2011 Rookie Draft
The Akron class here is pretty weak – S Marcus Stephens and DE Trent Guthrie might get drafted, but I don’t see either one making much of a splash.
After making a deal last season, we surprisingly hold the #1 draft pick overall in this draft. We dealt with Minnesota last year, and they fell apart last season – all to our benefit. That’s a wonderful spot to be in – and a chance to land an impact player.
Thing is – I am completely unimpressed with the top of this draft. Chicago deals us two firsts and a second to move up from #14 to #1 overall – pretty good deal for us, I think. I decide to address our interior line issues with OL Mickey Thornton, whom we will slot at left guard.
Tough decision at #30 – I like a safety (again) but also see a LB who I think might become a fantastic pass rusher. Tough decision – must think on it a while. (My luck drafting these two positions has been spotty, at best, thus far) There’s also a cornerback out of VaTech who would make a nice addition – and that’s a need position also.
I end up going with CB Jamie Freeman, whom I think can be a good cover man for the long haul. When my coveted safety is still there midway through round two, we get him, too. Two potentially big additions to our secondary in one quick swoop.
Code:
Amateur Draft Report:
Rnd 1 - Mickey Thornton, G, Washington
Rnd 1 - Jamie Freeman, CB, Virginia Tech
Rnd 2 - Ellis Pond, C, Eastern Michigan
Rnd 2 - Rex Specter, S, Notre Dame
Rnd 3 - James Houston, QB, Notre Dame
Rnd 4 - Lamont Creighton, P, Central Florida
Rnd 5 - Ben Hicks, DT, Arizona State
Rnd 6 - Sherman Benjdya, ILB, Washington
Rnd 7 - Tyrone Kramer, RB, UCLA
As usual, I like the guys from our draft a lot. We may revise that soon, after we get a closer look – but I’m thrilled so far. Big help to the interior line, big help to the secondary – both places where we needed it.
Late Free Agency
As I had hoped, MLB Cedric Goodwin has adjusted his demands, and I put in a three year offer. I want him around – and hopefully this will keep that hope alive.
G Terrell Marion is still asking for a small fortune, and I don’t think that will work, especially since we just drafted a LG high. Unless he dramatically revises his demands, we will let him walk, and go younger there.
I put in for a few undrafted rookies and we purge ahead into the late stages.
In week five, MLB Cedric Goodwin accepts our offer – and we have locked it all up.
Weird side story – WR Josh Andruzzi has asked for huge money in each of the last two years’ free agent markets, but hasn’t gotten a big contract. This will be the third year he will go into training camp without a job. He made the all-pro team for his last two employers (on one year minsal deals) – can this guy ever get paid?
Training Camp
Code:
Player Pos CE FE CE FE ChgC ChgF
Glover, Tyrone QB 61 61 61 61 0 0
Clancy, Marco QB 35 60 39 60 4 0
Houston, James QB 32 61 36 60 4 -1
Gordon, Howie QB 28 58 30 56 2 -2
Fox, Marvin QB 23 46 27 46 4 0
Lee, Sammy QB 16 51 18 45 2 -6
Arsenault, Roderick RB 53 53 53 53 0 0
Ramsey, Archie RB 51 51 51 51 0 0
Ramsey, Kendrick RB 36 38 37 38 1 0
Kramer, Tyrone RB 31 41 31 38 0 -3
Aguilera, Danny RB 28 37 29 36 1 -1
Quinn, Vince RB 23 44 23 39 0 -5
Woodson, Mickey FB 48 48 48 48 0 0
Goodwin, Ian FB 37 52 39 52 2 0
Carey, Marshall FB 20 37 23 42 3 5
Holmes, Jonathan TE 75 75 75 75 0 0
Pariso, Wade TE 29 45 33 45 4 0
Ellard, Jimmy FL 48 48 48 48 0 0
Blair, Zach FL 45 48 47 48 2 0
Bensen, Vernon FL 15 33 18 39 3 6
Sasser, Marlon SE 50 50 50 50 0 0
Goodwin, Oscar SE 38 50 41 50 3 0
Causey, Marvin SE 39 61 41 61 2 0
Rose, Mickey SE 39 39 39 39 0 0
Bates, Ellis SE 18 28 18 28 0 0
Owens, O.J. C 46 66 49 66 3 0
McElroy, Ken C 38 46 41 46 3 0
Pond, Ellis C 20 57 24 58 4 1
Allman, Omar C 20 44 23 44 3 0
Thornton, Mickey LG 31 74 34 68 3 -6
Gruber, Lincoln RG 55 57 55 57 0 0
Hampton, Todd RG 37 39 39 39 2 0
Heinlein, Bennie LT 53 55 53 55 0 0
Norton, Danny LT 12 42 14 42 2 0
Thornton, Donnie RT 49 59 52 59 3 0
Creighton, Lamont P 66 76 65 72 -1 -4
Sneller, Mickey P 46 61 48 61 2 0
Wolf, B.J. P 15 19 16 19 1 0
Vallejo, Jeremy K 58 65 58 65 0 0
Moseley, Cris LDE 53 56 55 56 2 0
Holton, Butch LDE 52 52 52 52 0 0
Fox, Jimmy LDE 50 50 51 51 1 1
Irish, J.C. LDE 20 27 22 27 2 0
Hendrix, Tim RDE 50 65 53 65 3 0
Burns, Johnny RDE 18 36 20 36 2 0
