Brandon Brooks: Future Star?

One of my favorite prospects from the 2012 draft was Brandon Brooks.  He was an offensive guard from the Univ. of Miami(OH).  The Texans selected him with the 76th overall pick, but he unfortunately missed most of his rookie season with an injury.  Here is how he compares athletically to every offensive linemen that was selected ahead of him.

Player                    Position    Arm Length    Vert. Kang.   Agility Score   Total        Pick #

Brandon Brooks	Guard	N/A	2.055	1.250	1.652	76
Matt Kalil	Tackle	34 1/2	-0.680	1.027	0.173	4
Riley Reiff	Tackle	33 1/4	0.265	-0.173	0.045	23
David Decastro	Guard	32 3/8	0.351	1.301	0.826	24
Kevin Zeitler	Guard	32 3/4	0.140	0.346	0.243	27
Mitchell Schwartz	Tackle	33 1/2	-0.520	-0.449	-0.484	37
Amini Silatolu	Guard	33	0.813	-0.608	0.102	40
Cordy Glenn	Tackle	35 3/4	-0.831	-1.246	-1.038	41
Jonathan Martin	Tackle	34	0.388	0.316	0.352	42
Jeff Allen	Guard	33 1/2	-0.505	-0.788	-0.646	44
Mike Adams	Tackle	34	0.237	-0.787	-0.274	56
Kelechi Osemele	Guard	35 7/8	-0.133	-0.538	-0.335	60
Josh Leribeus	Guard	32 1/2	-0.826	0.478	-0.173	71
Donald Stephenson	Tackle	34 7/8	2.058	0.372	1.215	74

Instead of the normal Kangaroo Score, which is a combination of the vertical jump and broad jump relative to the player's weight, I am just using the vertical jump Kangaroo Score.  For most players, there is a fairly predictable relationship between the vertical jump and broad jump.  You could take their vertical jump and multiply it by 3.5, and you would approximately have their broad jump.  With 300+ pounders, this doesn't hold as true, and you get some erratic results.  High velocity fat guys are unpredictable that way.  Since the vertical jump is a simpler athletic test (you don't need to worry about your balance or sticking the landing), I chose to use this for the fat guys. 

I suppose it is too much to ask that people get excited about a guard.  Everybody wants to talk about running backs, wide receivers, cornerbacks, blah, blah, blah.  I prefer to judge players based on how scared I would be of them in a dark alley.  Darrelle Revis?  Sure, he could kick my ass.  Still doesn't scare me nearly as much as Brandon Brooks.

At 6'5" and 346 pounds, and running a 4.99 forty yard dash, his bowel movements are probably scarier than I am.  It's not fair that someone this big should be able to outrun me.  Somehow evolution went wrong at my end of the gene pool.  He's not just explosive.  He's not just strong (36 reps of 225 pounds).  He's not just fast.  He's also shockingly agile.  He's not your normal tubby lumberer (say that a few times, tubby lumberer, tubby lumberer, it's fun).  He may very well be one of the most physically gifted offensive linemen in the entire NFL, and he was taken with a 3rd round draft pick.  I have to imagine life is going to be pretty sweet for Arian Foster.  I could even see the possibility of him playing tackle at some point.  He has the athletic ability to do so.

People seemed to question his "finishing attitude", and "inconsistent mean streak".  I can't say much about these claims.    I prefer to think that his father Jor-El just told him to "tone it down" in order to fit in with us mortals, but this is just my amateur opinion.  I can't verify this.  I suppose that I could spend time watching his game tape on the internet, looking for a more plausible answer, but that might cut into my time for more intellectual pursuits.  So, instead, I will just go with my normal "bet on the freak, and don't over-analyze it" approach.