Pointless Ponderings On Preseason Week 2

A few names have carried over from last week's list of players that performed well.

Paul Worrilow, again, had a rather good game.  My man-crush can continue unabated!  This week he had 6 tackles, 1 sack, and would have had a fumble recovery if a flag hadn't been thrown to negate the play.  While those numbers are down from his 12 tackle performance in week one, it's probably partially due to the starters getting more playing time this week.  It might be time to send someone to kneecap Akeem Dent, so that I can watch him play with the first team defense.  Where's Jeff Gillooly living nowadays? 

Glenn Foster followed up his 3 tackle, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, performance in week 1, with 4 tackles and 2 sacks this week.  Not bad for a player who went undrafted.  Currently, he is the third leading tackler on the Saints' roster, despite playing as a 3-4 defensive end.  As I've said before, he has athleticism that is very comparable to J.J. Watt or Mario Williams, but was just lacking the college stats to back it up.  He seems to be making up for it now.  I've probably just jinxed him.

Louis Nzegwu also continues to show promising signs, though I still wish he went to a team that played a 3-4 defense.  This weekend he added another sack, and 1 forced fumble to his stat sheet.  That brings him up to 3 sacks in the first 2 preseason games.  He's still a longshot, but a very talented one.  What would you like to bet that he gets another sack this week, playing against the Ravens' mediocre offensive tackles?

My deranged obsession ends up making me a fan of underdog teams, because they give the greatest opportunity for quality players to emerge (and then flee for better teams).  Naturally that leads me towards watching Bills' games.  Jerry Hughes was a former first round pick of the Colts, who many seem to view as a bust, but is now playing outside linebacker for the Bills.  I would argue that playing behind Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis didn't present him with a great opportunity.  He is also probably more suited to a 3-4 defense than a 4-3, and when the Colts switched to a 3-4 last year, he did produce 4 sacks while only starting 6 games.  As far as his athleticism is concerned, he had a 0.155 Kangaroo Score (very average), but an exceptional 1.038 Agility Score, while averaging 18 TFLs in his last two years in college.  This would put him in the high agility pass rusher group, and his results would have given him a 3rd round draft grade (since his total score was 0.448, which is just a tad below the 0.500 needed for a first or second round pick).  So, he may have been over-drafted, but he was still very interesting.  I wouldn't be surprised if he resuscitates his career in Buffalo.  While the computer can't really predict stardom, it does suggest that Hughes has a higher probability of succeeding than Bjoern Werner, whom the Colts took in the 1st round this year. 

Marcus Dowtin is another interesting oddball who has wound up in Buffalo.  He's more of a longshot, but worth keeping an eye on.  This weekend he had 4 tackles and 1 sack, against the Vikings.  He produced a -0.340 Kangaroo Score (which is decent for a MLB), but an excellent 1.258 Agility Score, and a 4.56 forty yard dash.  In his final year at North Alabama, where he went after getting kicked out of Georgia (where he also played quite well), he produced 115 tackles, 9 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, 1 interception, and 4 forced fumbles.  Those are rather solid numbers.  If you've ever seen him play, murderous intentions seem to be the strength of his game.  Unfortunately that seems to have carried over off of the field where he has gotten into some minor trouble.  Still, he's a very interesting player.

While Emmanuel Sanders 2 catches for 39 yards might not seem terribly impressive, he had two more very nice catches that were nullified by penalties.  If those had counted, he would have had 4 catches for 58 yards in the first half.  More importantly, he looked very good doing it too.  Sanders was one of the computer's top 5 receivers from the 2010 draft (where he was the 82nd pick), so I'm eager to see what he does with more of an opportunity, now that Mike Wallace is gone(who was a top 5 WR pick by the computer in 2009).  As a draft prospect, Sanders had a 1.144 Stat Score, a 1.109 Agility Score, while also running a 4.40 forty yard dash.  Oh, he also had a 39.5" vertical jump.  So, fast, agile, explosive, and a history of proven productivity.  Hmm, wait, now Markus Wheaton (again, highly regarded by the computer) has 52 yards on 3 receptions (plus a 9 yard reception that was nullified).  The biggest obstacle might be the Steelers' offensive line, which appears to be trying to get their QBs killed.