Cascadden, Gary LDT 67 69 67 69 0 0
**Gibson, Kris LDT 52 52 52 52 0 0
Oliveira, Willie LDT 38 47 40 47 2 0
Gustafson, Harvey RDT 51 51 51 51 0 0
Hicks, Ben RDT 25 35 26 36 1 1
Carlson, Kirk WILB 26 42 28 42 2 0
Casey, Rick MLB 56 58 56 58 0 0
Goodwin, Cedric MLB 55 55 55 55 0 0
Perez, K.C. MLB 41 62 45 62 4 0
Castaneda, Ronald MLB 31 45 34 45 3 0
Frederick, Clarence SLB 25 58 28 58 3 0
Benjdya, Sherman SLB 22 47 23 44 1 -3
DiGiacomo, Ricky WLB 59 69 63 69 4 0
Holmes, Warren WLB 55 55 55 55 0 0
Regalado, Darrin WLB 46 46 48 48 2 2
Fisk, Stanley WLB 45 45 46 46 1 1
Gomez, Craig LCB 42 46 43 46 1 0
Freeman, Jamie LCB 27 66 30 63 3 -3
Richmond, Deon RCB 58 58 58 58 0 0
Callens, Zack RCB 49 49 49 49 0 0
Weed, Kirk SS 53 54 57 57 4 3
Ellery, Deron FS 51 57 54 57 3 0
Specter, Rex FS 30 58 31 54 1 -4
Cowley, Kelly FS 16 43 19 43 3 0
Well, the big news is that my super-draft turns out to be… well… less than super. Once again, nearly all my players turn out to have their upside somewhere at or near the bottom end of the “bands” that my scout forecasted. So, my top four picks all look like role players, rather than star players. Disappointing – especially CB Freeman, who I though was going to be a very solid starting CB. Instead, he’s the same caliber guy we’re used to seeing in free agency for modest money. ::sigh::
Anyway, we get some good news – S Kirk Weed had a really good camp, and now seems to be developing beyond his previous forecasts. That’s good to see. We also have an interesting prospect at QB in James Houston, who could make our “future” at that position a little more cloudy. More on the relative merits of Houston and Clancy in due course.
I’m disappointed, again.
Season Analysis
As we approach the season, here’s a snapshot of our team chemistry situation – you’ll see that we have worked pretty hard to build up good chemistry (some of this has been happenstance, some deliberate).
Code:
Player # Pos Start Playing Time Chemistry
Ramsey, Archie 29 RB Content Backfield Leader
Ellard, Jimmy 87 FL Content Receivers Leader
Gruber, Lincoln 63 RG Content Offensive Line Lead
Oliveira, Willie 76 LDT Content Defensive Front Lea
Richmond, Deon 43 RCB Content Secondary Leader
Glover, Tyrone 2 QB Content 1 Affinity with lea
Clancy, Marco 8 QB Content 1 Affinity with lea
Houston, James 7 QB Content 1 Affinity with lea
Gustafson, Harvey 75 RDT Content Conflict
Hicks, Ben 74 RDT Content Conflict
Ramsey, Kendrick 32 RB Content Strong Affinity
Rose, Mickey 89 SE Content Strong Affinity
Holton, Butch 97 LDE Content Strong Affinity
**Gibson, Kris 95 LDT Content Strong Affinity
Cascadden, Gary 72 LDT Content Strong Affinity
Goodwin, Oscar 80 SE Content Affinity
Moseley, Cris 94 LDE Content Affinity
Freeman, Jamie 44 LCB Content Affinity
Aguilera, Danny 30 RB Content Mild Affinity
Woodson, Mickey 36 FB Content Mild Affinity
Owens, O.J. 51 C Content Mild Affinity
Hampton, Todd 67 RG Content Mild Affinity
Pretty good group of affinities there, especially with four (three strong) among the defensive front. I’ve allowed two conflicts to build there – but Gustafson in particular is just too good to let go due to chemistry issues.
G Lincoln Gruber and RB Roderick Arsenault have become mentors to their positions for us, which is a good thing to see emerge. My balance at RB in particular is building good chemistry – leader Archie Ramsey prevents Arsenault from clashing with QB Tyrone Glover, plus he has a strong bond with his cousin Kendrick Ramsey. Even though I have mostly relegated Archie to #3 status, he still serves a valuable role for us here.
We have certainly had our biggest year of turnover this season – and after being a playoff team three years running, I would have rather stayed the course. But most of the moves we have made have been pretty good on the surface – we lose DE Huffman, but he hadn’t been a consistent presence for us anyway. It’s the OL where I have my gravest concerns – as we will be starting three new players there, and will lose nearly all of our continuity. I think this might spell trouble for us – but hopefully our defense will play well and carry us again.
We are obliged to say that this year’s goals are to go even deeper into the playoffs… but really, I just hope that some of these moves end up working out. If we end up on top of our division again this year, that will be great.