Tim Rattay, QB, La. Tech 6’1” 215 LBS, 40 time: 4.91

 

 

Jordan: Say what you want about his fourth quarter interceptions, but he has ice water running through his veins. He never gets too high or low during the course of a game. He has all the intangibles--he works his ass off, he's intelligent, and he has experience in pretty much any system you can think of. He always makes sure he knows the offense like the back of his hands. He's generally confident and poised, with outstanding calmness and patience. His throwing mechanics are not exactly ideal--he brings the ball down and has a circuitous, whipping, borderline side-armed delivery. But he gets it done; and his release quickness, while not quite Dan Marino, is above average. He anticipates receivers' breaks well and usually delivers a beautiful, easy-to-catch ball. Sometimes that works against him, as he is very confident in his accuracy...and if he misses by just a little, the defender can easily make the interception. But he just shows a beautiful touch on his passes. He moves well enough and can roll out and buy a little time if needed, and he's one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league at throwing on the run. He’s a great leader, too, although it doesn't quite show up as well to some people because he's been playing on such a bad team. The negatives in his game become much more apparent when he's in a shitty situation, and that's what happened to him with the 49ers. He has marginal arm strength and won't drill too many deep outs, but he STILL has  perhaps the prettiest deep ball in the game, with tight spirals and a soft touch. He does tend to put a lot of air under his deep passes, however, so he can really struggle with it in bad weather. But if he's indoors or it's a relatively good day, that thing is amongst the best you'll see. I don't care that he can't throw it 60 yards...you don't need to be able to throw that far in the NFL. He throws up to 45 yards as accurately as anyone. He has a Trent Green-type arm. His struggles in the 4th quarter are just that--struggles. They do not define him. He's had a few bad breaks and had a couple of bad mistakes that just happened to coincide with the end of the game, but by no means does he get jittery and make stupid mistakes as a result of that.

 

Set Up-6

Delivery-6

Read Coverages-7-

Throw Short-7

Throw Intermediate-7

Throw Deep-7

Mobility-5+

Leadership-6

 

Overall Rating: 6.7

 

Greg C: Positives: Efficient pocket passer that sees the entire field. Quickly goes through reads and (without hesitation) releases the ball to his receiver in stride. Shows a pretty strong arm, and has tremendous accuracy. Can put the ball anywhere on the field, at any time...and it will almost always be on the money.

Rattay has good footwork; he knows how to effectively step up and move around in the pocket to avoid the pass rush and buy more time for his receivers down
field. Rattay is far from being a statue in the pocket--in fact, he takes very few sacks because he knows when to get rid of it and he knows how to elude defenders with good footwork.

Masterful at distributing the ball, poised, and makes big-time throws under heavy pressure. Plays with ice water in his veins. Not flashy, won't dazzle you with athletic ability or emotion, but he executes and essentially does everything right when it comes to
playing the quarterback position and leading the offense. A winner-- plain and simple.

Negatives: (Nit-picking) While his footwork is good, it could stand to be even better. And while his pocket awareness is pretty darn good already, it could stand to be even better. This is something he'll develop with time as a starter, extra coaching, et cetera. And his height (6-0) is not prototypical, but then again, who cares? Tim Rattay has done nothing but shred secondaries apart when given even a tiny amount of time to throw. Even in the 2003 pre-season he was performing surgery on
New Orleans' starting defense, while playing with the rest of the 2nd stringers on offense.

 

Set Up - 7
Delivery - 7
Read Coverages – 8
Throw Short – 7
Throw Deep – 8
Mobility - 6
Leadership – 6

Overall rating: 7.5

 

 

 

Michael Pittman, RB, Fresno State

 

 

Jordan: Definitely not feature runner material. He has decent speed, decent power, decent moves, he can churn out some solid positive yardage for you, but he just doesn’t have the burst to be a feature guy. He lacks that explosive burst to make big plays. That’s his deficiency. He’s not really a big-play runner. He can catch the ball nicely and do a little with it after the catch, but he’s not gonna scare anyone out there. Ideally, he’s a backup/change-of-pace guy. But he'd certainly be a good one to have, and would provide a great insurance policy.

