Morning Buzz
Here's what ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said about safety Taylor Mays.
``We've seen Mays get caught out of position far too often to move him ahead of (Tennessee's Eric) Berry . . . However it's rare to find a defensive back with Mays' size and speed combination.''
whether or not may should go ahead or behind mcshay, i don't know. i do think mays, with nfl quality coaching, will be a pro bowler in about four years. he has all of the tools.
I suppose there is some interest in who will be the first DB taken. Beyond that, the comparison is fairly irrelevant now that the Thorpe award has been decided. Berry is a CB, and Mays is a saftey. Whether Mays goes before or after Berry will affect his draft status by exactly one spot. It's easier to coach proper positioning than speed. Mays should go early on draft day.
Berry is a Free Safety and we saw from him how we could have used Mays against the spread offense.
Kiffin had Berry playing the QB on the weak/back side of the option attack and essentially shut down Tebow. I think we will see teams doing this in the future and in response we will see TE's on seam routes for TD's.
Playing the FS up close comes with the risk of giving up TD's. Carroll does not like to give up TD's. He prefers to make the opp. offense make several plays consistently in order to score. It's percentage football. Unfortunately, sometimes teams must make a calculated risk here and there to win football games.
His size and speed isn't that rare . . . anyone remember Darnell Bing?
Mays is the Gordie Lockbaum of the Pac10. All reputation, no results. but he has Chetey to blame for using him as a safety valve rather than a ball hawk. how many times did you see mays running up to the action but getting there too late even for his trademark late hit? if Chetey gave a quarter of the effort on Mays that he put in promoting Barks, Mays would have been in the Heisman race.
now take Rahim Moore, that is a playmaker for you...led the league in pass defenses and INT's. sugar sweeeeet.
David Ausberry is also a rare size and speed combo. And, he sucks. I do hope that Taylor lights it up in the NFL, but I don't think he has good football instincts.
Some of you guys are absolutely insane. Taylor Mays will be an absolute combine freak and despite all his shortcomings will go in the top 10 based on that alone. You can't teach speed and size and Mays has both in spades. It wouldn't surprise me if Mays is the fastest overall athlete in the draft this year.
Darnell Bing wasn't anywhere in Mays' class. If you've seen Mays up close you'd realize that. He's built like a LBer.
Mays may be all that and a bag of chips, but his instincts are poor and his ball skills are nonexistent. As much as I like Mays as a person, Berry is indeed a safety (not a corner as JAG stated) and will be much better than Mays in the NFL.
Berry reminds me a lot of Ed Reed and to a lesser extent, Troy Palamalu. He is fast, he is ferocious, and his ball skills/instincts are impeccable. If I were drafting in the top three, I'd either pick Suh, Gerald McCoy, or Eric Berry.
For anyone to reach on a QB like Clausen would be insane.