I get people who rank him bottom half of the 1st right now. I disagree, but I get it. His tape leaves quite a bit to be desired. He pops up out of his stance too quickly and plays too high, which allows guys who shouldn’t be able to hang with him get inside his body and control a rep (and at 6’6, he’s really gonna have to focus on getting it right).
But like they do with Grant, everyone’s acting like he’s the finished product. It’s asinine. For one DT takes longer to master than pretty much any other position in college (hell plenty of them come into the NFL with a lot of work to do).
For another, the guy plays with a really hot motor when he’s not gassed, and will be a 2-time team captain come draft day. Those guys rarely fail. He needs to improve his conditioning but it took a big leap from his freshman to sophomore year, there’s no reason to think it won’t take another big leap this year (though he’s missed some of the off-season hurt).
And of course you just can’t teach the stuff he has in spades. He’s the most freakish physical prospect since Dexter Lawrence/Ngata, etc… There just aren’t many guys built like him.
The one that everyone’s missing out on right now is Shavon Revel. He’s gonna be this year’s Quinyon, except he’s even more physically freaky. It’s really shocking how good he was last year.
I agree on Johnson, though it wouldn’t shock me if he ended up going 5-8. Just depends what other teams need. Perkins though, as I’ve said, I think he falls into the 2nd. I know that’s a bit of a spicy take at this point, but that’s what happens to tweeners like him.
That strikes me as too damn high in this class. Granted I didn’t even know who he was until 45 days ago but 12 in this class is a crazy competitive spot? So Dane has him as CB3?
His season last year was just sooooo good, when you combine it with his clear traits, sky’s the limit. I suspect many will be really, really high on him.
Of course he has to keep it up. Plenty of CBs don’t take a leap or even take a step back, and their draft slot reflects it.
I think it’s less spicy after reading about how Kelly intends to use him. If he’s truly primarily off ball then I think there’s a bit of a dichotomy in terms of his draft outcomes. Either he proves his mettle doing that and he skyrockets back bc he’s a legit LB with high end pass rushing chops or he slides bc he’s small and by draft time we’re 30 months removed from elite pass rushing.
BUT I have some faith in Baker. He better be good for what they’re paying him. And everyone that talks about highlights him coaching to his kids’ skill sets. I’m keeping an open minded.
But boy oh boy was Harold fun to watch as a freshman.
I’ll trust you and Dane. As I’ve mentioned before when you get to that level I have no idea what I’m watching or more specifically how dominant is dominant enough. It’s just a different skill. I’m the same way with HS footage. Unless it’s upper division FL, GA, CA, TX, OH, etc.
Right, the upgrade in DC should be significant, so he’s got that going for him. I’m just not sure Perkins is a quandary that can be solved. The thing he does best opens him up for being susceptible to the things he does worst. There’s been plenty of guys like that enter the league, you could even call Houston one of them.
But Houston is damn near 30 pounds heavier.
I really think he has to show well as an WLB this year to have any chance of going in the first.
Yeah totally fair, but he does some things that make you sit up in your seat. I’m sure they’ll filter onto twitter as the year goes along (especially since Dane has made him such a known name), so we’ll all be able to see his peak plays at least.
Had some good reps against Jha’quan Johnson apparently. I don’t know how often he went head-to-head against McCaffrey but he only had 1 catch for 5 yards. Corn Johnson had some success against him, but that was Revel’s first major college game. Tough venue for it. And this is pretty good:
