Mike Mayock's Top 5 Prospects @ Each Position

[Flugel]

OFFENSE

 

Quarterbacks

1 Sam Bradford* Oklahoma

2 Jimmy Clausen* Notre Dame

3 Colt McCoy Texas

4 Tim Tebow Florida

5t Dan LeFevour Central Michigan

5t Tony Pike Cincinnati

 

Running backs

1 C.J. Spiller Clemson

2 Ryan Matthews* Fresno State

3 Jahvid Best* California

4 Dexter McCluster Mississippi

5t Joe McKnight* Southern California

5t Jonathan Dwyer* Georgia Tech

 

Wide receivers

1 Dez Bryant* Oklahoma State

2 Golden Tate* Notre Dame

3 Arrelious Benn* Illinois

4 Demaryius Thomas* Georgia Tech

5 Mardy Gilyard Cincinnati

 

Tight ends

1 Jermaine Gresham* Oklahoma

2 Rob Gronkowski* Arizona

3 Dennis Pitta BYU

4 Aaron Hernandez* Florida

5t Ed Dickson Oregon

5t Anthony McCoy Southern California

 

Interior linemen (guards, centers)

1 Mike Iupati Idaho

2 Maurkice Pouncey* Florida

3 Jon Asamoah Illinois

4 Rodger Saffold Indiana

5 Zane Beadles Utah

 

Offensive tackles

1 Russell Okung Oklahoma State

2 Bryan Bulaga* Iowa

3 Anthony Davis* Rutgers

4 Trent Williams Oklahoma

5 Vladimir Ducasse Massachusetts

 

DEFENSE

 

Defensive ends

1 Jason Pierre-Paul* South Florida

2 Derrick Morgan* Georgia Tech

3 Carlos Dunlap* Florida

4 Everson Griffen* Southern California

5 Brandon Graham Michigan

 

Defensive tackles

1 Gerald McCoy* Oklahoma

2 Ndamukong Suh Nebraska

3 Jared Odrick Penn State

4 Dan Williams Tennessee

5 Lamarr Houston Texas

 

Inside linebackers

1 Rolando McClain* Alabama

2 Brandon Spikes Florida

3 Sean Lee Penn State

4 Pat Angerer Iowa

5 Darryl Sharpton Miami (Fla.)

 

Outside linebackers

1 Sergio Kindle Texas

2 Sean Weatherspoon Missouri

3 Daryl Washington TCU

4 Jerry Hughes TCU

5 Eric Norwood South Carolina

 

Cornerbacks

1 Joe Haden* Florida

2 Kyle Wilson Boise State

3 Perrish Cox Oklahoma State

4 Patrick Robinson Florida State

5 Devin McCourty Rutgers

 

Safeties

1 Eric Berry* Tennessee

2 Taylor Mays Southern California

3 Earl Thomas* Texas

4 Larry Asante Nebraska

5 Chad Jones* LSU

 

[Riffer X]

My man Spiller looms---I get balsa thinking about him with Harrison, Cribbs, Davis and Jennings....Wouldn't touch Mays with ten foot pole.....McCoy third but rather have him than Claus...Haden a lock-----down.....Kindle a playmaker....McClain big and smart---a Mangie type.....The Fever and Pike remain intriguing projects

[b86b]

I'm surprised that Dwyer is getting no love..He is pretty nasty

[cambridgeho]

It seems like a lot of the recent higher rated RB's are smaller than in years past. I think Chris Johnson has paved the way for these guys. Man if we could snag Gilard in the 3rd by some lucky chance, i think he would be an instant positive upgrade to our team. Also how does a player like Terrance Cody eat himself out of millions of dollars. It just seems crazy that he will be able to stay below 370.

[Thaak]

My man Spiller looms---I get balsa thinking about him with Harrison, Cribbs, Davis and Jennings....Wouldn't touch Mays with ten foot pole.....McCoy third but rather have him than Claus...Haden a lock-----down.....Kindle a playmaker....McClain big and smart---a Mangie type.....The Fever and Pike remain intriguing projects

 

We don't take Spiller if we are still going to give Harrison carries. They are the same back.

