Rookie Draft
We finally have some Akron players to see here – a few familiar faces. There are about ten guys in the draft in total, probably two or three have a shot to actually play some pro ball.
QB Marvin Fox (4.0) was Akron’s best player, and comes in as probably the top prospect. Might be a late round pick, with potential in several areas. Good at avoiding interceptions and at holding kicks - he might be able to make my roster.
CB Riddick Leslie (4.0) looks solid, but a bit slight. Decent but very even potentials at the coverage areas make me think he may not pan out – his 93 volatility also supports that theory. Bust in waiting?
The rest all seem to be very marginal prospects at best. I’ll watch to see if any get taken, and I might invite some to camp – but for now, I don’t want to upend my whole team to bring in a fleet of stiffs. DT Ricardo Terrell might have some small chance of grabbing a roster spot with us, I suspect. Others would be charity cases.
Looking at the top prospects, I would like to grab a receiver, and perhaps an offensive lineman. It looks like a pretty poor draft for both positions – of course. My scout rates the top two receivers as 69 and 68 down the road. And I’m no lock to get either one of them. Alas.
When #11 comes around, I decide that WR doesn’t fit – so I go with the best player available, in my opinion. LB Ricky DiGiacomo is a potential star, I think, and I expect that we can move him into the weak-side spot to make our LB corps that much better.
At #18, I end up taking standout safety Deron Ellery, who was a total monster at USC and looks like a pretty complete player for this level. He seems like the best player available – and fits a team need also.
Code:
Amateur Draft Report:
Rnd 1 - Ricky DiGiacomo, ILB, UCLA
Rnd 1 - Deron Ellery, S, Southern California
Rnd 2 - Terrell Marion, G, Baylor
Rnd 3 - Colin Pieri, DT, Washington
Rnd 6 - Marvin Fox, QB, Akron
Rnd 7 - Ricardo Terrell, DT, Akron
I hope the top two picks work out well – both would really help out this defense. If G Mason is as good as my scouts think he can be, then we’ll have something there, too. Others may or may not amount to anything.
I make a mid-draft deal, since we are already at full capacity, to deal picks in rounds 3,4, and 5 this year to get Chicago’s #2 next season. Not a robbery – not even a good deal, really, but this works for us.
CB Leslie Riddick manages to get snagged in round three – I still predict a bust there, but he’s the first product from my Akron program to actually get selected.
Late Free Agency
We land a trade offer from Minnesota, and are thrilled to get a 2nd round pick for RB Daniel Newman, our new backup. We also get an offer for MLB Cedric Goodwin, but he’s going nowhere.
And right upon starting the late free agency period, I get another trade offer – this time for RB Michael Hudson. Again – I’m not planning to use him a whole lot anyway, so this doesn’t seem too bad. Done deal – second rounder from Denver.
In late free agency, I bring aboard another college standout running back – George Wilson had over 1,700 yards rushing for Notre Dame last year. We’ll hope to give him a look, and perhaps a chance to contend for a good spot. I bring in a couple more RBs also – trying to find decent reserves either at RB or WR.
We head into camp overloaded once again – with 66 players signed to contracts.
Training Camp
We have all our rookies signed before camp – I’m hoping that we get some good news with this year’s crop.
