2023 Draft Prospects Thread

[kriegs]

8. DORIAN THOMPSON-ROBINSON, UCLA (6-1 ½, 206, 4.56, 5): Five-year starter with a record of 25-23. His 48 starts were a Bruins’ record. He rewrote the record book in Westwood. “Tough, competitive kid,” one scout said. “May turn into a decent backup because of his athletic skill set. He makes some poor decisions but he’ll do things that wow you as well.” Passer rating of 98.2, including a career-best 107.3 in 2022. Wonderlic of 18. “I will say he had a really, really good year this year,” a second scout said. “I give Chip (Kelly) a lot of the credit for that because they gave him nice, clean reads. Everything matched up. He has good arm strength. His running ability is key. I don’t think he’s an accurate enough passer to play at the next level. I say that knowing full well his completion percentage (69.6%) was really, really good this year. A lot of that was he stuck to playing to his strengths. I didn’t see him making a ton of pro throws. If he’s a backup he can run around and make something happen. He’s a smart kid and he’s played a lot of football. He won’t be shocked by anything.” Rushed for 1,826 and 28 TDs. Hands were 9 7/8. From Las Vegas.

 

[Los216]

Somebody smarter than me please tell me why CJ Stroud is not the obvious #1 pick for CAR? This feels like a lite version of Tua vs Justin Herbert and I just cannot see why CAR would take Bryce Young over CJ. I'm not even being a Buckeye homer either. How is CJ not the obvious choice? Even Anthony Richardson over Bryce Young makes more sense to me.

 

[Randolphkeys]

Somebody smarter than me please tell me why CJ Stroud is not the obvious #1 pick for CAR? This feels like a lite version of Tua vs Justin Herbert and I just cannot see why CAR would take Bryce Young over CJ. I'm not even being a Buckeye homer either. How is CJ not the obvious choice? Even Anthony Richardson over Bryce Young makes more sense to me.

I heard rumors that Stroud faired poorly on the processing test.

 

[Los216]

I heard rumors that Stroud faired poorly on the processing test.

I'm not saying that this information is incorrect but nothing about CJ Stroud or Ryan Day leads me to believe that CJ Stroud is poor at processing.

This doesn't even consider his competition which is Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, and Will Levis. I don't think any of those 3 guys looked like they were on a different level as far as processing goes than CJ Stroud.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Somebody smarter than me please tell me why CJ Stroud is not the obvious #1 pick for CAR? This feels like a lite version of Tua vs Justin Herbert and I just cannot see why CAR would take Bryce Young over CJ. I'm not even being a Buckeye homer either. How is CJ not the obvious choice? Even Anthony Richardson over Bryce Young makes more sense to me.

CJ Stroud throws nicely from a clean pocket to uber-talented receivers.

It's fair to question his athleticism--he really only showed it during one game last year.

It's fair to question how he'll handle pressure. At Ohio State, he worked with one of the cleanest pockets in the country.

It's fair to question how he'll anticipate throws at the next level. He won't have JSN and Marvin Harrison being wide-the-fuck-open with a future gym teacher running behind trying to catch up. NFL-open and CFB-open are different beasts and his anticipation is questionable.

 

[AZ_]

The fun part about NFL GM's is that most don't have some super brain and most well-informed people can definitely do the job well if given the chance.

Case in point:

 

[Los216]

CJ Stroud throws nicely from a clean pocket to uber-talented receivers.

It's fair to question his athleticism--he really only showed it during one game last year.

It's fair to question how he'll handle pressure. At Ohio State, he worked with one of the cleanest pockets in the country.

It's fair to question how he'll anticipate throws at the next level. He won't have JSN and Marvin Harrison being wide-the-fuck-open with a future gym teacher running behind trying to catch up. NFL-open and CFB-open are different beasts and his anticipation is questionable.

Aside from the running ability this sounds a lot like what people were saying about Justin Herbert comparing him to Tua.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Aside from the running ability this sounds a lot like what people were saying about Justin Herbert comparing him to Tua.

