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NFL Draft: Revisiting the sleepers

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From my experience, a lot of the rankings (and offers) come during a kid's Junior spring.

I had a kid who was maybe 5'10" 165lbs with 4.5 speed as a Junior...with no offers...then out of nowhere he became a 6'0" 185lb Senior running a 4.38. Went up to a camp in ATL and won "fastest man" and "RB MVP", shortly after that the offers started rolling in.
I believe had the kid been 6'0" 185lb running a 4.38 his JUNIOR YEAR he would've been ranked higher and had "bigger" offers.
Schools were flying in and offering him based on athleticism alone, he didn't even have a natural position yet. Some schools wanted him at RB, some at Safety, some at WR, some at CB. They just wanted to get his athleticism on campus.
He was a late bloomer and this type of situation happens all over the country.

I believe that's where good talent evaluators succeed. Golden, for example, was looking for more polished football players. Then you look at our current staff and a kid like Rouseau, and it's clear that he was signed off of athleticism and potential alone.
Obviously every program would love to sign a class full of polished 4/5 stars but I believe you have to sign at least a couple kids every class based on athleticism alone. Maybe the kid's a tweener, maybe he's too skinny at the moment, maybe he's a later bloomer, whatever. But you have to have the wherewithal and experience to see what that kid is gonna be in a couple years.
 
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Coach Macho said:
From my experience, a lot of the rankings (and offers) come during a kid's Junior spring.

I had a kid who was maybe 5'10" 165lbs with 4.5 speed as a Junior...with no offers...then out of nowhere he became a 6'0" 185lb Senior running a 4.38. Went up to a camp in ATL and won "fastest man" and "RB MVP", shortly after that the offers started rolling in.
I believe had the kid been 6'0" 185lb running a 4.38 his JUNIOR YEAR he would've been ranked higher and had "bigger" offers.
Schools were flying in and offering him based on athleticism alone, he didn't even have a natural position yet. Some schools wanted him at RB, some at Safety, some at WR, some at CB. They just wanted to get his athleticism on campus.
He was a late bloomer and this type of situation happens all over the country.

I believe that's where good talent evaluators succeed. Golden, for example, was looking for more polished football players. Then you look at our current staff and a kid like Rouseau, and it's clear that he was signed off of athleticism and potential alone.
Obviously every program would love to sign a class full of polished 4/5 stars but I believe you have to sign at least a couple kids every class based on athleticism alone. Maybe the kid's a tweener, maybe he's too skinny at the moment, maybe he's a later bloomer, whatever. But you have to have the wherewithal and experience to see what that kid is gonna be in a couple years.
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Talkin' about Moreau? That was such an obvious **** up in real time...
 
Our 3 stars and lower from 2018:
Daquris Wiggins, 6'2, 180
John Campbell, 6'5, 284, 5.23
Gregory Rousseau, 6'6, 209, 4.87
Patrick Joyner, 6'2, 209, 4.6
Jordan Miller, 6'4, 330, 5.1
Nigel Bethel Jr., 6'0, 165, 4.38
Realus George, 6'2, 245, 4.77
Bubba Baxa, 6'0, 190

Take out the Kicker and everyone else has really good measurables and tons of potential.

2017:
Robert Burns
Amari Carter
Zalon'tae Hillery
Brian Polendey
Evidence Njoku
Waynmon Steed
Bradley Jennings Jr.
Zach Dykstra
Derrick Smith
Cade Weldon
Corey Gaynor
Zach Feagles - Starter

2016:
Romeo Finley
Jovani Haskins
Malek Young - Starter
Michael Pinckney - Starter
Cedrick Wright
Michael Irvin Jr.
Dayall Harris
Tre Johnson
Tyreic Martin
Jeff James
 
Rousseau is the best example of this since he played everywhere on defense in HS. I see no reason he couldn’t be a tremendous TE as well unless he’s got frying pan hands.

