Seth Olsen Draft Update

Seth Olsen is another Hawkeye who had a pedestrian day from the pure numbers standpoint. His 40 yard dash was recorded at 5.23 ( 3.03 20yd split; 1.75 10yd split). He also posted a 24.5 vertical leap, 7' 06" broad jump, 23 reps of 225 lbs. in the bench press, and a time of 7.59 seconds in the 3 cone drill. Seth is another player who benefited from the luck of the draw of the alphabet. He followed mega-prospect Michael Oher in position drills and was sure to have scouts attention as they were paired together a couple of times. One drill Olsen really stood out on was the one on one mirror drill where he was one of the few to keep behind the line and use his hand punch. Seth looked focused and drew praise from both Mike Mayock and Charles Davis. Davis was very familiar with Olsen having covered him for the Big Ten Network. As I have stated in the other players updates the more important part of this process for many players are the interviews with the individual teams. I really expect Seth to have excelled at this aspect of combine. Seth may have had some medical questions to answer as it seems he was always on the medical report during his career at Iowa, however he played through the injuries most of the time.

Offensive line movement during the free agency period has been relatively quiet as most teams have elected to try to resign their own priority free agents. There are a few veteran guards left unsigned including former Iowa lineman Mike Goff. As I have written previously I see Seth being drafted by a zone blocking type of team. The teams running this type of scheme right now are Atlanta, Carolina, Denver, Green Bay, Houston, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Tennessee. Of these teams I would eliminate Houston and Green Bay. Both are young at the position and in Green Bay's case have other needs since they are transitioning from 4-3 defense to a 3-4. Tennessee also seems to be relatively deep at the guard position and would be looking more at depth for center or tackle. Denver is a mystery with the new G.M. Xanders and former Patriot O.C. Josh McDaniels in charge. They could use some offensive line depth but they, too, are transitioning to a 3-4 defense. Atlanta and Carolina really make the most sense from a depth, scheme, and need stand point. I see Seth landing in Hotlanta in the fourth round.

Bradley Fletcher Draft Update

Fletcher had a really good combine, possibly the best of all of the Hawkeyes from a pure numbers and expectations standpoint. He ran a 4.47 40 yard dash(2.63 20yd split; 1.47 10yd split) which was good enough for the top ten for the conerback position. He posted a 38.5 vertical leap, 10' 2" broad jump, and a 7.1 second 3 cone drill. These were all very good numbers for his position and comparable for the elite prospects in this years draft. What I wasn't able to see were his perfomances in the position drills. I think that this will be key for his draft stock. Right now he is viewed in some circles as a "zone" or cover 2 corner. The postional drills are used to evaluate a prospects man cover skills. Iowa's scheme generally don't highlight man skills so Bradley doesn't have a ton of film for scouts to grade him on those kinds of abilities. The other aspects of the combine that I don't know about are which teams showed interest in Bradley- i.e. who interviewed him. I expect that Fletcher passed the medical evaluations easily as I don't recall him suffering signifcant injuries during his time at Iowa.

One trend that could impact Fletcher is the phase out of the Tampa 2 defense. Right now I can think of only 5 teams that are really running it. Buffalo, Chicago, Indy, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay are really the only teams that are still running the Tampa 2 as a primary scheme. Denver, Green Bay, and Kansas City are abandoning the scheme for either hybrid or full time 3-4 defenses which leaves only 19 teams running 4-3 defenses. With the success of Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Miami and even Arizona you could see even fewer teams running 4-3 defenses. It seems easier for teams to find linebackers than defensive lineman right now and easier for teams to convert defensive ends into outside linebackers than the other way around. This indirectly effects Fletcher in how teams view him- can he play man? Can he play Free Safety? I personally think he can play any scheme. I am not sure if he is as gifted as Charles Godfrey(last year's 3rd round selection for the Carolina Panthers) but I do think he compares physically to him. He just doesn't have the safety experience that Godfrey had in college. I also think that Fletcher can come in and make a difference on special teams from day one.

Some of the teams that make sense to me are Chicago, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Tampa Bay. The team I see actually taking him is the Bears in the fourth round. The reason I predict the Bears is the possibility of Fletcher playing either corner or safety, and the starting corner tandem of Tillman and Vasher beginning to get long in the tooth.

Mitch King Draft Update

Mitch King had a decent showing at the NFL combine. He ran a 4.83 40yd dash (20- 2.63 split 10- 1.66) which was amongst the fastest for a DT at the combine. He posted 23 reps of 225 lbs, a 33.5 inch vertical leap, 9' 01" broad jump, and a 7.60 sec. 3- cone drill. He excelled in the position drills and it really helped him to follow Michael Johnson a highly touted defensive end prospect in every drill. Mitch showed incredible balance, tecnique, hands, and short area speed(burst). It was kind of funny to see him outperforming players who will be drafted ahead of him because they will run a hair faster or they look better with their shirt off. I can only guess that Mitch did well in the interview process. I also expect he passed the medical evaluations easily.

