TXBRONC
03-30-2008, 06:09 PM
Ok I saw this article last night and thought you all might like comment on some of these other defensive tackles. Are any of them worthy of the 12th pick or are all reaches?
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/28/legwold-defensive-tackles-have-draft-allure/
LEGWOLD: Defensive tackles have draft allure
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
Friday, March 28, 2008
First, the Broncos went big in 2007, loading up their defensive tackle spots with the biggest players they could sign.
Then the Broncos went small.
Mired in a run of dismal run defense and looking for more quickness than brawn, they sent players like Sam Adams and Amon Gordon, who had opened the season as starters, on their way.
Yet, in the end, the Broncos never quite found just right.
So, with the draft approaching, defensive tackle is certainly a position of need for the Broncos. Coach Mike Shanahan has cited the need to put a better run defense on the field as the root of the change from former defensive boss Jim Bates to the new one, Bob Slowik.
And on the inside of their defensive line the Broncos currently have only one player who has started more than five games in his career, Alvin McKinley. He has started 42 games in his time in the league, a giant step ahead of the Broncos' runner-up in that category in the defensive line, Marcus Thomas, who started five as a rookie in '07.
Sitting at No. 12 in the first round at the moment, the Broncos will be in a position to peruse most of the top players at the position.
The upper-tier rundown:
* Glenn Dorsey, Louisiana State
A pipe dream for the Broncos, unless they can move up into the draft's top five. Dorsey won the Outland and Lott trophies and the Lombardi and Nagurski awards in '07, played on a balky knee for much of the season - after an Auburn guard chop- blocked him - and still finished with 121/2 tackles for loss and seven sacks despite playing through almost constant double- and triple-teams.
Some team doctors have expressed concern about a spot on his lower right leg where he suffered a stress fracture in '06, but Dorsey says it's a calcified knot where the bone has healed.
He never missed a game at LSU, having played in all 52.
* Sedrick Ellis, Southern California
The Broncos would need plenty of good fortune for Ellis to fall to them, but stranger things have happened - Jevon Kearse was selected at No. 16 in '99.
Ellis simply dominated at the Senior Bowl. Quick off the ball, and some teams see him as a nose tackle, but he sees the play and knows how to get rid of the blocker to take care of business.
He had surgery in '06 to repair some cartilage in his right knee but started 33 games in his career on one of the deepest rosters in the nation.
* Kentwan Balmer, North Carolina
Started only one full season for the Tar Heels - he never had more than 17 tackles in any of his first three - but finished '07 with 91/2 tackles for loss and 31/2 sacks on the inside.
Expected to be a power player against the run, Balmer explodes off the ball.
* Calais Campbell, Miami
At 6-73/4, 290 pounds, some teams see the Denver South High graduate as a power (left) defensive end or an end in a 3-4 defense. However, Campbell certainly has the size and strength to drop down inside on at least passing downs.
He does play a little too upright at times, but technique can always be improved, especially with a player who has plenty to offer in his game.
Campbell had 321/2 tackles for loss and 161/2 sacks in his last two seasons combined at Miami.
After the top tier, there is a group that likely includes Florida State's Letroy Guion, Auburn's Pat Sims, Arkansas' Marcus Harrison, Iowa State's Ahtyba Rubin and Notre Dame's Trevor Laws.
Some of those players have workout issues; some, like Harrison, have had some off-the-field troubles; and then there's Sims, who simply walked away from Auburn for a year because he felt he wasn't playing enough.
But there are also some intriguing resumes, like Texas' Derek Lokey, who was one of the smaller starting defensive tackles in the Big 12 but played in 43 career games and started 21.
He benched 225 pounds 38 times at his pro day this month, which would have been the top performance at the scouting combine. Lokey is versatile enough to have played fullback in the team's short-yardage offense and can also long snap.
Lokey also has one of the quirkiest prep statistics - a 107-tackle season as a senior in Denton, Texas, with 52 tackles, or 49 percent, for loss.
And for those teams willing to take a look with an open mind, there is a player like South Florida's Richard Clebert. Clebert didn't get a combine invite - far more ends than tackles were invited - and some teams didn't think he worked out all that well at the East-West Game.
But those who would have cared to ask would have discovered he went to Houston on short notice after spending a few days at the hospital with his wife after she gave birth to the couple's first child.
