Something different from the Guru

From James Escarcega, AKA the “Scouting Guru”
As we finally put the final touches to signing day (or signing week for some of us), one thing that assumes me to no end is how much the national recruiting websites miss on players that are going to be first round draft choice in the NFL. Now, we are here to say that we are the best at what we do, but we try. No service watches as much film as we do and goes out to games to get a feel for a player. But, in this line of business, everyone, and I mean everyone is going to miss out on players. Or have them graded badly. Hey, if the college scouts missed out on Tom Brady, Wes Welker and countless others, its going to happen in high school recruiting.
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To give you a great example of what we are talking about, I wanted to see the players that are projected at this time to be top-25 players in the upcoming NFL Draft and see what “stars” they were on recruiting websites. Now, when it comes to the draft, no one is more of a draft “neek” like us. We subscribe to almost every website out there. The best one that we like is www.nfldraftscout.com. IT is used by the media and NFL teams to obtain information. We also read profootballweekly.com, ourlads.com, www.nfldraftbible,com and www.gmjr.com (we use their forms to breakdown players in the evaluation process). For this instance research, we used www.nfldraftscout.com for their current top-25 and used rivals.com for their “star”evaluation. What you will find is very revealing.

Top-25 NFL Prospects for the NFL Draft from nfldraftscout.com

1. Michael Crabtree (WR – Texas Tech) — 4-star
2. Aaron Curry (LB – Wake Forest) – 2-star
3. Eugene Monroe (OL – Virginia) – 5-Star
4. Malcolm Jenkins (CB – Ohio State) – 3-star
5. Andre Smith (OT-Alabama) – 5-Star
6. B.J. Raji (DT-Boston College) – 2-Star
7. Jason Smith (OT-Baylor) – 2-Star
8. Matthew Stafford (QB-Georgia) – 5-Star
9. Everette Brown (DE-Florida State) – 4-Star
10. Mark Sanchez (QB-USC) – 5-Star
11. Brian Orakpo (DE-Texas) 4-Star
12. Michael Oker (OT-Mississippi) 4-Star
13. Knowshown Moreno (RB – Georgia) – 4-Star
14. Brian Cushing (LB – USC) – 4-Star
15. Jeremy Maclin (WR – Missouri) – 4-Star
16. Brandon Pettigrew (TE – Oklahoma State) – 2-Star
17. Ray Maualuga (LB – ILB – USC) – 5-star
18. Peria Jerry (DT – Mississippi) – 3-Star
19. Chris Wells (RB – Ohio State) – 5-Star
20. D.J. Moore (CB – Vanderbilt) – 3-Star
21. LeSean McCoy (RB – Pittsburgh) – 4-Star
22. Percy Harvin (WR – Florida) – 5-Star
23. James Laurinaitis (LB – Ohio State) – 3-Star
24. Vontae Davis (CB – Illlinois) – 3-Star
25. Larry English (OLB – Northern Illinois) – 2- Star

What you find is that out of the top-25 players on the board right now, FIVE were rated 2-star players. And other five players were rated 3-star players. You can now see that college coaches don’t really care what “star” a player is. Different players fit different systems and some players flourish more than others. That is why the business of scouting is a dangerous one. But it is a fulfilling one when you find that kid that flourishes in college and you tell yourself, “that was a kid I loved when he was in high school.”

So who will be those “Diamonds in the Rough” for the class of 2009? Find out this week when we submit our final post of the year.

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