Draft buzz, week 7

* Rams mock madness. Life’s getting a lot more complicated for Rams Nation these days in mock drafts. In a local correspondents’ mock draft organized by the Los Angeles Times this past week, Howard Balzer selected Cameron Jordan for the Rams, with Robert Quinn, Da’Quan Bowers and Corey Liuget still on the board. Quinn falling that far, and being passed by the Rams’ correspondent, is an eye-opener to me, and leads me to think teams are more concerned about Quinn’s benign brain tumor than anyone’s letting on. I’d have to agree on passing on Bowers but would still take Liuget, a natural 4-3 3-technique, over a player who would be a conversion project for the Rams in my eyes. But Howard’s judgment is far better than mine, and at the least, tells me the Rams are less worried about Jordan becoming the next Adam Carriker as a Ram than I am.

On NFL Network’s Path to the Draft, Brian Baldinger mocked the middle of the first round and projected Aldon Smith to Houston at #11, followed by Jordan to Minnesota at #12. After Detroit STEALS Prince Amukamara at 13, Baldy had the Rams take RYAN KERRIGAN at 14, once again over Corey Liuget. That’s an eye-opener; not only is it the first time Kerrigan has been slotted to the Rams, it’s the highest I’ve seen him slotted anywhere. Then again, Adrian Clayborn, Phil Taylor and Cam Heyward all appeared in Baldinger’s top 20, so let the mock buyer mock beware. Baldinger also became the third different person on NFL Net to recommend the Rams look at Mike Pouncey.

Charles Davis’ NFL Network mock has Jordan going in the top 10, only on Mike Mayock’s say-so-by-proxy, as the network’s lead draft analyst continues to be holed up in Dick Cheney’s bunker or something. No mock draft anywhere has Jordan in the top 10 and we don’t know what team he’d be going to there. Dallas? Davis slots Liuget to Minnesota but saves Aldon Smith for the Rams.

NFL Network, which has never shown a full first-round mock, then proceeds to do a SECOND-round mock, taking for granted that all of Mayock’s top 32 prospects will be drafted in the first round. So Jake Locker’s a first rounder, then. Ha. Charley Casserly has Mikel Leshoure, Kyle Rudolph, Greg Little, Titus Young and Ras-I Dowling all off the board by 42, but STOPS there, never getting close to the Rams at 47. I’d be crossing my fingers really hard for Jon Baldwin at that point, with my 2nd-round board getting ravaged.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated agrees with RamView (and most of Rams Nation)that the first-round pick will be Liuget, though he still had Aldon Smith on the board, which would have changed my predicted pick. Though I think I may have mentioned I might just take Marvin Austin if I were the Rams’ GM. Have I said that?

Position by position:

* Defensive line. Mike Lombardi reminds the teams that only you can prevent bust picks at defensive line. Gerard Warren went 3 picks before Richard Seymour in 2001. Ryan Sims 5 picks before Dwight Freeney the next year. Johnathan Sullivan 3 picks (or so) before Kevin Williams the year after that (nice work, Haslett!). Don’t reach for potential with these picks. Look for work habits, desire, character and commitment before athleticism. Look for players who can rush the passer all three downs, and these days, their pass rush skills are more important than their run defense.

Lombardi’s top 4 DTs:
Marcel Dareus
Despite supposed character flags, MARVIN AUSTIN
Cameron Jordan – more consistent and versatile than Fairley and plays with better pad level
Nick Fairley

Da’Quan Bowers’ knee injury still makes him the riskiest of the high draft prospects on the d-line.

Baldinger had good reviews for Pitt DE Jabaal Sheard, a pure 4-3 end with great pass rush ability and a good motor, who Paul Burmeister confesses is being mentioned on Path to the Draft for the very first time. A little undersized at 6’3”, but a three-year starter with a good rip move and a good bull rush. Plays with a hand in the dirt. Was double-teamed a lot last season. His elbow injury is a situation that has cleared up, as is his character “red flag” (a fight at an art museum where police or security had to pepper-spray him). Could be drafted in the Mayock Zone. He also compared Adrian Clayborn to the Saints’ Will Smith, said he would have been a top ten pick had he come out in 2010. He also recommended people cool their heels on Combine bench press champ Steven Paea. Though he was Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, he’s a project, not a first-round pick. He’s talented but didn’t even play football until junior college.