He set the school record in the team's preseason testing by bench pressing 225 pounds 48 times. And at least one scout hand-timed the 317-pounder at 4.90 seconds in the 40 last year.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/28/legwold-defensive-tackles-have-draft-allure/
LEGWOLD: Defensive tackles have draft allure
By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News
Friday, March 28, 2008
First, the Broncos went big in 2007, loading up their defensive tackle spots with the biggest players they could sign.
Then the Broncos went small.
Mired in a run of dismal run defense and looking for more quickness than brawn, they sent players like Sam Adams and Amon Gordon, who had opened the season as starters, on their way.
Yet, in the end, the Broncos never quite found just right.
So, with the draft approaching, defensive tackle is certainly a position of need for the Broncos. Coach Mike Shanahan has cited the need to put a better run defense on the field as the root of the change from former defensive boss Jim Bates to the new one, Bob Slowik.
And on the inside of their defensive line the Broncos currently have only one player who has started more than five games in his career, Alvin McKinley. He has started 42 games in his time in the league, a giant step ahead of the Broncos' runner-up in that category in the defensive line, Marcus Thomas, who started five as a rookie in '07.
Sitting at No. 12 in the first round at the moment, the Broncos will be in a position to peruse most of the top players at the position.
The upper-tier rundown:
* Glenn Dorsey, Louisiana State
A pipe dream for the Broncos, unless they can move up into the draft's top five. Dorsey won the Outland and Lott trophies and the Lombardi and Nagurski awards in '07, played on a balky knee for much of the season - after an Auburn guard chop- blocked him - and still finished with 121/2 tackles for loss and seven sacks despite playing through almost constant double- and triple-teams.
Some team doctors have expressed concern about a spot on his lower right leg where he suffered a stress fracture in '06, but Dorsey says it's a calcified knot where the bone has healed.
He never missed a game at LSU, having played in all 52.
* Sedrick Ellis, Southern California
The Broncos would need plenty of good fortune for Ellis to fall to them, but stranger things have happened - Jevon Kearse was selected at No. 16 in '99.
Ellis simply dominated at the Senior Bowl. Quick off the ball, and some teams see him as a nose tackle, but he sees the play and knows how to get rid of the blocker to take care of business.
He had surgery in '06 to repair some cartilage in his right knee but started 33 games in his career on one of the deepest rosters in the nation.
* Kentwan Balmer, North Carolina
Started only one full season for the Tar Heels - he never had more than 17 tackles in any of his first three - but finished '07 with 91/2 tackles for loss and 31/2 sacks on the inside.
Expected to be a power player against the run, Balmer explodes off the ball.
* Calais Campbell, Miami
At 6-73/4, 290 pounds, some teams see the Denver South High graduate as a power (left) defensive end or an end in a 3-4 defense. However, Campbell certainly has the size and strength to drop down inside on at least passing downs.
He does play a little too upright at times, but technique can always be improved, especially with a player who has plenty to offer in his game.
Campbell had 321/2 tackles for loss and 161/2 sacks in his last two seasons combined at Miami.
After the top tier, there is a group that likely includes Florida State's Letroy Guion, Auburn's Pat Sims, Arkansas' Marcus Harrison, Iowa State's Ahtyba Rubin and Notre Dame's Trevor Laws.
Some of those players have workout issues; some, like Harrison, have had some off-the-field troubles; and then there's Sims, who simply walked away from Auburn for a year because he felt he wasn't playing enough.
But there are also some intriguing resumes, like Texas' Derek Lokey, who was one of the smaller starting defensive tackles in the Big 12 but played in 43 career games and started 21.
He benched 225 pounds 38 times at his pro day this month, which would have been the top performance at the scouting combine. Lokey is versatile enough to have played fullback in the team's short-yardage offense and can also long snap.
Lokey also has one of the quirkiest prep statistics - a 107-tackle season as a senior in Denton, Texas, with 52 tackles, or 49 percent, for loss.
And for those teams willing to take a look with an open mind, there is a player like South Florida's Richard Clebert. Clebert didn't get a combine invite - far more ends than tackles were invited - and some teams didn't think he worked out all that well at the East-West Game.
But those who would have cared to ask would have discovered he went to Houston on short notice after spending a few days at the hospital with his wife after she gave birth to the couple's first child.
He set the school record in the team's preseason testing by bench pressing 225 pounds 48 times. And at least one scout hand-timed the 317-pounder at 4.90 seconds in the 40 last year.