obie_wan

Here's an analysis of some highlight runs of Michael Bush. Sounds like Bush's hype is greater than his production. http://nfldraftguys.com/features/Tape_Brea...ichael_Bush.php Breaking Down the Tape - Michael Bush, RB, Louisville by John Powderly (aka ConstruxBoy) Explanation/Introduction for "Breaking Down The Tape" Michael Bush - Jr. - Louisville Highlight Video Break Down the Tape: 1st Run - 00:00 - TD Nice speed on the pitch, although he doesn't really need to turn the corner since he's already so wide; simple, quick headfake at 00:03 freezes the defender just enough to make him miss on the dive; Nice turn up the sideline without having to gear down much to take it in for the TD 2nd Run/Catch - 00:11 Nice hands; reads blockers pretty well, but running too upright; taken down with a foot tackle at 00:19, doesn't show great balance there 3rd Run - 00:21 Cuts outside pretty well to avoid a defender; arm tackles will not work on him; cuts back but takes too many steps to do it; again a low leg/foot tackle at 00:25 that he jumps to avoid but can't keep balance after landing 4th Run - 00:28 Quick cut left after the handoff without a lot of gear down, still running too high; some speed to get to the corner; high neck tackle at 00:32 knocks him out although he does a good job trying to hold the ball forward for more yardage 5th Run/Catch - 00:33 Good catch and nice job waiting for the pulling blocker; very nice breakdown move at 00:39, but again shows questionable balance by falling down after the defender went by 6th Run - 00:41 Good job turning the corner, but holding the ball out away from his body too much; makes a defender miss with a move inside, but again loses his balance with a tackle at his feet 7th Run/Catch - 00:48 Hauls in the swing pass OK, but looks like he lands a little awkwardly; takes some time to get up to speed, nice cutback at 00:53, but needs to gear down too much there; takes a shot right after the move, but keeps going forward; losing balance near the goaline and then runs into his own guy 8th Run - 00:56 - TD Nice bounce outside, turns the corner pretty well; takes another high arm tackle that slows him down, but he does manage to keep his balance and get both feet into the endzone, good run but could have used a stiff arm to avoid the arm tackle 9th Run - 01:03 Running through a lot of traffic here; takes lots of short choppy steps; doesn't seem to try to put his shoulder into anyone; gets hit around the ankles and falls down 10th Run - 01:10 - TD Nice run right up the middle, gets through the hole quickly; finally some running in tight space, takes a hit and runs through it and then lowers his shoulder at 01:13 and gets into the endzone 11th Pass - 01:19 - TD As has been written, he was a HS Quarterback and he throws a fantastic pass here for a TD, selling a sweep and then really setting his feet well, something most RBs throwing the halfback option don't do 12th Run - 01:28 Runs into a crowd at the line; does a nice job keeping his feet moving and runs well in a tight space to bounce off the pile to the left; nice quick headfake at 01:33 to slow down the defender; good speed to turn the corner and shrug off a high arm tackle attempt; cuts back in at 01:36 but gears down too much to do it and allows other defenders to converge Michael Bush Summary: Short video that wasn't the greatest quality, but I saw enough to be a little bit disappointed in Bush. He does have very good speed for his size and moves laterally better than most bigger guys, but he still doesn't have very good quickness. He runs with a high pad level, doesn't lower his shoulder very much to make himself tougher to tackle and seems to hold the ball further away from his body than he should. Finally, I think the biggest problem is his balance. He seems to lose it rather easily on leg and ankle tackles and at the next level, most defenders will be going for his legs. It seemed like he generally needed alot of space to run and didn't look like the bruiser that his size would indicate. I didn't see that much wiggle either. I don't think his broken leg should affect his future skills like a knee injury would, but he still did miss a year of learning to get better at running in tight spaces, keeping his balance, using a stiff arm, etc. He does catch the ball nicely and certainly has excellent arm, but I think most people are too high on him as an NFL prospect based on measureables and "dreams" of what a guy with those measureables can do without really looking at the tape. When you break down the tape, at least this short tape, he doesn't live up to his billing.

After Polian left after the 1st Superbowl, Marv was VP of Football OPerations and in ultimate control of personnel.

Mayock is one of the "experts' who thinks Branch is a boom or bust player- with a high chance of being a total washout. Bills will taking a CB in round 3. Will probably wait to see which RB drops into the 3rd round as well. Uner a committe approach, Bills could live with Booker or Brandon Jackson if none of the other RBs drop.

yeah and if the QB had half a brain in his head, he would be throwing to his #2 WR. McGee played much better on that #2 WR because he was not playing zone coverage. Getting both CBs out of the zone helped the defense improve. But since they are going back to the cover-2, they may end up replacing both CBs with guys more capable of playing in a zone scheme.

sorry I missed all the fun. Also from that article- Under the negatives More of a grabber than a classic wrapup tackler, allowing ball carriers to slip off his initial hit at times … Needs to step up and plug the holes at the line of scrimmage, as he seems a little slow to scrape downhill … Little undersized for the next level … Better suited for a defensive system that will allow him to cover up, read and move, rather than one that relies upon him to step up and plug holes at the line. Notice that his weakness is in attacking the line of scrimmage - which is the opposite of what Jauron is lookig for in his MLB. Since he has started all those games at MLB, I would be real concerned why he was being listed as a an OLB at the NFL level. Maybe because his actual college performance indicated he was not suited to be a MLB. Crowell may be the stop gap in 2007, but he is not the long term answer. Bills need to draft a stud MLB.