During a lengthy interview, North Carolina head coach Butch Davis compared Robert Quinn favorably to Michael Strahan this week. Apparently there are a lot of Michael Strahans out there. As this interview was mostly about Davis’ own players, RamView refuses to put a lot of stock in it.

In another interview, Nick Fairley objected to criticisms about his work ethic, identifying that as the most unfair criticism about him. He says his maturation is what allowed him to have a 2010 season that was far better than his 2009 season. Always pressing for the important news, Casserly did get Fairley to admit he has sleep apnea and that he sleeps with the air mask-thingy. This has been mutated into rumors that Fairley falls asleep during meetings. I’ll bet he did, before he was diagnosed.

Ryan Kerrigan – passionate, very talented, always at top gear. Great energy and motor. In other words, Caucasian. Can play inside and outside (though I think that’s OLB/DE, not DE/DT). Great character. Got stronger as the year went on. Teams had to game-plan for him. Gets these good reviews from opposing head coaches at Wisconsin and Notre Dame.

In a wild bit of draft scouting via mind-reading, Baldinger thinks that Houston DC Wade Philips believes that Aldon Smith is the next Demarcus Ware, which will lead Smith to be picked 11th overall by the Texans.

* Wide receiver. OK, I lied about not listening to college coaches talk about their own players. Alabama HC Nick Saban said Julio Jones reminded him of Irving Fryar, a former #1 pick overall. Great size, strong hands, very physical. Has a different disposition than your average WR: more toughness, more physical a player. Has great long speed, too.

Davis tries to soften RamView’s stand on Torrey Smith as Darrius Heyward-Bey II. He says Smith’s a football player; DHB was more of a track guy who happened to play football. RamView still says Maryland runs a simplistic offense and that Smith only had to be skilled at running deep patterns.

In a studio interview, humble North Carolina WR Greg Little compared himself to Andre Johnson, at least in size and athletic ability. He also compared himself to Anquan Boldin as a pass-catcher and inside receiver. Claims he can separate from defenders and that his strength (strongest WR at the Combine) shows up in his run after the catch. Davis doesn’t exactly keep Little’s head small by comparing him to Brandon Marshall. Well, if cocky = talent, the Rams should happily take Little in the 2nd round if he’s there.

Another candidate is Pitt WR Jonathan Baldwin, who Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly calls the best player he coached against from this year’s draft. People questioned if Baldwin came to play every week, but Kelly never saw that as an opposing coach at Notre Dame or Cincinnati. Baldwin has great range, can go up and get the football, and is a matchup nightmare.

* Running backs. Mark Ingram says his knee is 100% and doesn’t know where the reports are coming from that say the knee is arthritic. His stock’s taking a tumble because of the reports, also because the RB class is deep this year and the success of RBs like Arian Foster and LaGarrette Blount means teams don’t have to spring for a RB early.

Mikel Leshoure, for instance, is freely considered to be moving ahead of Ingram these days. He’s a big, physical back, a downhill runner who can lower his shoulder and move the pile. He doesn’t have great outside speed, but he makes subtle moves at the 2nd level. Perhaps most importantly, Leshoure DID NOT FUMBLE IN HIS COLLEGE CAREER. That's a statistic I'd like to have heard from this show sooner than a week before the draft.

Stevan Ridley’s considered a 4th-round pick or later, but Casserly called him a 3rd-round steal, a 225-pound, 1-cut, downhill, physical runner. Perfect for a zone-rushing system. You can see why the Rams invited him for a pre-draft visit, too: he was also an offensive captain at LSU.

* Linebackers. Bruce Carter has been cleared for pre-draft workouts by the famous Dr. James Andrews. Baldinger suggested Akeem Ayers may be falling out of the first round, as his toughness and speed turning the corner are being questioned.

Tough week if your team needs linebackers, defensive backs or tight ends, sucks to be you. Signed, Path to the Draft

* Offensive line. Mike Pouncey’s become such a hot name in recent weeks, Casserly now says he’ll be a better player than his brother Maurkice. I eagerly await the next time Mayock comments on the eerie similarity of the play of the two brothers. It’s almost like they’re identical twins or something! Pouncey’s considered a good pick anywhere in the teens.

Tyron Smith, though, is picking up a bit of a risk rating. To be the frequent top-10 candidate as he’s listed, Baldinger asks, shouldn’t he at least be able to play LT? Not according to Casserly, who rates him the 2nd-best tackle prospect of the last two years, behind only Russell Okung, and ahead of Rodger Saffold, who he places fifth. That’s patently ridiculous when we don’t know if Smith can even play LT. We know Saffold can, and well. Also, it’s Nate SOLDER, not “Soldier”. Notre Dame HC Brian Kelly says Anthony Castonzo was the best o-linemen the Irish faced last season but called Smith a physical specimen and praised his athleticism.

