been a little biased there. Also, why do guys like Mike Mayock say that if you draft a QB in the first round and he's a bust, your franchise is screwed for the next 5 years?

[GTripp0012]

Don't be fooled: Clausen put up a lot of his numbers because of spread concepts in 2009. Let's at least be honest. If the spread is a mitigating factor on the validity of numbers (it's not), then we have to take out all of the most effective college passers because they ALL use them.

Notre Dame didn't ever scrap the under center play action offensive staple that Weis loves, but he's been running the shotgun bubble screen and slant passes since his NE days.

There's nothing wrong with taking snaps in the shotgun though, since NFL teams are going to have to adapt it's concepts to compete in the future.

[GTripp0012]

^^^Sorry, that should be don't get fooled into thinking that the Mack Brown/Bob Stoops offensive scheme is somehow less pro-style than Weis'. Urban Meyer...now that guy has a college offense.

[12thMan]

I like your analysis, Sammy. Pretty compelling argument, if not slightly biased. Oh well.

The thing I like about Clausen, if anything at all, is what he lacks in physicality he compensates for in football smarts. The guy doesn't make many mental errors or loses the game for his team. I think he's a very solid pack. Unfortunately for the Skins, he's coming out in a year when it's a two horse race and the NFL loves to market QBs and inflate their value this time of the year. But that's another story.

Bradford - I just can't see myself taking that kind of gamble on a guy with the first pick in the draft while he's still rehabbing an injured shoulder. It's one thing to display your mechanics in a controlled environment, it's another trying to get a pass off with DeMarcus Ware breathing down your neck.