Rating rookies in 2014/Colts in top 50

[Yoshinator]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2209102-nfl-week-4-rookie-rankings-surveying-rookie-class-post-week-3/page/2

 

This is an article about the top 50 rookies (drafted and undrafted) through three weeks in 2014. Jack Mewhort is on there at 11 and Zach Kerr is on there at 39. Thought it was an interesting piece. Also has the top 5 rookies ranked at each position.

 

Also Mods, if this isn't the right place for this piece, please put it in the right section, not sure where this was supposed to go.

[BlueCollarColts]

I am shocked a player of Kerr's caliber fell to us undrafted.

[CR91]

I am shocked a player of Kerr's caliber fell to us undrafted.

 

when you go to a small school, its hard to elevate your talent playing against lack luster competition  

[BlueCollarColts]

when you go to a small school, its hard to elevate your talent playing against lack luster competition  

Still, I would think some team would have taken him in the 6th-7th round, we are just lucky I guess. 

[BlueStallion]

Still, I would think some team would have taken him in the 6th-7th round, we are just lucky I guess. 

 

Thus spake Ryan Grigson:

 

"Keep, ancient teams, your storied pomp!" cries he with silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to play free cheap,

The wretched refuse of your teeming draft.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my golden pen beside the blue horseshoe!"

[Nobody]

Kerr dropping surprised most all amateur scouts, he was a favorite

[bestQBever]

Kerr is the #1 rookie DE.

[Yoshinator]

Kerr is the #1 rookie DE.

Yes he is, very proud of Kerr and especially Mewhort. Mewhort has transformed our line and Kerr has been very solid. Someone else that's not on here is Donte Moncrief and even though he shouldn't be on here yet, he is doing as well as we could of asked through limited time on the field through 3 games. Hopefully Newsome and Jackson can get some chance to produce at a point in this year as well. Absolutely awesome we got a top ten guy almost with a late 2nd round pick in mewhort. Great job Grigs!

[ColtsFanMikeC]

when you go to a small school, its hard to elevate your talent playing against lack luster competition  

 

As a Delaware Fightin' Blue Hen alum, I have to respectively disagree somewhat here.  Delaware has produced several good pros -- Rich Gannon, Joe Flacco, Mike Adams (our safety and 11 year NFL vet), Gino Gradkowski (Ravens starting center last year), Zach Kerr, Marcus Burley (the CB we traded to Seattle who is playing exceptionally well for them) to name a few...  Just about every year UDel has multiple players get either drafted or signed as UDFA, they were a top-tier FCS team up until a few years ago.  The FCS actually has quite a bit of talent, I think a lot of the top FCS teams could beat many NCAA D-1 teams.  Anyway, before I get off on a tangent, my point is -- this day in age, there is no reason why scouts should not be able to spot top talent at any level.  Heck, Robert Mathis came from a less competitive FCS (DI-AA at the time) team over a decade ago and scouts found him. In today's world, we've got scouts finding rugby players from Africa, college basketball players, etc... I think it is just dumb-luck that Kerr fell into the UDFA category -- he was an excellent player at UDel and has done well so far in the NFL.  He caught a break here after being drafted (with Maola and Pendleton getting put on IR), and he made the most of it.  Kerr could play on a number of rosters, he has the measurables, the motor, etc... sometimes good players just fall thru the cracks for reasons unknown -- the fact that he didn't play at Alabama or Florida State may have hindered him and kept him out of the first 3 rounds, but there is no way scouts didn't have him on their radars.  There are a lot of teams that have pretty stacked DLines, and other teams with bigger needs (IMO, no doubt was Kerr on our radar, we just had bigger needs at LB and OL towards the end of the draft -- had we not signed Art Jones and had a pretty solid looking DL prior to the draft there is a chance we take him in round 5-7).

 

On a side note, only 4 UDFA made the top 50 list -- Kerr, Cleveland's RB, Arizona's K, and Parkey (K for Philly) -- the Colts signed both Kerr and Parkey, so I think our scouting dept. deserves some praise for evaluating some later-round/UDFA talent.

[CR91]

As a Delaware Fightin' Blue Hen alum, I have to respectively disagree somewhat here.  Delaware has produced several good pros -- Rich Gannon, Joe Flacco, Mike Adams (our safety and 11 year NFL vet), Gino Gradkowski (Ravens starting center last year), Zach Kerr, Marcus Burley (the CB we traded to Seattle who is playing exceptionally well for them) to name a few...  Just about every year UDel has multiple players get either drafted or signed as UDFA, they were a top-tier FCS team up until a few years ago.  The FCS actually has quite a bit of talent, I think a lot of the top FCS teams could beat many NCAA D-1 teams.  Anyway, before I get off on a tangent, my point is -- this day in age, there is no reason why scouts should not be able to spot top talent at any level.  Heck, Robert Mathis came from a less competitive FCS (DI-AA at the time) team over a decade ago and scouts found him. In today's world, we've got scouts finding rugby players from Africa, college basketball players, etc... I think it is just dumb-luck that Kerr fell into the UDFA category -- he was an excellent player at UDel and has done well so far in the NFL.  He caught a break here after being drafted (with Maola and Pendleton getting put on IR), and he made the most of it.  Kerr could play on a number of rosters, he has the measurables, the motor, etc... sometimes good players just fall thru the cracks for reasons unknown -- the fact that he didn't play at Alabama or Florida State may have hindered him and kept him out of the first 3 rounds, but there is no way scouts didn't have him on their radars.  There are a lot of teams that have pretty stacked DLines, and other teams with bigger needs (IMO, no doubt was Kerr on our radar, we just had bigger needs at LB and OL towards the end of the draft -- had we not signed Art Jones and had a pretty solid looking DL prior to the draft there is a chance we take him in round 5-7).