Mike Mayock, the lead analyst, also caused a bit of a stir when he said (paraphrasing) if you could put Mitch King's heart into Michael Johnson(DE Georgia Tech, physical freak) you would have a hell of a football player. Mayock is in my opinion a cut above most analysts and I like him better than Mel Kiper and Todd McShay from ESPN. Complements from him, and criticizm for that matter should be taken seriously because I think that he has the connections to front offices that most draft analysts dream of. He also nails the picks on draft day. He was very complentary of Mitch when he spoke of him.

The last factor is what has happened in free agency. Right now the trend in the NFL is to move to the 3-4 defense. Denver and Green Bay are moving in that direction really limiting the # of teams that I personally see Mitch going to. Teams that still employ a Tampa style 4-3 are the Bears, Bengals, Bills, Buc's, Colts, and Vikings. Other 4-3 teams are the Falcons, Giants, Jaguars, Lions, Panthers, Raiders, Rams, Redskins, Saints, Seahawks, Texans, and Titans. I would eliminate Washington, New York, and Atlanta from this list. New York signed two Dts and already had decent depth and will look to go into another direction with their picks, Washington has committed a 115 Million dollors to Albert Haynesworth (41 guaranteed) and needs to address the offense in the first three rounds, Seattle actually signed Hawk alumnus Colin Cole and will probably be looking to draft a defensive lineman earlier than the third round. Scheme wise I think that one of the cover two teams make the most sense. A good team that has some depth could draft him to be a purely nickel pass rusher early in his career. It would be fun to see him line up next to Babineaux in Atlanta. King coud sneak into the second round that way depending on how many defensive lineman have been drafted in the first round and early part of the second round. I personally see Mitch going to the Colts in the third round. It would be a good fit for him and the Colts tend to draft character and speed at every position.

Hawks in the Draft Update

I am going to update the status of each players draft status following the combine. Some of my readers have asked me to shorten these posts a little so I am going to update each player individually. I will start with Shonn Greene today and move on to Mitch King, Bradley Fletcher, Seth Olsen, and finally Rob Bruggeman. Sorry it has taken me so long to update but I have had a hard time finding hard numbers for the combine and reviewing the combine film.

Moving on Shonn Greene had a fairly pedestrian combine performance. He ran a 4.63 40 (including a 2.63 20 split time and a 1.63 10 split time) which was right in the range he was expected to run. He benched 225 19 times, posted a 37" vertical leap and a 10' 1" broad jump. His 3 cone time was 7.10 seconds (All #s from fftoolbox.com). This was the first year at the new stadium and these were some of the slowest times ever for all of the players, not just Greene. Some analysts are saying that the track was slow but we really won't know until next season. I think that the vertical jump and the broad jump are both fairly impressive and show some explosiveness and were among the best for the position. They are especially impressive given his size. Greene can probably be most easily compared to Chris "Beanie" Wells in this draft as they have similar builds, played similar competition, and are both viewed as more power type of backs (although Wells is viewed to have more upside and top end speed). Greene had a very similar day to Wells in almost every way.

What I don't know is who he interviewed with and how he did which is really probably more important than anything he did on the field. The combine is really just a big job interview. The physical part is to make sure that you don't have any glaring weaknesses when you are a well known prospect and I would say Greene passed that aspect with flying colors. The rest of the weekend is spent talking to GMs and other team officials and being checked over by teams' medical staff. I don't believe there are any medical issues for Shonn to be worried about.

The last part of this update is concerning Free Agency. This will impact which teams will be looking to draft a running back. Jacksonville released Fred Taylor, who promptly signed with New Enlgand. I would say Jacksonville makes a ton of sense for Shonn as a compliment to Maurice Jones-Drew. Denver has signed three free agents including former Cornhusker Correl Buckhalter. Scratch the Broncos from the list. Edgerrin James is asking the Cardinals for his release and J.J. Arrington is another of the free agents the Broncos signed. Another ideal spot for Shonn to land and his only shot of landing in the first round(there will be a post on this in the week prior to the draft). So far the top back up to Jamal Lewis in Cleveland remains unsigned, Dominic Rhoades of the Colts is still unsigned, the LaDanian Tomlinson saga continues, and Kansas City could unload Larry Johnson.

Ultimately I still see Shonn going in the second round and I personally see him going to Cleveland( I hope not for his sake). I see a couple of scenarios for him going into the first round and I could actually see him falling into the third, also. The next big date for Shonn that I know of is Iowa's pro day on March 23. As far as I know he has no individual work outs planned for teams.