 

[CIMO.]

I'd gladly take one of those tight ends in the middle rounds.

[BearcatBrownsFan13]

Pike has been blowing all the other QBs out of the water at the SR Bowl workouts which includes Tebow and LeFevour

[hoorta]

List needs some updating-

 

Tebow is falling like a rock, & if he thinks McCoy is a better prospect than Suh, he's on drugs.

[Flugel]

List needs some updating-

 

Tebow is falling like a rock, & if he thinks McCoy is a better prospect than Suh, he's on drugs.

 

Larry, I don't mind a person that steps out of the consensus to tell us 1 guy they've seen alot of might project better as an NFL player. Keep in mind, Mayock has prolly seen way more tape on both these kids than any of us. He doesn't just watch videos of their greatest moments/games like we do.

 

Everybody that all of sudden has known Suh since he was in diapers, waited all the way until after the Texas-Nebraska matchup to tell us he's #1. There were a few people talking about him earlier but let's get real on how much people have seen him play. I'll give a case scenario here about conclusions off of 1 game. Alex Brown once sacked a UT QB 5 times in 1 matchup as a Soph. His opponent that day was Chad Clifton who became a VERY solid pro. I bring this up because Green Bay has made Clifton a starting Left Tackle they could count on for about a decade. More specifically, that guy SHOULD have been a 1st round pick. However, that ONE game had many scouts wondering if a guy like Clifton could handle the type of athletes LTs are supposed to face every week. In the end, he got boned because more people looked at the 1 game extract than the total body of work. Can you imagine if Peyton Manning was only held to the criteria of his performance vrs Florida? Get to confession!!!!!

 

While I think Suh seems awesome from very limited observation - I once thought Big Daddy Wilkinson was going to dominate at the next level. He never became the unblockable beast I projected but he settled in for a pretty long career with average performance levels. Wasn't Glen Dorsey the "consensus" a couple years ago? How often did he enter your picture screen against the Browns? How often did you hear his name? And then of course there was the FSU glamor boy Brod Bunkley from 1 gap gap schemes winning the popularity contest over the blue collar 2 gap scheme guy Haloti Ngata. Everyone falls in love with sacks over the guy that commands more blockers.

- Tom F.

[hoorta]

Larry, I don't mind a person that steps out of the consensus to tell us 1 guy they've seen alot of might project better as an NFL player. Keep in mind, Mayock has prolly seen way more tape on both these kids than any of us. He doesn't just watch videos of their greatest moments/games like we do.

 

Everybody that all of sudden has known Suh since he was in diapers, waited all the way until after the Texas-Nebraska matchup to tell us he's #1. There were a few people talking about him earlier but let's get real on how much people have seen him play. I'll give a case scenario here about conclusions off of 1 game. Alex Brown once sacked a UT QB 5 times in 1 matchup as a Soph. His opponent that day was Chad Clifton who became a VERY solid pro. I bring this up because Green Bay has made Clifton a starting Left Tackle they could count on for about a decade. More specifically, that guy SHOULD have been a 1st round pick. However, that ONE game had many scouts wondering if a guy like Clifton could handle the type of athletes LTs are supposed to face every week. In the end, he got boned because more people looked at the 1 game extract than the total body of work. Can you imagine if Peyton Manning was only held to the criteria of his performance vrs Florida? Get to confession!!!!!

 

While I think Suh seems awesome from very limited observation - I once thought Big Daddy Wilkinson was going to dominate at the next level. He never became the unblockable beast I projected but he settled in for a pretty long career with average performance levels. Wasn't Glen Dorsey the "consensus" a couple years ago? How often did he enter your picture screen against the Browns? How often did you hear his name? And then of course there was the FSU glamor boy Brod Bunkley from 1 gap gap schemes winning the popularity contest over the blue collar 2 gap scheme guy Haloti Ngata. Everyone falls in love with sacks over the guy that commands more blockers.

- Tom F.