Michael Jackson is a good example of the physical prototype. I believe he was a 4 star somewhere but didn’t have many big offers. Tall, long, athletic. Not sure if he played multiple positions in HS or not.

Frierson was highly rated, but he fits the description as well.
 
RiDLer80 said:
I know it's hard to project these players, that's why they're sleepers; but who do you see from the 2019 class @DMoney that fits these traits?
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Not Dmoney but:

Maurice Smith, Miami Central, Offensive Guard
He'll end up going to a mid major. Play center at 6'2 300 + and end up getting drafted.

Jarvis Brownlee, Miami Carol City, Cornerback
Kid is picking up all kind of offers during spring eval. A 6'0 180+ cb from Carol City. Sleeper that isnt talk about much.

Jacquez Stuart, Northwestern, All Purpose Back
Fastest kid in s.fla with the ball in his hands.
 
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Boy I don’t mean to high jack a thread, but while reading this, all I can think about was Butch’s evaluations. Even when a guy was highly rated (Willis McGahee or Sean T) he made sure they fit a certain intangible.

Recruiting Services have made a lot of coaches lazy, imo. No wonder we see so many low star guys being super stars in the NFL.
 
Rellyrell said:
Boy I don’t mean to high jack a thread, but while reading this, all I can think about was Butch’s evaluations. Even when a guy was highly rated (Willis McGahee or Sean T) he made sure they fit a certain intangible.

Recruiting Services have made a lot of coaches lazy, imo. No wonder we see so many low star guys being super stars in the NFL.
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Butch loved tall, lean guys who played multiple positions and multiple sports.

I went back and watched the old recruiting VHS videos from Butch’s classes. His recruits either failed to qualify, washed out, or became superstars. There was no in-between.

He aimed high with traits and didn’t try to hit singles and doubles.
 
DMoney said:
Butch loved tall, lean guys who played multiple positions and multiple sports.

I went back and watched the old recruiting VHS videos from Butch’s classes. His recruits either failed to qualify, washed out, or became superstars. There was no in-between.

He aimed high with traits and didn’t try to hit singles and doubles.
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This is the blockbuster approach that you see in most businesses at this point. Big soccer teams do it with their signings....rarely see Madrid or Barca buy a "solid" dude, they go get the biggest names available and if they don't work out **** it. Movie studios do it with their movies...not many mid-budget movies made anymore.
 
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Jordan miller from Jacksonville easily will make a list like this in the future. He has a freakish size and speed combo at dt. That kid is the real deal.
 
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This is a fun thread...but ultimately just a Rousseau fluff piece. These are the types of players, if you luck into, great. Its a nice tick on the evaluation box for whoever scouted and found him. I just hate the idea of digging for these types...or making it a habit of digging too deep, which some of these guys would be for our school. Our school has really been hindered by its lack of eye in evaluation...the players we missed on aren't on this level of sleeper, but have really killed our depth. Over the years, not having future mid-round players like Deadrin Senat, Ricardo Allen, James White, Emmanuel Lemur or Lavonte David on the flipside of a CC visit, Nickell Robey, John Brown...without getting into too much of "should have taken"...missing out on these types in favor of the ton of bottom 1/4 of the roster trash we've had since the end of the Coker regime is just disheartening, because its not like the above players were even hard, sleeper type evaluations. Rousseau falls more into these types than that of say...LVE...


The above players...just good football players we straight up missed on because we suck at evaluating in the past.
 
cowboycane said:
He will be the perfect pass catching running back if I had to guess, with the ability to line up in the slot and also pound it in short yardage.

He definitely has the most intriguing skill set of all of our current running backs...honestly wouldn't surprise me if he ended up like Sony.
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If I'm Mark Richt, I'm studying hours and hours of NC State tape, and I'm using Deejay Dallas exactly how they used Jaylen Samuels

78 carries, 75 catches, 1000 scrimmage yards and 16 TDs. Deejay can be utilized the exact same way.
 
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