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New Jersey – A potpourri of different items today in Website Whispers, including a look at a sleeper tight end, QB Mike Glennon and Nolan Nawrocki . . .
The Jets need another tight end, and it’s the kind of position, historically, you can pick guys later in the selection process, and find good players.
Brent Celek is of the Philadelphia Eagles was a fifth round pick in 2007.
The Giants just signed Brandon Myers as a free agent who had 79 catches last year for Oakland. The Raiders picked him in the sixth round of the 2009 draft.
Former Jets sixth round pick Joel Dreesen has gone on to do nice things in Houston and now Denver.
I’ve always found it to be a position where you can find real good value late in the draft, or with undrafted free agents – like Jeff Cumberland and Konrad Reuland.
I had a chance to talk to Boston College tight end Chris Pantale at the combine.
He’s the kind of guy I’m talking about – a late round or undrafted free agent type who is probably going to make it.
He has perfect size for the spot at 6-5, 254 pounds, and is a solid all-round tight end who is good in both key areas required of the position – catching and blocking. He has soft hands, and already a good blocker (so many college tight ends come in, and struggle early on with blocking).
He’s also really smart, graduating a year ago with a degree in communications, so he will pick up an NFL playbook quickly.
He’s from Wayne, NJ, not far from Jets camp.
The point I’m making is this a position that if you do you due diligence, you don’t have to pick these players early, and you can get great value, like when the Giants picked Mark Bavaro in fourth round . . .
Speaking of smart prospects – North Carolina State QB Mike Glennon already has his master’s degree.
And he’s not just book smart, he’s football smart.
This is a good year for the Jets to pick a quarterback with down-the-read potential, who can sit this year, and redshirt so to speak, and Glennon would be perfect.
He’s 6-7, 225, and needs to bulk up, so a redshirt year (or two), would be good for him.
If you take a guy like this, and sit him for a year or two, and work with him on his footwork, strength, and so forth, you could have something special down the road.
The third or fourth round would be an ideal spot for him . . .
Nolan Nawrocki is taking a lot of heat for his scouting report on West Virginia QB Geno Smith, with comments like, “He’s not committed or focused and has a marginal work ethic. He interviewed poorly at the combine and didn’t show an understanding of concepts on the white board.”
This analysis bothered some people. If you don’t like Nolan’s blunt style, don’t buy the book.
He is compiling info from his myriad sources, and relaying it the his audience, without much of a filter.
He wrote about California (PA) cornerback Rontez Miles – “His stepbrother, Griffin, is currently jailed, without bail, and will stand trial for criminal homicide, accused of fatally shooting a man outside a nightclub. [Rontez] has two children. He was raised by a mother with drug problems in a dangerous area of Pennsylvania. Miles childhood was unstable.”
Whether people like it or not, this is the kind of information that teams compile, and it impacts their decision-making. They spend millions each year on scouting to come up with extensive dossiers on the prospects.
Nolan is actually giving us the birds-eye view of what real NFL scouting reports are like.
April 2, 2013
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