* Quarterback. NFL legend Jerry Rice gave an interview in which he clearly opposed Warren Moon’s view of evaluations of Cam Newton. Rice said the negative reviews aren’t racism; the guy just isn’t accurate. He was all over the place at the Combine. Charles Davis later claimed Cincinnati would NOT be in the market for Newton if he does happen to slip past Carolina and Buffalo. Well, there goes my mock draft. If Newton gets past Cincinnati, it would be anybody’s guess how far he’d fall, likely to Minnesota at 12 or Miami at 15. Casserly says Newton can’t read coverages, doesn’t find open receivers, and can only hit WRs who are wide, wide open.

Some random dude from “universaldraft.com” came on Path to the Draft to defend Ryan Mallett, claiming the Arkansas QB’s getting a bum rap. They've dug up a lot of positives about Mallett which are being underplayed and says that since it’s lying season in the NFL, Mallett’s negatives are getting overblown and occasionally fabricated. (Universal Draft’s very thoroughly-researched, very pro-Mallett article here.) Paul Burmeister counters that teams have examples of “documented drug use” by Mallett. The two-minute-at-best segment did little but leave you dubious about both sides.

More importantly, if NFL Network is just taking random dudes who have blogs and putting them on TV, where the hell’s MY on-air appearance? I am the epitome of random dude!

Maybe I shouldn’t have asked for a dressing room next to Lindsay Soto’s?

Addressing a hot rumor, Casserly says Mallett would be a terrible pick for Washington, he has no mobility and he’d be heavily scrutinized by the D.C. media. Baldinger thinks teams like Washington are better off reaching for QB this year than waiting to pick one. How panicky do you have to be about free agency to take Ryan Mallett TENTH?

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema praised TCU QB Andy Dalton: big kid, makes all the right decisions, makes every throw right on the money.

* Around the league. Panthers GM Marty Hurney claims he’s still undecided on who to take first overall, and that his phone isn’t ringing, either. He did compliment Cam Newton’s competitiveness.

To their credit, Path to the Draft is coming back around this week and doing draft profiles for the teams they inexplicably skipped earlier in the month. To their discredit, it’s mostly being done by NFL Net people, not local reporters, so there was little reason to skip anyone IN THE FIRST PLACE.

We do start with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Gerry Dulac, who says the Steelers’ weakest position is corner, which they need even if they can re-sign free agent Ike Taylor. Dulac’s pick is Aaron Williams. They also need d-line, where Cam Heyward would be an excellent addition. Adrian Clayborn’s also mentioned, as is STEVEN PAEA, as an eventual replacement for an aging Casey Hampton. Davis brings up Danny Watkins to salvage my mock draft.

The Ravens need offensive linemen, but Davis points out that they have FIVE WRs over the age of 30, then steals his Titus Young idea off of MY mock draft. Names kicked around: Carimi, Sherrod, Torrey Smith, Jonathan Baldwin or pass rushers like Akeem Ayers or Brooks Reed. Becoming a draft analyst from out of nowhere, Paul Burmeister picks Jimmy Smith. Not a bad pick, maybe.

Steve Wyche says the Seahawks like Ryan Mallett and Christian Ponder and would take either at #25 even if Jake Locker were still on the board. RamView thinks Pete Carroll would have some ‘splainin to do in that event. Danny Watkins or Gabe Carimi would certainly help their offensive line, and with Brandon Mebane a pending free agent, they could easily go after (as Baldinger pronounces it) Corey LiJEET, or (NOOOOOO!) Marvin Austin. Gulp.

Wyche also previews the Colts, first saying that offensive line needs should trump any QB-of-the-future needs, then steals RamView’s analysis last month and says they’d take Carimi, though they’ve worked out Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick, maybe with an eye toward the second round. Burmeister intones it’s hard to imagine Dalton will be available in the second round. WHAAA? OK, you can give your Junior Draft Analyst Club ring back now. Pouncey would be great if the Colts could get him, and they’ll look for a DB like Marcus Gilchrist in the middle rounds.