From everyone's favorite website - http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm Looks like a favorite Bills draft target has a few warts - KRUMRIE BEATS UP BRANCH Word trickling out of the Michigan Pro Day is that Chiefs defensive line coach Tim Krumrie roughed up defensive tackle Alan Branch in one of Krumrie's one-on-one slap fights. Per a league source, Branch looked winded before he even got to the patented Krumrie spanking machine. At one point during his session with Krumrie, Branch appeared to be ready to quit. Gil Brandt of NFL.com corroborates this in his Pro Day updates: "Tim Krumrie worked Branch hard during the position drills, and the scouts there said Branch did not look like he was in very good shape." Krumrie, better known to most fans as the guy who got Theismanned during Super Bowl XXIII, is a legend in league circles for the no-pads hand-fighting test, to which he subjects many of the linemen he is scouting. "It's Gladiator stuff," said one league source. For Branch, who is projected by many as a top-ten pick, the end result apparently was thumbs down.

Two items to note from the 2003 OLB pre-draft SCOUT rankings: 1. Contrary to Pyrite's continual ramblings, Crowell played OLB at Virginia and is not a slam dunk to switch positions from OLB to MLB to replace Fletcher. Although he was being groomed to backup Fletcher, he has played very little MLB in actual games. Having him play MLB is as much a crap shoot as starting a rookie who played his career at MLB. 2. Notice that Lance Briggs was ranked 1 slot ahead of Crowell. Pos Pos Rank Rating Name Yr Ht/Wt/40 College Home OLB 1 Boss Bailey SR 6-4/218/- Georgia Folkston, GA OLB 2 Nick Barnett SR 6-2/221/4.50 Oregon State Fontana, CA OLB 3 Chaun Thompson SR 6-2/210/- West Texas A&M Mount Pleasant, TX OLB 4 Antwan Peek SR 6-2/245/- Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH OLB 5 Shurron Pierson JR 6-3/240/- South Florida Wildwood, FL OLB 6 Cie Grant SR 6-2/220/- Ohio State New Philadelphia, OH OLB 7 Pisa Tinoisamoa SR 6-0/222/- Hawaii Vista, CA OLB 8 Lance Briggs SR 6-1/230/- Arizona Elk Grove, CA OLB 9 Angelo Crowell SR 6-1/235/- Virginia Winston Salem, NC

that's right- he has a history of playing on winning teams

they call it kielbasa

Is Marv consideriing using the #12 pick in the first round, which is really the 9th pick - or the 4th pick?

Even better is who he's replacing him with. Even though they are still paying $1 mil to Mullarkey, Cam has decided he's better off with no one in the OC position.

1. The hard part about a franchise QB is identifying if one coming out of college is the real deal. This is very difficult to accomplish as evidenced by the number of top 5 QB's that bust. There is at least a 50% chance that Quinn or Russell bust. The position that is even harder to obtain a stud at is Left Tackle. The Lions focus should be on Joe Thomas to anchor the left side of their line and to improve the run and pass game. The other option is to take the best player with the lowest chance of busting - and that is Calvin Johnson. Unfortunately for them - the Raiders will figure this out and not waste a pick on a QB.

Bills will going back to the cover-2 in full force next year. If Magee plays zone like he did in 2006, he will be relegated to nickle back playing press coverage on slot receivers. The big reason the pass defense improved in the 2nd half of the year was not that Clements was playing man-to-man- it was that Magee did not have to play zone.

Marv did have final say on the draft when he was VP of Football Operations and Butler was GM (in name only). Butler was primarily head scout as Jeff Littman handled the cap and monye side of the business.

Actually Crowell played OLB at Virgina. He has backed up at MLB in practice but has not played MLB in real games. Willis actually has much more experience in actually playing MLB in game situations than Crowell.

they also lost 4 superbowls because they couldn't stop the run. Last year they couldn't stop the run and they have more holes on D now. D will be the focus.

The iniital rumor looks to have missed the fact that the Bills are really picking 9th and should even more value for 1st round pick.

my guess is Branch is the one to fall. Unfortuantely he will be the next Ryan Sims. Hopefully, it's not in a Bills uniform. Maybe some other desparate team will want to trade up for him

you got a copyright on that line?

Ricky would be a worthwhile pickup if the trade cost was minimal. His contract is peanuts/ When Ricky plays, he plays hard. His problem was he fed up Wannstadt and his plan to run Ricky 350 times behind a horrible OL- which led to him quitting. Even though he bailed on his teammates, they welcomed him back 2 years ago, Ricky, even in a drug induced haze, is still way better than Shaud Williams.

The key point is that the Bills would not stay at #2. They would take the #2 and leverage it into more than the 2 number 3s they gave up due to the massive value advantage they gained from the rumored trade up. As I said, any normal GM would laugh at such a disparity, but with Matt Millen you never know. He may just want to avoid haivng to make a decision on drafting ANOTHER WR in the top 10.

Saw a rumor on another board that Bills had offered both 3's to move up from #12 to #2 with Detroit. This would be a good deal if Millan were desparate enough to get out of #2, but only if the Bills plan was to trade back down. A GM ishis right mind would laugh at this offer. According to the draft value chart, the Bills would gan a huge advantage in value. With Peterson, Thomas, the QBs or Calvin Johnson on the board they could conceivably upgrade their 2 3's for a couple 2's and a 1st rounder next year. Anyone think Marv has become a riverboat gambler in his old age?

A Train is the better value at RB. YOu get similar production to Willis but at a fraction of the cost. Bills will probably wait to see which RB drops to the 3rd round with Lorenzo Booker (speed) or Brandon Jackson as the backup plan.

Willis will go to SF at #11 unless Jamaal Anderson drops as well.

yeah - we know LBs are stupid and you would never draft one, thereby preventing your team from ever getting an elite player. Heaven forbid we play the rookie at an outside spot if he can't pick up the middle quick enough. Unfortunately, this is a moot issue since the 49ers will be taking Willis based on their extensive first hand evaluation at the senior bowl.