 

Nope, it's a contrarian pick, and if it comes true the guy looks like a genius. OTOH, if Suh lives up to his billing, no one's going to remember it- except me. I'll never ever let Mel "the wig" Kiper live down Hart Lee Dykes, along with about a dozen or so other major draft gaffes he's made.

 

Sure guys like Wilkinson or Archie Griffin that I saw a lot of can have unbelievable college careers and flame out in the pros. But it's not just the peanut gallery that's saying it- about everybody else has Suh as the closest thing to a can't miss in a long, long time.

[Earl34]

My man Spiller looms---I get balsa thinking about him with Harrison, Cribbs, Davis and Jennings....Wouldn't touch Mays with ten foot pole.....McCoy third but rather have him than Claus...Haden a lock-----down.....Kindle a playmaker....McClain big and smart---a Mangie type.....The Fever and Pike remain intriguing projects

 

Riff, McClain has some anger issues (apparently) so I'd be interested to see if he's really a Mangini guy. I personally would salivate over having that guy.

 

Spiller is a great back but with RB being somewhat less of a need than the right side of the OL, WR, QB and TE...I'd have a hard time seeing the Browns taking a RB that high. Now, if they were let Harrison go that would be a different story. The other thing that no one interested in Spiller has been talking about is how he beat out James Davis for carries at Clemson. Obviously, you'd like to have the better guy working for you but it seems kind of odd that they'd have the same competition here if Spiller were to be drafted by the Browns.

[Flugel]

Nope, it's a contrarian pick, and if it comes true the guy looks like a genius. OTOH, if Suh lives up to his billing, no one's going to remember it- except me. I'll never ever let Mel "the wig" Kiper live down Hart Lee Dykes, along with about a dozen or so other major draft gaffes he's made.

 

Sure guys like Wilkinson or Archie Griffin that I saw a lot of can have unbelievable college careers and flame out in the pros. But it's not just the peanut gallery that's saying it- about everybody else has Suh as the closest thing to a can't miss in a long, long time.

 

Good points. It sounds like Suh deserves every compliment he gets - I just like that Mayock wasn't afraid to share his opinion in spite of the overwhelming consensus. I was impressed with Suh especially because at the time we were watching his freak show - our Browns were looking like they were in that part of the draft where he was a possible choice. As we started winning down the stretch, I lost a rationale to try to learn even more info about the guy.

 

I don't think I've seen 1 Oklahoma game I wanted to watch this year so I don't have a fair assessment of Gerald McCoy. I'm just saying Mayock has access to alot more film than you, me or any of us fans. I'm guessing he doesn't want to go too crackpipe logic very often if someone is paying him well to be a draft expert. I thought I'd look at why he feels like putting forth the energy to swim against the current.

 

Again, I think when you're putting 1 guy first and another guy second - it's just taste buds on 2 very talented players. I don't think MM is thinking Suh sucks by any means. Keep in mind, nobody outside of high intensity draft gurus ever REALLY spoke of Suh until this year. Staying with me on that, McCoy might have a better overall body of work; and he's only a JUNIOR foregoing the senior year. MM seems to be taking the junior to senior comparison into account on this. If many draftnicks are considering Gerald McCoy worthy of a #3 overall in their top 100 prospects - what would that translate to a year later if he returned to the Big 12 for senior year domination? Understanding that reality, somebody in this draft is gonna be pretty happy when McCoy falls to them

 

Here's a little cut and paste telling me Gerald McCoy was once the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year:

 

Gerald McCoy Scouting Report

by FFToolbox Writers

School & Year/Status: Oklahoma - Junior

Jersey Number: #93

Height & Weight: 6'4 - 295 lbs.

Ranked #3 on our Top 100 Prospects Board

 

2010 NFL Draft Prospect Scouting Report:

 

Gerald McCoy, DT, Oklahoma

After redshirting in 2006, Gerald McCoy thought about entering the NFL draft after the 2008 season as a sophomore. In 2007 he earned Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors and a host of other awards. He started all 13 games as a freshman and tallied 2.0 sacks, 6.5 tackles-for-loss and six quarterback hurries. In 2008 he tallied 6.5 sacks and 11.0 tackles-for-loss.