 

Instincts-5+

Inside Running-5+

Outside Running-5-

Hands/Receiving Skills-6-

Block-5+

 

Overall Rating: 5.5

 

 

 

Mike Alstott, RB, Purdue

 

 

Jordan: A powerful change of pace runner. He has natural vision and pick and slide ability combined with that superb strength, power, and physical demeanor. He’s extremely tough to bring down and can be very slippery. His lower body strength is awesome and he runs low. He has very soft hands and is a threat catching the ball out of the backfield. He’s a good 3rd down back and extra rushing weapon, but he just ain’t a fullback. He is a soft blocker, he lacks upper body strength and explosion. You can’t be a great blocker if you have no pop or explosiveness.

 

Instincts-6+

Inside Running-6+

Outside Running-5-

Hands/Receiving Skills-6

Block-4+

 

Overall Rating: 6.0

 

 

 

Joey Galloway, WR, Ohio State, 5’11” 190 LBS, 40 time: 4.32

 

 

Jordan: Pretty funny when he flexes. I guess he’s a big, strong receiver too, right? Well, of course, you get speed by having strength, power, and explosion in your physique, mostly the lower body, and track stars are the most sculpted type of athlete. At any rate, the guy still has elite speed and can still smoke entire secondaries, but, will Brad Johnson be able to hit him deep? When he was younger, he had no problems hitting Randy Moss, Michael Westbrook, and Albert Connell smoking people deep. But he’s been away from that style of game for a long time, and you have to wonder if Galloway will just fade into retirement. But he was fun to watch when he was healthy and good.

 

Hands-6

Patterns-5

Receive Short-5+

Receive Deep-7+

Catch In Traffic-5

Run After Catch-6

Block-5

 

Overall Rating: 6.6

 

 

 

ROOKIE

 

Michael Clayton, WR, LSU, 6’4” 220 LBS, 40 time: 4.59

 

 

Jordan: I see him as a J.J. Stokes with more heart. Like Stokes, a great blocking wide receiver with great size and basketball player-type skills with very good, consistent hands. Lacks speed and big-play tools, but can certainly be a tremendous #2 receiver. The fact that he’s in a solid situation with a decent starting QB who will go through progressions and a backup who looks like he could be tremendous (Chris Sims), should assist his development and continuance as a good complimentary wide receiver and perhaps a little bit more. But he’ll never be a game breaker. He’ll be the successful version of J.J. Stokes (the one with Steve Young) but with much more heart. He doesn’t have that innocent little boy’s face that looks lost in the big city ready to take a nice wad of spit in his face. He doesn’t have that maddening phlegmatic attitude.

 

 

 

Ike Hilliard, WR, Florida

 

 

Jordan: Very quick receiver out of his breaks. Can plant and make cuts at an instant. Very fluid guy who can beautifully adjust to passes thrown over his head or behind him. Despite being brittle, he’s willing to go up in traffic and make the catch when he knows he’s gonna get hit. He has the ability to be one of the top 3 or 4 #2 receivers in the game, but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. That’s always been the thing with him. You know he has talent, you know he can be a top route running, technical receiver, but he’s so brittle you’re afraid to exude any confidence whatsoever in him. You just always hope that he can find a way to stay away from the injuries and produce the way we know he can.

 

Hands-6

Patterns-7-

Receive Short-6+

Receive Deep-5+

Catch In Traffic-6-

Run After Catch-5

Block-5

 

Overall Rating: 5.3X (Injuries)

 

 

 

Simeon Rice, DE, Illionis, 6'5" 268 LBS, 40 time: 4.53

 

 

Jordan: Tremendous athlete. He has excellent straight line speed (his claim that he's the fastest player on their defense is true, especially over 100 yards, where he runs as well as most NFL receivers), agility, long arms, and has gotten stronger since coming into the league. He shows that mean streak and closing burst to the QB—you can see his eyes light up when he gets close. He runs like a linebacker and is a very smooth up-field rusher. He’s never been much of a run defender but he has concentrated on improving this aspect of his game in recent years and has done so successfully. But don’t expect him to do much to stop the opponent if they are running right at this weak defensive front seven…he ain’t Kenny Mixon.