 

On a side note, only 4 UDFA made the top 50 list -- Kerr, Cleveland's RB, Arizona's K, and Parkey (K for Philly) -- the Colts signed both Kerr and , so I think our scouting dept. deserves some praise for evaluating some later-round/UDFA talent.

I dont mean anything negative about your school. Just saying their not Alabama or usc

[NewColtsFan]

Thus spake Ryan Grigson:

 

"Keep, ancient teams, your storied pomp!" cries he with silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to play free cheap,

The wretched refuse of your teeming draft.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my golden pen beside the blue horseshoe!"

 

 

Brad Wells?     Is that you?

 

This sure reads like one of yours!

 

Good to see you picked up a hobby by posting here.....  

 

By the way,  you haven't been missed at all since you left Stampede Blue.....      sorry....

[akcolt]

Isn't kind of early to determine the top rookies of 2014 we have played 3 games?

[BpG]

Way too early for this. The Browns have 3 in the top 50, the #1 overall and their 2nd first round pick hasn't seen the field. 

[B~Town]

That is like nailing a 1st rd pick we didn't have and nailing our 2nd rd all with one late 2nd rd pick . I'm a huge fan of Grigs I can't wait to see where we are when the rebuild is complete .

[gacker65]

I agree with akcolt that it is to early yet to rate our drafted players.

 

@ ColtsFanMikeC: I agree with what you said about smaller schools and the players they produce. 

[ProblChld32]

Im happy With Both Kerr was an absolute steal a Gem, glad we picked that kid up. 

[Valpo2004]

Mewhort outperforming Gabe Jackson by a wide margin.  Gabe Jackson is a guy a lot of us thought we should have grabbed.  

 

So at least thus far I have to say. . . Good Call Grigson. 

[ColtsFanMikeC]

I dont mean anything negative about your school. Just saying their not Alabama or usc

Oh, no offense was taken -- my main point was that in this day in age, there is no reason that any talent anywhere in college football (D-I thru D-3) should go unnoticed.  If we have the scouts to find guys from a lower-tier rugby team in Kenya (Adongo) or a below-average college basketball player that has never played a down of football in his life (Swoope), there is no reason that our scouts (and other teams' scouts) shouldn't see guys from FCS schools or even studs from D-2 and D-3 schools. 

 

The fact a player isn't at an SEC or other big-time school obviously puts him on a lower radar.  However, many players in today's NFL (and today's professional sports in general) are drafted based on their potential and 'moldability' rather than their college production alone.  Kerr could maybe use an inch or 2 to fit that 'prototype' of an NFL DT, but he has the tools that you can't teach (speed, strength, weight, etc..) -- we got lucky he went undrafted, but I am sure many teams had him on their radars -- the problem for D-lineman in today's NFL is that almost every team has a specific scheme that needs certain body-types and physical attributes -- Kerr is built to be a nose tackle or D-Tackle in a 3-4 scheme, which automatically drops him off the radar for over 1/2 the teams in the NFL.

 

I am sure Kerr was on the radar for all teams that run a 3-4, but many of these teams have that spot solidified and had bigger needs at draft time.  For example, we have Josh Chapman, Arthur Jones, Montori Hughes, and RJF (and at the time a healthy Pendleton, Maola and the option to resign McKinney) -- all of those players are interchangeable at DT/NT (with the exception of Chapman who is strictly a NT) -- so NT/DT was really not a priority for us in the draft (i.e., we had a lot more important holes to fill on this roster).  No offense to any of those players, but we haven't been considered a top D and our DL sure has been nothing to brag about in recent years -- if that spot wasn't a need on our team,  I imagine a lot of other teams that run a 3-4 and have a better D than us are also fairly solid at that spot (in fact, the only teams that run a 3-4 and gave up more yards than  us last year were KC, SD, Philly, and Green Bay). 

 

If we were weaker on the DL than at LB or OL, I imagine we would have taken Kerr over players like Ulrich John or Andrew Jackson, but we (and probably many other teams) had bigger needs at the time of drafting.  If the scouting report websites were ranking Kerr as a 4th-7th round draft pick, I am sure most NFL teams that run a 3-4 know who he is and did due diligence with talent evaluations and would have seen Kerr has the speed, strength, and stoutness where he could be developed into a solid NFL player regardless of where he played college ball.

[mvbighead]

Why do people moan about this being too early?  They're not suggesting these are the best guys of the draft class.  They're rating them as of week 3.  Sure, there isn't a lot to go on, but it's not meant to be a final list for 2014.

[lollygagger8]

I'm just happy we have a 1st round pick next year!!! 

 

**don't mess that up Grigs** 

[Gavin]

Mewhort outperforming Gabe Jackson by a wide margin.  Gabe Jackson is a guy a lot of us thought we should have grabbed.  

 

So at least thus far I have to say. . . Good Call Grigson. 

Gabes played pretty well also excluding a holding penalty,

[HarryTheCat]

Isn't kind of early to determine the top rookies of 2014 we have played 3 games?

This may be a week-by-week, running evaluation.  Let's keep an eye on this and see what happens next week.

[akcolt]

This may be a week-by-week, running evaluation.  Let's keep an eye on this and see what happens next week.

Didn't think of that makes sense

[SubZero]

I am shocked a player of Kerr's caliber fell to us undrafted.

I think Kerr would be better at NT than Chapman. Hes been better at the run and pass rushing than Chapman. I just feel like Kerr needs to be utilized.