Code:
Player # Pos Start Exp Cest Fest Cest Fest ChgC CHgF
Glover, Tyrone 2 QB 5 61 61 61 61 0 0
Mathews, Shawn 18 QB 5 47 49 47 49 0 0
Silvers, Bobby 16 QB 5 35 35 36 36 1 1
Fox, Marvin 11 QB 1 17 45 19 44 2 -1
Davis, Steven 14 QB 2 15 48 17 48 2 0
Arsenault, Roderick 33 RB 5 61 62 61 62 0 0
Adams, Donovan 28 RB 2 37 42 38 42 1 0
Ramsey, Kendrick 32 RB 3 34 43 35 43 1 0
Van Pelt, Donnell 21 RB 1 28 38 29 38 1 0
Wilson, George 26 RB 1 28 37 29 37 1 0
Barnes, Jimmie 44 RB 1 23 32 24 31 1 -1
Woodson, Mickey 36 FB 5 52 53 52 53 0 0
Salisbury, Adam 35 FB 5 44 59 47 59 3 0
Badalyan, Brent 47 FB 2 30 48 32 48 2 0
May, Pat 29 FB 2 28 44 29 44 1 0
Whiting, Arnie 84 TE 5 67 67 67 67 0 0
Metzger, Rich 82 TE 5 43 43 43 43 0 0
Simmons, Norm 87 TE 2 24 45 26 45 2 0
O'Rourke, Nathan 88 FL 5 45 45 45 45 0 0
Pritchett, Glen 6 FL 1 18 30 18 28 0 -2
Pritchett, R.J. 31 FL 1 11 33 12 30 1 -3
Aceves, Jermaine 85 SE 5 46 60 48 60 2 0
Sanders, Randall 83 SE 5 46 49 47 49 1 0
Rose, Mickey 89 SE 2 35 51 36 51 1 0
Nichols, Kurt 56 C 5 40 46 43 46 3 0
Hambrick, Antoine 54 C 4 38 46 38 46 0 0
George, Zach 57 C 2 25 41 27 41 2 0
Marion, Terrell 65 LG 1 20 58 22 58 2 0
Hampton, Todd 67 RG 2 21 38 23 38 2 0
Clark, James 66 RG 2 15 37 17 37 2 0
Loera, Herman 62 RG 1 11 24 12 27 1 3
Heinlein, Bennie 71 LT 4 52 54 52 54 0 0
Schroeder, Bert 74 RT 5 48 53 51 53 3 0
Bass, Frank 73 RT 4 36 38 38 38 2 0
Barber, Erik 60 RT 1 16 34 17 34 1 0
Cochrane, Paul 9 P 5 38 38 38 38 0 0
Stewart, Jay 7 K 4 49 49 50 50 1 1
Fox, Jimmy 93 LDE 2 38 48 41 48 3 0
Schulz, Deion 70 LDE 4 32 38 34 38 2 0
Huffman, Rodney 78 RDE 4 75 75 79 79 4 4
Blum, Dale 94 RDE 3 34 41 35 41 1 0
Cascadden, Gary 72 LDT 2 41 67 43 67 2 0
Gibson, Kris 95 LDT 3 38 51 40 51 2 0
Oliveira, Willie 76 LDT 4 29 46 31 46 2 0
Pieri, Colin 75 RDT 1 17 41 19 40 2 -1
Terrell, Ricardo 97 RDT 1 9 16 10 14 1 -2
Wayne, Harry 79 NT 5 38 50 40 50 2 0
Goodwin, Cedric 92 MLB 5 58 58 58 58 0 0
Casey, Rick 90 MLB 5 51 57 53 57 2 0
Gaines, Daryl 55 MLB 4 33 45 35 45 2 0
DiGiacomo, Ricky 91 MLB 1 31 73 34 72 3 -1
Castaneda, Ronald 64 MLB 2 26 49 29 49 3 0
Tyler, Howie 99 SLB 4 53 59 55 59 2 0
Wiggs, Julio 52 WLB 5 42 42 42 42 0 0
Fisk, Stanley 98 WLB 2 37 53 39 53 2 0
Fuller, Luke 53 WLB 2 22 36 24 36 2 0
Wickliff, Calvin 42 LCB 4 53 53 56 56 3 3
Mace, Wes 23 LCB 5 45 51 49 51 4 0
Gomez, Craig 27 LCB 4 30 52 34 52 4 0
Dunn, Scott 37 RCB 5 51 51 51 51 0 0
Richmond, Deon 43 RCB 3 42 55 47 55 5 0
Richmond, Paul 34 SS 5 33 33 33 33 0 0
Jacobs, Thurman 41 FS 4 43 65 48 65 5 0
Ellery, Deron 46 FS 1 22 66 26 64 4 -2
Politte, Marlon 38 FS 2 17 35 19 35 2 0
Hardee, Herman 48 FS 1 12 27 12 26 0 -1
DE Rodney Huffman was among a few veteran players who had a little “bump” from this year’s training camp – not a major breakout, but a nice little nudge, at least.
Season Analysis
My thinking is that we need to temper these changes going on. With Arsenault arriving, we will go with a pure “featured back” system, rather than the committee of runners we are used to. While we didn’t land a star receiver this year, I think TE Arnie Whiting can become our go-to guy in the underneath routes as well.
Quarterback? I don’t know what to do. I think we’ll take a look in preseason, trying to see what Silvers can still do. But we have Tyrone Glover in place already, and he could be ready to take the reins if needed.
And as we contemplate the QB position, we accept Miami’s trade offer for QB Shawn Mathews – last year’s starter. We get a second rounder, and they may have gotten their starter for this season.
We are out of the basement in the roster ratings – up to a 50 rating, with four teams rated below us.