Making such an impression on a deep and talented Oklahoma front four is very difficult for an underclassman. But McCoy has done it and that tells a lot about his quality as a football player. At 6-4 and 295 pounds, McCoy has the size and the speed to make an impact at the next level. But the question is whether or not the former highly touted prep star is better off coming back to the Sooners for another year.

 

Coming back for the 2009 season was a good idea for McCoy and half way through this season he has tallied 3.0 sacks and 9.5 tackles-for-loss. If he keeps that up, McCoy will probably leave the Sooners with a year of eligibility remaining and be a first round draft pick in April and one of the first few defensive tackles taken.

 

1/19 Update: And that is pretty much what has happened. McCoy has opted to forgo his senior season at Oklahoma and enter the NFL Draft. A late surge up the draft boards has him as a likely top ten pick and possibly even a top five selection. While McCoy will play second fiddle on draft day to Ndamukong Suh, as far as defensive tackles are concerned, he is a great talent who could end up going second to Detroit if the Rams take Suh with the first overall selection.

Last Updated Jan-19-2010 by Joel Welser

 

As for Mel Kiper - the first time I caught his draft gig I was in college. I think I was still drunk from the night before because all I could think of was "what the Hell is Paul Revere doing on our TV set talking about Jeff Lageman?" On Kiper's behalf, he cautioned all the experts questioning Peyton Manning's arm strength not to worry about it. And when Peyton had a less than perfect workout with a couple ducks that slipped out of his hands - he upheld the same advice.

- Tom F.

[Alo]

McCoy over Suh isn't that crazy. I mean, it's not as bad as Mayock's out of nowhere Robert Ayers hype last year (Ayers didn't notch a single sack his rookie year).

 

In fact, the reason the McCoy>Suh ranking might not look as bad - and might even look smart - is that McCoy could end up being the better pass rusher. Though he's not as strong as Suh, he's more explosive off the ball. And if he gets picked by Tampa, he'll get to play upfield and go after the quarterback on basically every down.

 

Suh's a more complete player, but McCoy could end up registering double-digit sacks in a Warren Sapp-type role in Tampa. On the other hand, Suh could face constant double teams in St. Louis or Detroit, freeing up teammates to make plays but getting less positive pub.

 

I fully expect you'll hear people calling Suh a bust when he only notches 5 or 6 sacks his rookie year. The smarter football fans will understand that his contributions won't always show up on the stat sheet, but the average fan might then look back at Mayock's rankings and say, "Hey, this guy called it!"

[Flugel]

McCoy over Suh isn't that crazy. I mean, it's not as bad as Mayock's out of nowhere Robert Ayers hype last year (Ayers didn't notch a single sack his rookie year).

 

In fact, the reason the McCoy>Suh ranking might not look as bad - and might even look smart - is that McCoy could end up being the better pass rusher. Though he's not as strong as Suh, he's more explosive off the ball. And if he gets picked by Tampa, he'll get to play upfield and go after the quarterback on basically every down.

 

Suh's a more complete player, but McCoy could end up registering double-digit sacks in a Warren Sapp-type role in Tampa. On the other hand, Suh could face constant double teams in St. Louis or Detroit, freeing up teammates to make plays but getting less positive pub.

 

I fully expect you'll hear people calling Suh a bust when he only notches 5 or 6 sacks his rookie year. The smarter football fans will understand that his contributions won't always show up on the stat sheet, but the average fan might then look back at Mayock's rankings and say, "Hey, this guy called it!"

 

 

Thanks Alo! I think we're on the same page here. Folks, neither one of us thinks Suh sucks - we just appreciate Mayock isn't afraid to swim against a strong current.

 

Our board had these same discussions when we dissected the difference between Ngata and Bunkley. Some people here didn't understand Bunkley played in alot of schemes that used 1 gap logic. Far more conducive to sacks than 2 gap schemes Ngata played in. FSU's Andrews LOVED to slant his dline right or left toward power or wideside of the field. He really wanted his front line shooting gaps alot to disrupt timing of the opposing offense. I never fully trusted Bunkley's body of work because I read he had major knee surgeries in high school and in college. There's alot of dirty pool inside in the NFL where he's about 1 more surgery away from being a bad first round pick.