 

Recognition-7

Pursuit-7

Run Defense (POA)-4+

Pass Rush-7+

 

Overall Rating: 7.1

 

 

 

Chris Hovan, DT, Boston College

 

 

Jordan: At one point, he was the best DT in football. He would just explode off the snap with incredible timing and blow things up. He would wreck havoc all game long. But last year, he disappeared. The same intensity wasn’t there, he started to slack off and get engulfed at the point of attack and stoned at the line. He wasn’t the Joe Klecko type of disruptive presence he was his first few years in the league. This year, he seems to have stepped it up a notch in preseason, and if he gets back to where he was, they will have an absolutely devastating front four much in the mold of what Arizona had a few years ago in Eric Swann, Mark Smith, Simeon Rice, and Andre Wadsworth.

 

Recognition-6

Pursuit-6

Run Defense (POA)-5

Pass Rush-5

 

Overall Rating: 5.7v

 

 

 

Anthony McFarland, DT, LSU, 5’11” 307 LBS, 40 time: 5.08

 

 

Jordan: Stocky build. He has that ability to play with leverage and sufficient quickness and explosiveness, but he ain’t Sapp, at least what Sapp WAS. He doesn’t have that kind of attitude nor athletic ability. And if you run right at him, he’ll have a helluva hard time getting off the block. He was excellent at blowing up plays and penetrating and feeding off of Sapp’s double and triple teams, but he’s not going to make that much of a difference by himself. In essence, he’s not a difference maker. But he is very quick and should still make plenty of plays in that defense now that Sapp is gone.

 

Recognition-5+

Pursuit-6+

Run Defense (POA)-6-

Pass Rush-5+

 

Overall Rating: 6.1^

 

 

 

Greg Spires, DE, Florida St.

 

 

Jordan: Pure speed rusher who has good athletic ability and can get up-field and gain the corner. He knows what he has to do within the scheme and he does it. But he’s undersized, he’s not overly fast, especially considering he’s an undersized end, and he’s not particularly explosive. He’s a wannabe Simeon Rice and a backup on most teams.

 

Recognition-5

Pursuit-5+

Run Defense (POA)-4

Pass Rush-5+

 

Overall Rating: 5.1

 

 

 

Derrick Brooks, OLB, Florida State, 5’11” 230 LBS, 40 time: 4.65

 

 

Jordan: Very athletic, high-energy, aggressive OLB. He can fly to the football, he’s extremely quick and agile, he covers as well as pretty much any linebacker in the game. He has good speed, leaping ability, and hand-eye coordination. He’s undersized and you have to put him in the box, and he’s not in the upper echelon of athletes at the linebacker position. He’s not Julian  Peterson, Lavar Arrington, Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis, Takeo Spikes, or Anthony Simmons. But he’s a sure tackler who’s sure tackling with superb wrap-up technique has spawned an impressive overall discipline on that Bucs defense.

 

Read and React-7+

Pursuit-7-

Blitz/Rush-4

Run Defense (POA)-4

Pass Coverage-7

Tackle-7

 

Overall Rating: 6.6

 

 

 

Shelton Quarles, MLB

 

 

Jordan: Undersized, has decent speed, but nothing special. The thing about him is he knows the system, knows his limitations, and has worked to improve his overall game. He recognizes things smoothly in coverage, he gets good depth in his drops, and he has found a knack for making big plays. He’ll force fumbles, he’ll pick off passes, he’ll make big hits on receivers, backs, and tight ends coming across the middle. He’s quick and an aggressive tackler—he’d make a nice special teams player for 30 other teams around the league (St. Louis the other one he’d probably start for).