You can say any prospect sounds like any other prospect.

Shit, start looking at Aidan O'Connell and tell me why his 6th round projection sounds a lot like the knocks people had on Tom Brady.

It doesn't mean prospects will develop in similar ways.

Also, comparing Stroud to Herbert is a non-starter if you want to have a serious conversation about prospects. Stroud is nowhere near the athlete that Herbert is. Herbert's knock was inconsistency--that while at times he looks like a God back there, he had way too many times where he looked like shit.

Once he got out of Oregon's system and into a system more tailored for his strengths, he was unleashed.

Stroud doesn't have any questions about his consistency in college. The questions are 'Uhhh, was he asked to do anything? In the NFL, QB's make it because they make tight-window throws, or perform under pressure... and we haven't seen him have to do that at Ohio State. Everything about him is projection outside of his ability to make every throw accurately from a clean pocket to open receivers."

 

[Randolphkeys]

Aside from the running ability this sounds a lot like what people were saying about Justin Herbert comparing him to Tua.

I think back to what happened in the 2018 draft. It is way easier to be the armchair GM for quarterbacks than to really tie your career to one kid. Dorsey tied his career to Baker and he's not getting another GM job after whiffing. Meanwhile Josh Allen was the "protectable traits over what he is now" guy that very few on RCF thought should be the pick.

 

[Los216]

You can say any prospect sounds like any other prospect.

Shit, start looking at Aidan O'Connell and tell me why his 6th round projection sounds a lot like the knocks people had on Tom Brady.

It doesn't mean prospects will develop in similar ways.

Also, comparing Stroud to Herbert is a non-starter if you want to have a serious conversation about prospects. Stroud is nowhere near the athlete that Herbert is. Herbert's knock was inconsistency--that while at times he looks like a God back there, he had way too many times where he looked like shit.

Once he got out of Oregon's system and into a system more tailored for his strengths, he was unleashed.

Stroud doesn't have any questions about his consistency in college. The questions are 'Uhhh, was he asked to do anything? In the NFL, QB's make it because they make tight-window throws, or perform under pressure... and we haven't seen him have to do that at Ohio State. Everything about him is projection outside of his ability to make every throw accurately from a clean pocket to open receivers."

Herbert's knock wasn't inconsistency. It was his system.

And I already said aside from the running ability.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Herbert's knock wasn't inconsistency.

It absolutely was. At least to my eyes and the scouting communities I engage with.

It was his system.

Yeah, we now know that a lot of his inconsistency in college performance was due to the system at Oregon not playing to his strengths.

And I already said aside from the running ability.

That's not what I mean when I say athlete. There's a lot more to athleticism than running. Herbert's core strength is in another world compared to Stroud's

 

[AZ_]

Speaking of undersized weapons.

Tank Dell can scoot.






He’s a weapon on the punt return.

He’s a short area quickness demon, can’t cover him in space.

Can get deep.



The ability he has to make the one footed plant and change direction makes him a weapon teams can find value in.

Betting he's going to find a real nice role in Houston.

 

[Randolphkeys]

I really like some of the videos Ive seen of BYU's WR Puka Nacua. The guy is a football player, as evidenced by siblings who played in the NFL. Here's the results of his pro day:

Puka Nacua

Bench Press: 15 reps

Vertical Jump: 33.0"

Long Jump: 10'1"

40-Yard Dash: 4.55 sec

The athletic testing is all around disappointing, but on the field he is aggressive and skilled. If the Browns are still looking for an offensive weapon in the fifth round on, I'd happily take Nacua as a special teamer with upside.

So as it turns out, being good at football is still more valuable than a SPARQ score. Puka shells and drug cartels - stuff from the early 2000s that just never went away.

 

[FiveThous]

So as it turns out, being good at football is still more valuable than a SPARQ score. Puka shells and drug cartels - stuff from the early 2000s that just never went away.

Sparq score wasn’t there but the early production and target share 100% were.

 

[Cement]

Please please please don't let Pittsburgh draft Jayden Daniels aka Lamar Jr.