 

I think Bunkley has improved the last 2 seasons but Ngata is in the Pro Bowl. We used to have people look at Ngata's sack volumes and call him an overrated candyass. Entertaining but not really fair.

 

I'm completely with you about OVERNIGHT sensations. What changed? With Shawn Merriman it was weird science in the form of steroids. Nobody gains 74 pounds in 18 months and loses all kinds of body fat without weird science. Once he had to conform - he now has to pass drug tests consistently. In the process, we've lost alot of highlights - haven't we? Mandarach was similar but settled back in for a career at Indy as an average Joe nobody needed to burn a #3 overall pick on.

 

Another reason to question overnight sensations - is you tend to wonder if the player had trouble adapting to the level change. Since we're heading for another change in levels - it seems like a legit thing to think about somebody that was a Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year like McCoy. He's a junior that I've seen as high as #3 on someone's list of the top 100 prospects. If he goes back for a senior year and satys on the same pace - he's bound to junp to #1 overall right?

- Tom F. (I just wished I watched more of Oklahoma than I did in 09)

[Flugel]

OFFENSE

 

Interior linemen (guards, centers)

1 Mike Iupati Idaho

 

Anyone watch the game yesterday? This guy HOLDS on every single play and it was Mayock pointing it out. It seemed like everytime he showed up in replays, he was holding the defender by the back of his jersey behind the shoulder pads. Seemingly every time which will add up to alot of flags for such a bad habit he won't break easily vrs better competition. I think there's better guards and centers in this draft without even looking.

- Tom F.

[calfoxwc]

Cirius Black, OT, surprised me with his straightline speed to get downfield and block.

 

That was cool.

 

But Brandon Graham dominated play with any OT he faced.

 

Graham would be a great pick for the Browns in the second round.

 

Trouble is, the Browns need two first round picks, and two second round picks this year,

 

and they could really make hay. GGG

[Flugel]

Cirius Black, OT, surprised me with his straightline speed to get downfield and block.

 

That was cool.

 

But Brandon Graham dominated play with any OT he faced.

 

Graham would be a great pick for the Browns in the second round.

 

Trouble is, the Browns need two first round picks, and two second round picks this year,

 

and they could really make hay. GGG

 

Brandon Graham overwhelmed anyone they put in front of him on the edge. And to be honest, Dan Williams of Tennessee was equally impressive on the inside. These 2 kids had alot of the right people saying "Wow!"

 

I'd be surprised if Graham lasts as long as round 2 after that performance. There was a game early in the year where we lined Rogers up at RDE while Rubin played Nose tackle and we got good results. I think we can do alot of that this year since Rubin really proved himself down the stretch. We can rotate Robaire and Corey Williams on the dline too.

 

Cal, poor Cirius Black was the guy that had his hands full with Graham all day. That's prolly going to crush his draft stock a little. I also think LSU's running game numbers were down from what they usually are in 2009. The guy I really expected to see better play from was Lupati. Yuck. Really crappy technique and all I saw him doing was holding people. I couldn't think of a better candidate for the Pittsburgh Steelers than some guy that wants to cut corners and take the easy way out every play.

- Tom F.

[DestinFunk]

I am with you riffer..i watched enough CJ Spiller to know that guy is instant offense....a playmaker....i am not picthing for him at 7..but id be tempteed regardless of what i or anyone thinks of Jerome Harrison...he may be a goner anyway...

 

a trade down a few slots?..snatch up CJ and gain possibly another high 3rd or low 2nd...silly season..i know..but i can dream

 

if Taylor mays makes it to round 2 id be tempted honestly...he just needs a little coaching..and Rob Ryan is that guy

[chonba]

Why is Sanchez up at the top of this list? We all know that USC quarterbacks are the most overatted players in the game, Matt Stafford can throw the ball farther, harder and more accuratley than Mark "Vincent Chase" Sanchez. Plus unlike Sanchez, Stafford played against great defensive teams in the SEC.i first started my bag collection with a coach purses

 

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