-- Back in the late 80s I was a big fan of the band Great White. Although now they're best known for the tragic nightclub fire a few years ago, they had a huge hit with a cover of "Once Bitten Twice Shy." That song was ubiquitous in my junior year of high school, so you would think I would take the message to heart ... but I'm swimming in the sharky waters with the top tight end prospect for the second year in a row.
I was wrong on Jermaine Gresham last year. I thought his knee problems would limit his burst and take away from what made him a dynamic, albeit underutilized, presence at Oklahoma. I didn't think his 4.8ish speed and upright gait would translate well. All he did was catch 52 passes, block pretty well and immediately become the best tight end the Bengals have had since Bob Trumpy.
This year the top tight end (for most) is Notre Dame's Kyle Rudolph. Like Gresham, he enters the draft coming off a serious injury, missing most of 2010 with two torn tendons in his hamstring less than a year after tearing up his left shoulder. Gresham's performance should teach me to be more open-minded, but I'm stubborn like bull here. Rudolph's play in 2010 before tearing the hamstring was unremarkable, and this is a more serious long-term injury than Gresham's multiple "CL" tears. He plodded to an upper 4.8 at his pro day, and Rudolph got most of his notoriety for shredding a truly awful Michigan defense two years ago. Yes, he's got very nice hands and a wide catching radius for the position. He's a competent in-space blocker. By all accounts he's a great teammate and a freakishly intense worker.
But he was more reliant on speed and burst off the line to get open than Gresham, whose innate ability to find the hole between the safety and linebacker and present a great target carried over from college. Rudolph was a guy that Jimmy Clausen often had to "throw open," and as he proved in Carolina last year, that turkey doesn't fly in the NFL. He's not as strong of an in-line blocker as Gresham, and he's not fast enough or quick enough to consistently flex him out and dictate matchup mismatches like a Dallas Clark or Jermichael Finley. I liken him to Kevin Boss of the Giants, a solid starter but best served as a third or 4th banana in a diverse passing offense. Boss went in the fifth round and honestly that's about where I would take Rudolph, even though I doubt he lasts until #40 overall. I guess I need to be bitten twice...
Read more: http://football.realgm.com/src_encroachment/307/20110413/risdons_draft_notes_(april_13th)/#ixzz1JWraxwTk
Commander of Awesome
Senior Pwner
23,151
posts
Commander of Awesome
Senior Pwner
23,151
posts
Thu, Apr 14, 2011 3:56 PM
Apr 14, 2011 3:56 PM
Apr 14, 2011 3:56pm
