My First-Round Pick If I Were Dimitroff

[MalteseFalcon1994]

I would say Noel Devine in the 2nd/3rd round but he has character issues and was adopted by Deion Sanders when he was in high school...

The lowest I would settle is this guy in the 3rd round:



Jordan Todman
Connecticut (HT: 5-9 - WT: 193)
Position Rank: 10 of 30


Positives: Above average speed, can beat defenders to the corner... Very shifty, has quick feet and routintely makes the first man miss... Good change of direction ability, changes his running pace constantly, makes him tough to track down... Good vision, does a great job finding the hole and would excel in a zone blocking system... Patient runner, waits for his blockers... Great receiver out of the backfield, can line up in the slot and run routes... Versatility will appeal to a lot of teams looking for a playmaker on offense... Connecticut has put some good running backs into the NFL over the past couple years (Donald Brown, Andre Dixon)... Elite production, ran for 1695 yards and 14 TD and 2010 and eclipsed 80 yards in every contest... Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 2010... Hard worker, came to UConn as a two-star cornerback recruit and developed into one of the top running backs in the country... Has experience returning kicks.

Negatives: Small, doesn't have a great frame, needs to add bulk... Not a great runner between the tackles, likes to bounce everything to the outside... Pass blocking ability is limited, lunges at defenders, doesn't have the size to be very effective as a blocker... Missed one game in 2010 due to an arm injury... Likely nothing more than a situational back at the NFL level... Can get pushed backwards by defenders, has trouble getting extra yards when larger players get a hold of him... Seems to get tripped up by arm tackles more often than he should... Lower body appears weak, doesn't have a solid base to work with, can get knocked off center.

[TonyGraziani]

(01-24-2011 04:17 PM)kane#7 Wrote:  See this is the problem with this board... Well thought out answers now no one will reply to this thread

I honestly believe that a RB who can catch and make one or 2 guys miss is our biggest offensive need... now you say a strong case can be made for either so I may take the RB side...

Advantages of a RB that can recieve the ball:

Against the Blitz... a Rb who can catch against the blitz is invaluble it can make teams think twice about blitzing if we will just dump it off to a RB that can make a man miss and is a potential home run threat, with 5-7 guys going after the QB and assuming 2 WR and a TE upfield that is a big risk they are taking in sending extra blitzers because one missed tackle can result in a large gain.

Check-down... If no one is open and we have an explosive player in the flat who Matt can just dump the ball to if he can pick up + yards it is a major help to moving the chains and turns a possibly negative play into a positive play.

Mis-matches... Now this is where they really become valuable if we have a guy who is too athletic or fast for a LBer to cover then if we bring him out in the backfield then motion him out to the slot the other team MUST commit a saftey to covering him or we get an easy completion in the open field. This can mean that they cannot double Roddy with that Saftey leaving him open 70% of the time (1 on 1 I will take him everytime).

This is only the basic ones I could come up with in 5 minutes with all the other options I see a good recieving RB expanding our offense greatly...

haha exactly

Snelling has GREAT hands. I've never seen him drop a pass. His HANDS(just his hands) might be better than Roddy's. But his lack of explosiveness hurts us more than Jenkins' IMO. If we have this same scheme, then we could put a guy with 4.1 speed in Jenkins place and end up with not THAT much different results due to the routes ran/passes thrown/role the #2 WR plays in our offense. But replace Snelling with Reggie Bush or somebody and see what happens.

The only variable that we don't know is if we did replace Jenks with a more explosive player, would the explosiveness be put to use properly. If we get the next Mike Wallace AND use him accordingly then it's a landslide. But given Mularkey's history of not changing a damn thing, we can only plug new players into the old positions at this point.

Sidenote: Snelling could still be used as a great checkdown threat at FB. Imagine us in a 3rd and short with Snelling at FB and another explosive RB. One of them is gonna get open in the flat GUARANTEED.

[Jesus]

When you have an established All Pro, pro bowler at RB and you draft one in the 1st round it sends a terrible message, whether you mean to or not.

[TonyGraziani]

(01-24-2011 04:58 PM)Jesus Wrote:  When you have an established All Pro, pro bowler at RB and you draft one in the 1st round it sends a terrible message, whether you mean to or not.

Does that apply to the Rams drafting Steven Jackson, the Steelers drafting Mendenhall, the Chiefs drafting Larry Johnson, etc.? I say those worked out. While other teams like Seattle(Shaun Alexander) and KC(LJ) were left high and dry when their RB fell off. Not saying Turner has that epic a dropoff like those 2, but just saying.

[evo]

Spending our 3rd round on this guy wouldnt be bad...

[Anomaly]

(01-24-2011 05:20 PM)evo Wrote:  Spending our 3rd round on this guy wouldnt be bad...

He is an early 2nd round guy though. No chance for us in the 3rd.

[TonyGraziani]

(01-24-2011 05:28 PM)Va Falcon 88 Wrote:  He is an early 2nd round guy though. No chance for us in the 3rd.

You're right, he won't last til our pick in at the end of the 3rd but I could see him being there for us in the second, depending on the combine.

[Statick]

I haven't read all of the other posts in this thread, but I'm of the opinion that TD has to draft for BPA in this draft. He has already addressed the depth issue, now IMHO he can. We have quality depth. Having Nicholas come in when Spoon was hurt all those times really helped us. He needs to bring some talent in that Smitty, BVG and MM can use.

[Jesus]

(01-25-2011 10:46 AM)Statick Wrote:  I haven't read all of the other posts in this thread, but I'm of the opinion that TD has to draft for BPA in this draft. He has already addressed the depth issue, now IMHO he can. We have quality depth. Having Nicholas come in when Spoon was hurt all those times really helped us. He needs to bring some talent in that Smitty, BVG and MM can use.

Good point. This could be the playmaker draft that everyone around here has been salavating about.

[Jesus]

(01-24-2011 05:08 PM)TonyGraziani Wrote:  Does that apply to the Rams drafting Steven Jackson, the Steelers drafting Mendenhall, the Chiefs drafting Larry Johnson, etc.? I say those worked out. While other teams like Seattle(Shaun Alexander) and KC(LJ) were left high and dry when their RB fell off. Not saying Turner has that epic a dropoff like those 2, but just saying.

Steven Jackson was drafted to replace Faulk - Which he did do in his second season
Mendenhall was drafted to complement Parker and replaced him in his second season
Johnson was drafted to replace Holmes which he did his third season. Johnson had only two good years in him, and they were great seasons. Charles has been pretty good the last two seasons wouldn't you say?

All this proves is that most first round RBs are just like most first round QBs they need time to learn the system and grow. Throw them in too fast and you could have a sophmore slump - see Matt Forte. If you're going to take a back in the first round, it is more than expected that he will take over for your starter within a couple seasons.

The exception of course is TJ Duckett who couldn't take over counter job at your local McDonalds.