Baldinger says the Eagles will take Carimi, but make him their RG. Interestingly, Andy Reid has used ONE first-round pick on an o-lineman since taking over in 1999. Other names tossed in: Jimmy Smith (Davis stealing from RamView again), Aaron Williams, Greg Little (oh really?), and… Marvin Austin, who Casserly says the Eagles like as an inside pass rusher. Well, they didn’t go real wrong taking Brodrick Bunkley in 2006, the guy I wanted the Rams to take instead of trading down for Tye Hill.

The Bills are dropping hints that they want to pick Christian Ponder in the second round. Andre Reed, honorary announcer of the Bills’ 2nd-round pick Friday, reportedly tweeted Ponder to say he’s looking forward to calling his name on draft day, and the Bills’ brass likes his style. Unsurprisingly, that tweet has since been deleted.

The Redskins are reportedly considering Ryan Mallett AT NUMBER TEN.

HC Mike Munchak assures Tennessee that Vince Young is as good as gone.

The WHINERS have the most picks in this year’s draft:12. Philadelphia comes in second with 10.

* Notable workouts:

Whiners – Patrick Peterson, Taiwan Jones
Redskins – Julio Jones. Stay away, Shanahan!
Patriots – Mark Ingram, RYAN MALLETT?, JAKE LOCKER?!?!? Is Belichick putting on shows to bait teams into trading with him, something I suggested the Rams do (and didn’t)?
Broncos – Blaine Gabbert
Falcons – Cameron Jordan, Adrian Clayborn
Saints – Cameron Jordan
Bengals – Christian Ponder, Andy Dalton
Steelers – Aaron Williams
Dolphins and Raiders – Taiwan Jones. SHOCKER! The Raiders want to take a closer look at a speed guy. Guess who their first pick’s going to be?

* Wisdom of NFL Network. Baldinger said that this year more than ever, teams need to come away with starters in round 1 AND round 2. You know, I’m starting to believe the effect the lockout’s suspension of free agency will have on the draft is being significantly overrated. It’s not like the teams haven’t scouted the veteran free agents they might want to pick up yet. It’s not like there’s going to be a 12-hour-only free agent feeding frenzy the day before training camp. Free agency will be phased in sensibly as part of any labor agreement that is struck between, or thrust upon, the two sides. It won’t be chaos, and teams shouldn’t prepare for this year’s draft like survivalists preparing for nuclear war.

Mayock’s mysterious disappearance from TV did not prevent his player rankings from being updated. To wit:

Phil Taylor and Aaron Williams now in the top 32; Derek Sherrod and Kyle Rudolph out.
Tyron Smith jumped from 13 to 10, bumping Cameron Jordan to 11.
Cam Newton up to 14 from 16.
Sudden downgrade for Anthony Costanzo, from 11 to 16.

Those last two tell me these aren’t Mayock’s ratings at all, and that Baldinger has kidnapped him. Notify your local authorities.

* Movin’ on up. Casserly tried to project some plausible trade-up scenarios, and mostly came up with teams that need to trade ahead of Washington:

Detroit, if Prince Amukamara slides.
San Diego, if they’re specifically after Cameron Jordan, J.J. Watt or Cameron Heyward.
Obviously, the Rams if they’re after Julio Jones.
Casserly also said the Rams could have a shot at trading down with Tampa, who might want to get ahead of Jacksonville for a specific defensive player.
Multiple teams will covet New England’s first pick in the second round in pursuit of one of the second-tier QBs.

RamView's likeliest scenario was San Diego trading up with the Rams to secure Jordan or Ryan Kerrigan.

* Highlights. Sometimes you can learn things from game tape that you don’t even realize. On a clip of a long Mark Ingram TD against Mississippi State, he runs away from LB Chris White like he was standing still. If Ingram’s slow, what’s that supposed to make White?

All of Greg Little’s highlights show a play where he pulls down a ball in a crowd in the end zone for the TD, then punts the ball into the stands, then appears to mock the referee for throwing the well-earned excessive celebration flag on him with a flag-throwing motion of his own. Yeah, not really an element I’m looking to add to the Rams at this point.

* On that bombshell… One of Path to the Draft’s “social network questions of the day” was to predict a draft bombshell for the first round. Davis’ ideas were four QBs being drafted in the first round, or Mike Pouncey going off the board as the first offensive lineman.

You know RamView’s draft bombshell: Marvin Austin goes in the top 14.

Or, just as unlikely a bombshell, RamView has caught up with NFL Network’s Path to the Draft coverage! I’m shooting for shorter, daily reports the rest of the week.

The Panthers are on the clock!

-$-