I've only made brief mentions of Mike James before, since I didn't really think he would get much of a shot while playing behind Doug Martin in Tampa Bay.  His draft status (189th overall pick) also doesn't help things.  Nonetheless, he did quite well this weekend, with 81 rushing yards on 16 carries (5.4 avg.), as well as 23 receiving yards on 3 receptions.  Athletically, he measures up as an okay prospect, with a 0.303 Kangaroo Score, and a very average 0.001 Agility Score (as well as a 4.50 forty yard dash while weighing 223#).  While those are okay numbers, they aren't the sort of results that grab my computer's attention, but I'm still a bit of a fan of his.  At Miami, he only had 642 rushing yards as a senior (on 147 carries), and 344 receiving yards on 30 receptions, while splitting carries with Duke Johnson.  In 2011, he was backing up Lamar Miller, and produced even less.  Despite all of this, if you watched him play in college, he actually looked pretty good.  He just seems like a good running back who has always been stuck behind another more highly touted player (and once again, in Tampa Bay, he is in the same situation).  Even if nothing ever comes of this, I think he'll provide good depth for the Buccaneers.  If Martin goes down with an injury, I'd keep a close eye on James.  He also seems like a quality human being, if that matters (it probably doesn't), so the coaches probably won't be eager to unload him.

I still don't know what to make of Aaron Mellette.  The computer loves him.  I, on the other hand, am still concerned about his relatively poor Kangaroo Score, which I feel is pretty important for a large wide receiver.  Regardless, he has now had two passes thrown his way in the preseason, and both resulted in touchdowns.  That's not a very large sample size though.  Despite my cautious pessimism, I do think he should be able to perform at least as well as Jacoby Jones, who the Ravens seem intent on having as their number 2 receiver (despite the fact that Jones sort of sucks).  If only everything I did could be weighed against the performance of the truly incompetent.  Life would be sweet.

Random Thoughts On Preseason Week 1

While it's kind of pointless to get excited about what happens in preseason games, I'd still rather see players perform well, rather than do nothing at all.  I was obviously quite happy with how Paul Worrilow did (12 tackles, 1 TFL, and 1 pass defensed), as well as Christine Michael (89 yards on 16 carries), and also Glenn Foster (3 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble).  These are at least good first steps.  Now, they just have to do this again, while their coaches can still remember what their names are.

While I could ramble on about a number of different players, the one who I really want to talk about is somebody who will most likely disappear, never to be heard from again.  This player is Louis Nzegwu, defensive end for the Carolina Panthers (2 sacks this weekend).  Nzegwu was one of the computer's favorite oddball prospects from the 2012 draft.  At 6' 4", 252#, he produced a 1.575 Kangaroo Score, as well as a 0.856 Agility Score, and is basically the ideal sort of athlete to become a 3-4 outside linebacker.  He also ran a 4.60 forty yard dash, which is pretty good for a guy his size.  Unfortunately, things just aren't that simple.

Nzegwu was never drafted, and has kind of bounced around a few different teams' practice squads in the past year.  The computer isn't completely stupid, and wasn't recommending that he be taken with a high pick.  It was obvious that he would only be a late round selection at best, despite his amazing athletic ability.  This was due to his mediocre statistical production in college.  He only averaged 7.25 TFL in his last two college seasons, and generally only had about 3 to 4 sacks per year.  The odd thing with Nzegwu, was that he was a somewhat average to smaller sized 4-3 defensive end at Wisconsin, but every now and then, he would get to play standing up like a 3-4 outside linebacker.  When he did this, he seemed much more comfortable and effective.  Perhaps, when given some space to operate, and not being immediately buried by an offensive tackle, it allowed him to take better advantage of the excellent agility and explosiveness he possesses.  Who knows what would happen if he were to become a 3-4 OLB?

For now, I still think his prospects aren't too great.  The Panthers run a 4-3 defense, and already have some truly excellent defensive ends.  He probably won't get much of an opportunity there.  Despite his good performance this weekend, I suspect there is still a good chance he will get cut or put on the practice squad.  In the eyes of these teams, he's just another undrafted prospect, nothing special.  If I was with a team that ran a 3-4 defense, and had little talent at the OLB position (Saints, Chargers, Bills, Jets, Texans, etc...), I would pounce.  Worst case scenario, he doesn't pan out, but it will cost them nothing to find out.

With Nzegwu, I always wonder if he could become the next Cameron Wake.  Like Nzegwu, Wake had only mediocre stats in college, and little to suggest great pass rushing potential (averaged about 8 TFL in his last two years in college).  Wake did show one athletic trait that should have caught people's attention, a 45.5" vertical jump, which is pretty much unheard of for a 236# player (he also had a 10'10" broad jump).  This resulted in a 1.371 Kangaroo Score, to go along with his excellent 0.843 Agility Score.  While Nzegwu's vertical jump wasn't quite as high, at 41.5", it is still ridiculous, and he was doing this while weighing more than Wake.  Nzegwu isn't just a good athlete, he is an astounding one.  Of course, the NFL felt it had no use for someone with Wake's ability, and ran him off to the CFL, so I wouldn't put it past them to do so again.