Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
New draft timeline gives extra homework
Barring a coronavirus reset, the NFL draft is a month away. It’s not too soon to look at which wide receiver the Eagles are going to take off the board in the first round with one of their eight total draft picks.
It’s also time to consider the impact that the coronavirus could have on draft-day decisions as quarantines pretty much have wiped out pro days, team visits and face-to-face interviews of prospects.
The draft itself will be different. Instead of a Las Vegas experience with picks being ferried to the dais, as proposed, the lottery likely will be held in a studio with links to the 32 war rooms around the league. The less glitzy show suits people like Dan Shonka, who heads Ourlads’ Scouting Services and publishes one of the most definitive draft guides in the business.
You’re going to have a tough time finding a more authoritative, descriptive character with handson NFL scouting experience than Shonka, who began putting draft boards together 32 years ago for National Football Scouting.
Shonka wrote the definitive report on Kurt Warner and pitched it to Rich Kotite, who said no. As a scout with the Eagles, Shonka was rebuffed twice in his efforts to get Jon Gruden, who was offensive coordinator, to take a look at Warner, now a Hall of Famer.
Another Shonka find was Warren Moon. Yeah, also a Hall of Famer.
Shonka gets calls from NFL scouts and college scouting directors telling him how much they appreciate his evaluations in this unsettling arena. More than ever, the voice of Ourlads’ and the opinion of its trusted evaluators is an absolute necessity. All of the NFL teams subscribe to the service. Some of them take it more seriously than others.
Right now, Shonka wonders what all the fuss is about over the lack of evaluation time for the draft because after all, “a lot of the hay is in the barn.”
“The toughest thing is to evaluate some of those guys that didn’t work out at the combine,” Shonka said. “The interviews are done, the physicals are done but they wanted to work out at their pro days. But I think what a lot of colleges are doing now is they’re filming these workouts and sending them to the teams.”
Video of Tua Tagovailoa, coming off a serious injury, is all over the Internet. In it, Tagovailoa is maneuvering around cones and effortlessly throwing passes. He’s still going to have a red flag under medical for his history of ankle injuries and a hip dislocation.
NFL team trainers and physicians checked out the draft prospects at the combine. The players that didn’t attend are more of an unknown, although they can make their medical reports available.
NFL teams undoubtedly are going to miss the medical re-check. But a third-party doctor can examine prospects, as has been the case in free agency.
The bottom line is that teams have had plenty of time to perform their due diligence. Inevitably some anonymous NFL geek is going to blame the coronavirus for his own bad judgment.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a major factor especially if you’re a team that goes by its film evaluation,” Shonka said. “Hey, our scouts study film. We’re not worried about all this other stuff. They’ve got the verified stuff at the combine anyway like height, weight and all that stuff. And in most cases the speed. And then you’ve got your film grades and everything. Your coaches have seen them on film. So now if you want to talk to them you can facetime them. So, I don’t think it’s going to be a major factor.”
If you go to Ourlads.com and click on the depth charts, the scouting report for each player is just another click away. And it’s forevermore. Shonka and his guys aren’t afraid to be graded because their work is based largely on film study. The hits on players just keep going.
Ourlads’ has been ahead of the curve on several notable talents almost too numerous to list. One example from last year is D.K. Metcalf (6-4, 228, 4.36 40), who it rated the top wide receiver in the 2019 draft.
Metcalf didn’t disappoint as a deep threat with a huge rookie season for Seattle. And yes, he would have been the Eagles’ answer at speed receiver. His seven TD catches would have led the team.
Instead the Eagles completely trusted their own evaluation and drafted wide receiver JJ ArcegaWhiteside at pick No. 57, seven picks ahead of Metcalf, in the second round. That’s partly why they Eagles are back at square one in this draft: They need a receiver to stretch the field and they need him now.
“They’d love to have Henry Ruggs if he’s there because they’ve got the big guy that can go underneath,” Shonka said. “They need somebody to stretch the secondary, somebody that’s going to pressure deep. They need a speed guy that can do that and catch, and Ruggs is a good player. He’s not just a fast guy. About three years ago, (Johnny) Ross out of Washington, he was just a fast guy, a track guy. He was always injured. Ruggs hasn’t been an injured guy. He’s been pretty durable.”
Ross ran a 4.22 in the 40yard dash at the combine in 2017. Ruggs, from Alabama, clocked a 4.27.
If Ruggs isn’t there, Shonka thinks the Eagles could hit a home run with Justin Jefferson (6-1, 202) out of LSU. One of those guys is going to be there.
Whatever the Eagles decide to do in the draft, in these tough times, they might want to crosscheck it with another look at the Ourlads’ reports.