Originally Posted by
r8rh8rmike
ou’s mccoy a better fit for rams
by michael silver, yahoo! Sports
10 hours, 59 minutes ago
indianapolis – because he has an exceptionally cool name – and some serious game – ndamukong suh would be an outstanding choice as the no. 1 overall pick of the 2010 nfl draft.
But when roger goodell reveals the first pick to a primetime tv audience on april 22, my prediction is that the nfl commissioner will have a much easier name to pronounce. In all likelihood, he’ll be announcing that the st. Louis rams have selected a different defensive tackle who terrorized the big 12 conference: Oklahoma’s gerald mccoy
there are logical reasons for this, many of which i will detail shortly. But the best and most succinct one was verbalized by an nfc general manager i talked to at thursday’s nfl scouting combine: “mccoy is the better player.”
obviously, this gm’s opinion isn’t absolute. Beauty is in the eye of the potentially creepy beholder, and a lot can happen in the two months between the nfl’s annual meat market and the most hyped employee-allocation meeting in modern american industry.
But in numerous conversations this week with people who know talent – several of whom are familiar with rams coach steve spagnuolo’s mindset – i’ve gotten the unequivocal impression that the prospect of st. Louis taking mccoy is very real. For all the hype about suh and mccoy’s sooners teammate, former heisman trophy-winning quarterback sam bradford, it’s this big, explosive, high-effort inside pass-rushing threat who stands out as the probable top pick.
“think about the situation [spagnuolo’s] in,” one high-level front-office employee for an afc team said wednesday. “he went 1-15 in his first season, and now there’s a new owner coming in. The guy is coaching for his job, possibly his career. He needs to win now or they could all get fired.
“that means he has to take the player who’ll make the biggest impact right now. You think he’s gonna trust that a quarterback can come in and do that as a rookie? I don’t think so. What he knows is defense, and the scheme he knows is the 4-3. And of the two tackles, the guy who makes the most sense for that scheme is definitely mccoy.”
a 6-foot-4, 298-pound menace in the middle, mccoy has been said to resemble kevin williams, the minnesota vikings’ perennial all-pro defensive tackle. He’s a strong, relentless, athletic player who has a penchant for blasting through and past defenders and terrorizing quarterbacks. One scout i talked to thought the williams comparison didn’t go far enough.
“kevin williams?” the scout scoffed. “to me, he’s warren sapp, only bigger and stronger.” (sapp’s response, via text message: “lmao!”)
the skepticism is understandable: Sapp, a future hall of famer, was one of the best players of his generation, and exaggeration is rampant among talent evaluators this time of year.
Suh, too, has inspired some grandiose praise – it’s just that the former nebraska player, buoyed by his jaw-dropping performance (4½ sacks) in the big 12 championship game against texas, has been anointed much more conspicuously to this point.
At 6-4, 302 pounds, suh also has the size and strength that any team covets. He has great hands and explosiveness and is terrific at the point of attack. His upper-body strength is exceptional, and he’s a top-notch tackler.
Realistically, suh is probably good enough to be a very good defensive tackle in a 4-3 scheme. But many of the talent evaluators i’ve been talking to project suh as a 3-4 defensive end.
“to me, he’s richard seymour,” one afc scouting director said. “he’s a guy who can stand there on the edge and put his arms up and own the gap, even if he’s double-teamed. Don’t get me wrong – he’s a good player. I just think that if you’re playing a 4-3, the other guy is a better fit.”
added another nfc general manager: “i’m a mccoy guy. Suh is good, but i’m wary of guys who have one eye-catching game, and people go nuts over them and the momentum builds. In the end, when people break down these two, i think most of them will end up liking mccoy better.”
obviously, there are many scenarios which could complicate this decision. The rams, who have many needs, would surely be open to trading down. Realistically, so would each of the three teams (detroit lions, tampa bay buccaneers, washington redskins) which pick immediately after them.
Of those teams, washington is most likely to take a quarterback. If new head coach mike shanahan decides he wants bradford or notre dame’s jimmy clausen, it’s possible washington could attempt to trade up to ensure he can get his guy. Similarly, other teams in search of a young passer could try to move up to get one of those players, as the jets did with mark sanchez last april.
None of this would be tragic news for the lions or the bucs. Each team picked its presumed quarterback of the future last year – matthew stafford went no. 1 overall to detroit before josh freeman went to tampa bay in the middle of the first round – and thus is not in the market for a passer.
“the more that teams get excited about these quarterbacks, the better news that is for the lions,” detroit coach jim schwartz said thursday. “the more motivated teams are to move up, the more options we might have.”
when i asked schwartz about mccoy and suh, he sounded pretty content with the prospect of landing one of the two tackles. According to most mock drafts, mccoy is the guy who should be preparing for a future in honolulu blue.
Based on what i’m hearing, i think lions fans should start learning how to pronounce “en-dom-ah-ken soo” and hope that warren sapp has good reason to laugh at the hyperbole about mccoy.
