1) ALABAMA (7-0) The King is alive! Long live the king! 2) GEORGIA (7-0) They teased us with super frosh QB JACOB EASON last season, but now new Super Frosh JAKE FROMM is the man. Of course CHUBB/MICHEL and that D help. 3) CLEMSON (6-1) They will be right here come January as long as they can get… Read More »
Friday Oct. 13th 7PM ET ESPN CLEMSON (6-0) by 11 @ SYRACUSE (3-3) I have very little doubt that Clemson will win this contest, but don’t expect a blowout. There is general optimism that HC DINO BABERS is the right man for the Syracuse job and that he has the program back on solid ground. There are legitimate… Read More »
#8 BRAXTON BERRIOS WR/RS MIAMI (F). 5’9/186 The time has come to accept the reality that between quickness and good hands almost every NFL roster has room for 1 or 2 “slot-type” receivers/return men on their roster. Used in a creative scheme they are just too productive and clutch to discount because they are 5’11 or shorter. BERRIOS… Read More »
Saturday Oct. 7 12:20PM ET ESPN DUKE (4-1) by 4 @ VIRGINIA (3-1) The Blue Devils bit the bullet last weekend losing to a very solid Miami team. UVA has been a pleasant surprise in HC Bronco Mendenhall’s second season with the program. This could be a very entertaining QB match-up KURT BENKERT/UVA looks to have improved by… Read More »
#20 OREN BURKS OB VANDERBILT 6’3/230. You have to be a real Draftnik to really know much about BURKS, but I highly recommend you watch him in action for the Commodores as the season progresses. BURKS has toiled in relative obscurity but has been a significant factor in making the Vandy team competitive in the tough SEC. He’s… Read More »
FRIDAY SEPT. 29 7PM ET ESPN MIAMI (FLA) by 4 @ DUKE This is a tough one to call even though I do believe Miami is the more talented team. The beginning of their season has been totally disrupted by hurricane season here in Florida and it’s a home game for an undefeated Duke team. Those two factors… Read More »
SAQUON BARKLEY/RB #26 PENN STATE 5’11/228 JR. My first thought watching the Iowa game was what a great player BARKLEY is. My second thought was that JAMES FRANKLIN is going to use him up by sometime in late October. How can BARKLEY not declare for the 2018 NFL Draft before he’s beaten to a pulp? This guy is… Read More »
Saturday Sept. 23 NOON ET ESPN Arlington, TX ARKANSAS by 3 vs. TEXAS A&M Neither of these teams is expected to be a major player in determining the SEC Championship for themselves, but both teams have enough talent that on any given weekend they could play a serious spoiler role. It could also be said that both of… Read More »
Happy to say that I got power back in time to watch pretty much a full slate of games last weekend. It was another week of solid game match-ups and some significant performances by 2018 NFL Draft prospects. Here are some notables from games I was able to watch. DEONTAY BURNETT/WR #80 SOUTHERN CAL 6’0/175 JR Please allow… Read More »
Having survived the wrath Of Hurricane Irma it’s time to get back to football. We have already had some amazing matchups, exciting contests and some stellar performances. This weekend is a bit shy with “special” matchups, but is solid nevertheless. Saturday Sept. 16 NOON ET ESPN OKLAHOMA STATE by 8 @ PITTSBURGH State has looked pretty potent early… Read More »
Some teams are still warming up against overmatched opponents, but once again we have some top caliber match-ups to enjoy. Here is some prospect watch info on significant games. Saturday Sept. 9th 3:30 ET ABC PITTSBURGH @ PENN STATE by 9 This game is heavily slanted in favor of Penn State. PITT will give them a run for… Read More »
#1 JERMAINE CARTER LB 6’0/235 MARYLAND CARTER returned to the Terps this past Spring with a slimmed down body and seriously improved speed in pads. He is a o-it-all LB who can blitz, drop in coverage and his coaches wisely use him in multiple locations and roles. He needs to improve his wrap-up tackling skills. Right now he… Read More »
We have moved past a pretty marginal, short game list of a Week 1 of the College season and now it’s time for the real deal as September begins. Here my 4 most interesting games, based in great part on the 2018 Draft Prospects who will be performing in them. I am attempting to restrain myself from listing… Read More »
Now lets move along to the downtrodden defensive side of things and look for some mid-round prospects for next year. DEVANTE DOWNS IB CAL 6’3/245 #1. The Golden Bears have been better known for their offensive exploits than their defensive efforts in the past decade or so. But they do have some solid defensive talent for new Head… Read More »
The NFL pre-season is currently wetting football appetites for the real thing next month. But I want to remind you that the College season will kick off with real action first. So in advance of my posting of weekly games to watch and prospect listing, as well as my Who Caught My Eye column after each weekends games,… Read More »
So let’s get down to the meat of things. The 10 teams below look to me to be the legit 10+ win teams who are going to deserve to head to the NFL Play-Offs come January 2018. The way injuries are mounting after less than two weeks of Training Camp makes me more than a bit uneasy however.… Read More »
Time to carry on with the remainder of my middle-of the pack, mediocre teams for 2017. But just an editorial note to start out. More injuries in Camps like TANNEHILL in Miami could cause some of these rankings to be altered drastically by September. And so it goes. 16) Miami DOLPHINS. Speaking of the Dolphins here there are.… Read More »
As I start to detail the middle of the pack for the 2017 NFL season I do want to make note that I feel like there is very little separation right now between the next 12 teams coming up in my rankings list. Indeed every one of them could end up with 8-8 records. But history indicates that… Read More »
Training Camps are opening and by week’s end all 32 teams will have begun molding and tuning up their rosters for the 2017 NFL season. So it’s the right time for a first stab at Power Rankings. So let’s start at the bottom and get the non-powerful out of the way. These are my bottom eight, meaning they… Read More »
Looking for some NFL football talk then head on over to 950thefan.com and listen to Pigskin Paul & Huffy talk football for an hour between 5-6PM Eastern this afternoon. They’ll talk DORSEY/REID, DORSEY/PACKERS and even some early discussion of glamour positions for 2018 NFL Draft, especially QB.
To the surprise of many associated with the NFL a power play took place in Kansas City this week and ANDY REID won the battle by convincing Owner Clark Hunt that either he or GM JOHN DORSEY had to go, and that he (Reid) was clearly the more important man to keep. Mark this down as the first… Read More »
OK, I have been waiting and pondering the 2017 Draft for over a month now. I refuse to give grades any longer, and have already proclaimed to you the teams I feel failed to do what they needed to in April. I even declared the winners of the URFA scramble. But I cannot postpone the inevitable forever. I… Read More »
Every year just about every team in the NFL has a Rookie Free Agent or two who makes their 53-man roster. And in addition, about half the Practice Squad roster for most teams is also comprised of Undrafted Rookie Free Agents (URFA). So, especially in the long run, URFA have an even better chance to make an NFL… Read More »
I don’t give out Draft grades any more, but I am not afraid to single out teams that I feel have outdone themselves in the Draft Process. That can be both on a pro and/or con basis. And today I’d like to mention 3 teams that I feel had highly questionable Draft efforts this year. It will also… Read More »
Been seeing a lot of nay-saying in post Draft-land. I would like to remind all that with 7-8 Draft Picks per team, on average it is quite unrealistic to expect bad teams to turn it around based on a single Draft effort. The impact last season of ELLIOTT/PRESCOTT was unprecedented in my 50-plus years of watching pro football.… Read More »