 

Read and React-6

Pursuit-6-

Blitz/Rush-6-

Run Defense (POA)-3+

Pass Coverage-5+

Tackle-6-

 

Overall Rating: 5.3

 

 

 

Ryan Nece, OLB

 

 

Jordan: Ronnie Lott’s nephew. Apparently impressed them enough to win the starting job. Seems like an intuitive second-generation player. Has good speed, having been a converted safety. Ironic that he’s Lott’s NEPHEW but his last name is Nece…hilarious. That’s about all I know on him. Sorry.

 

 

 

Ronde Barber, CB, Virginia, 5’9” 185 LBS, 40 time: 4.62

 

 

Jordan: Lacks speed and size. He’s agile, he can get down and make those quick-twitch movements you want in a tackling corner, and he's one of the stronger players in the NFL pound-for-pound, allowing him to shed blocking receivers and be a really good tackler. He’s also excellent as a blitzer. He times it well, he reads the blocks, and he’s got the quickness and aforementioned hitting ability to finish the play. If you get him out in space, however, he just isn’t very good. He’s a 4.5-4.55 guy at his absolute best. You like his energy, you like his aggressiveness and confidence, but you have to realize this guy is a product of the cover II defense. He just isn’t much of a cover corner. But he has excellent hand-eye coordination and ball skills, so as long as he’s in that defense, he’ll be a playmaker.

 

Key and Diagnose-5+

Man Coverage-4+

Zone Coverage-4

Hands-7

Run Support-7

Tackle-7

 

Overall Rating: 5.9

 

 

 

Brian Kelly, CB, USC, 40 yard dash: 4.55

 

 

Jordan: He’s got good size, decent speed, and he is physical and tough on receivers. He can be successfull at jamming them at the line and he shows the ability to turn his hips and run fairly smoothly. He’s tough and sticks with people without worrying about pass interference calls. But again, he’s not really a pure cover corner type…he’s a cover II product. He plays the ball an awful lot because he knows he has help over the top and underneath with the safeties deep and the three linebackers covering the underneath area. The best part of his game is probably his hitting. At times he hits like a third safety.

 

Key and Diagnose-6-

Man Coverage-5+

Zone Coverage-5

Hands-6

Run Support-6

Tackle-6+

 

Overall Rating: 5.9

 

 

Juran Boldin, CB, Mississippi Delta (CC), 6'2" 207 LBS, 40 time: 4.42

 

 

Jordan: Superb athlete and plays with incredible heart. The Falcons were well out of it but he still played every down like it was his last. You can tell this guy was taught to do this. There’s something special about him. He is a big, athletic corner, who resembles a safety in terms of physical development, with skills. He can go up and attack the football, and he can hit. He’ll knock the opponent’s helmet off. And he has the loose hips and athleticism to be a very good cover corner. He definitely has to be looked at as part of the solution in their secondary.

 

Key and Diagnose-6+

Man Coverage-7

Zone Coverage-7

Hands-6-

Run Support-6

Tackle-6

 

Overall Rating: 6.8

Jermaine Phillips, S, Georgia, 40 yard dash: 4.69

Jordan: He's their new John Lynch, basically. They bring him up as the 8th guy in the box and he helps them overcome the natural weakness of the cover II in defending the run. He's a 4th linebacker. He is extremely aggressive and intense in filling, and he's a sound wrap-up tackler and a strong hitter. Like Lynch, he's a major liability against the pass when he's in a situation where he has to show some range. Unlike Lynch, he does not have the kind of great instincts and soft hands to come away with a few interceptions every year. And he isn't quite as hard a hitter as Lynch was nor does he have the overall knack for creating a turnover either by recovery or forcing a fumble. But he does what they ask of him, and that's aggressively be a guided missile versus the run and be consistent in that aspect.

Key and Diagnose-6-
Man Coverage-4-
Zone coverage-4+
Hands-4
Run Support-7
Tackle-7

Overall Rating: 5.6

 

Dexter Jackson

 

 

Jordan: Who knows. A mediocre player who was overpaid in the past...where is he now, anyway? Oh, right back where he started...in Tampa Bay. Yeah, that worked out.

 

Key and Diagnose-?

Man Coverage-?

Zone Coverage-?

Hands-?

Run Support-?

Tackle-?

 

Overall Rating: ?

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