Tech draft prospects may go late
Greetings, all-
I hope you and your loved ones made it through last night’s storm safely. The NFL draft starts tonight, and I feel pretty safe in making one prediction. There won’t be two Georgia Tech players taken in the first round and three in the first three rounds, as was the case last year with Derrick Morgan, Demaryius Thomas and Morgan Burnett going in the first, first and third rounds, respectively.
The Tech players most likely to go are B-back Anthony Allen, safety Jerrard Tarrant and cornerback Mario Butler. It’s possible that no Tech player will hear his name called until Saturday, when rounds 4-7 will take place. (Round one is Thursday night, rounds 2-3 on Friday. If you’re wondering, coverage starts at 8 p.m. Thursday ET, 6 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, all on ESPN.)
In a conference call last week, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper projected all three to be Saturday picks, along with safety Mario Edwards, with Allen going first.
“There’s really no marquee player,” Kiper said of Tech’s entrants.
Kiper said “there’s no question [Allen] has talent,” but noted that Jonathan Dwyer went late in the draft last year (sixth round). (I’m not sure comparing the cases of Allen and Dwyer is entirely valid. Dwyer’s stock dropped precipitously after he declared for the draft, when he was projected to go as early as the second.)
In the NFL, Allen will want to avoid carries where his helmet falls off.
That said, I saw a mock draft that had Tarrant going as high as the second round. Particularly once you get past the first round, as I’m sure you are aware, projecting draft picks is a bit of a murky business. The website nfldraftscout.com, which I found fairly reliable in my days as a Falcons and NFL reporter, pegs Tarrant around the fifth round, Butler in the sixth or seventh at the earliest and Allen as a seventh-rounder or undrafted.
As for quarterback Joshua Nesbitt, Kiper said the question was how teams see him. While he worked out at Tech’s pro day at quarterback, it’s possible a team may take him (he’d presumably be a late-round pick if he goes) and try him at running back, defensive back or a special teamer.
(Update, 2:10 p.m. Nothing seems certain, but the NFL has ended its lockout, at least temporarily. That means that teams will be able to sign undrafted rookies, so long as the lockout isn’t restored. The NFL told teams in a memo that it will instruct teams on procedures for trades and signings.)
Unfortunately for Tech players that go undrafted, teams will likely not be able to sign them as undrafted free agents because of the labor impasse. Hundreds of players make their way into NFL camps as undrafted free agents – former Tech offensive lineman Cord Howard did it last year with Buffalo and started four games as a rookie. Former Jackets Mike Cox and J.P. Foschi are two others who used that route to earn NFL spots.
Aside from the aforementioned, players that could potentially impact include offensive tackle Nick Claytor, cornerback Dominique Reese, fullback Lucas Cox and linebacker Brad Jefferson and kicker Scott Blair. Barring a court order, undrafted players would have to wait until the NFL and the players reach an agreement to be signed, which would likely make their odds of making a team even higher, since they would have less time to learn their new teams’ systems.
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79 comments Add your comment
secfactcheck.com
April 29th, 2011
9:34 am
Those who keep trashing CPJ’s system and pointing out that he will continue not to get “draftable” QB’s are not so smart. First of all, CPJ is not even looking for a Ryan Mallet type player to run his offense. You really think CPJ walks into the living run of a Pro-Style QB’s house hoping to recruit him. Give me a break. Second, check out the board. This year was a banner year for QB’s drafted, Four went in the first round, count them FOUR! One from the SEC, PAC10, Big12, and ACC. Yes, there will be a few more drafted. But, there are roughly 119 D1 schools who have at least 3 QBs on each team. Who knows, even a JuCo transfer might even break into the draft…
. So, not all college players have NFL stars in their eyes nor should they. Finally, GA Tech is geographically surrounded by AU, AL, TN, UGA, Clemson, SC, and FL. I think it makes great sense not to put in the same system and therefore competing for the same players as all these other Universities. Ask Adrian Nicholas Peterson if he thinks Johnson’s system hurt him in the Pro’s.
A.J. Green
April 29th, 2011
9:48 am
Don’t you Techies wish you had a player that was good enough to go in the Top 5?
Mark Has A Small Richt
April 29th, 2011
10:02 am
Pitiful Georgia was 3-5 in the SEC,
6-7 overall and lost their last game to George O’Leary.
Mark Has A Small Richt
April 29th, 2011
10:04 am
I doubt A.J. Green will finally get a 1.000 yard season playing for the Bengals.
At least now it's legal
April 29th, 2011
11:25 am
Any word on the ebay auction for that Bengals jersey that Green held up at the draft? What’s the high bid? Will the hat be thrown in or will that be a separate auction?
Stinger
April 29th, 2011
11:40 am
Jealousy that’s all I see when I see UGALY fans on my blogs.
GT is beyond comparison with UGALY.
Dawg fans can only wish they was up to the standards as GT is.
UGA owns you tasty bees
April 29th, 2011
11:43 am
lol what standards?
UGA owns you tasty bees
April 29th, 2011
11:51 am
Losing to air force? And yes, brag all you want about “competing” for ACC championships.. In the MIGHTY ACC, where even Wake Forest has a chance for a trophy.. LOL what a bunch of idiots.
Stinger
April 29th, 2011
1:07 pm
Hour standards of excellance on the field of play and in the classrooms. UGLAY is so far below GT we don’t even look forwords to playing them every year – UGLAY sucks.
Only trailer trash and moroons are UGLAY fans.
Da' Truth
April 29th, 2011
1:08 pm
The truth is that at least Chan’s recruits will have a chance of getting drafter while Johnson’s kids won’t even eniff the draft. Maybe Tech needs to drop out of the ACC and compete with Navy, Army, and Air Force.
The Academic Difference
April 29th, 2011
3:27 pm
GT fans really need to consider whether any UGA fan comments are really worthy of a response on these blogs.
Let’s consider how UGA fans “tailgate” as reported by the AJC…..
The breaking point came on Sept. 12, 2009, when workers collected from North Campus about 70 tons of garbage and mounds of tents, grills, coolers and chairs. That day, fans were witnessed urinating on public buildings and defecating outdoors.
For example, do you have a conversation with your 2 year-old on such matters, or simply tell him to use the toilet next time?
TechRon
April 29th, 2011
4:08 pm
I learned a long time ago that you can take good players and lose, but you sure can’t take bad players and win. Tech needs better players if they are going to keep up. They are in the right league, but when they step out against the better SEC teams, they are not going to win unless they take a quantum leap in player quality. Even last year, when we had some really outstanding players go high in the draft, most of the team was subpar. This really showed in the Orange Bowl game against Iowa. Of course, it hurt that Johnson showed up with zero game plan. Imagine: Iowa thought we might run the option and prepared for it so they could shut it down. Was there a backup plan? Hell, no. Just keep running the same thing the whole game, then go home with an embarrasing loss. Then tell your alumni and supporters “well, shucks, we just got beat.”
GDBurdell
April 29th, 2011
4:12 pm
“May go Late”???????
Of course they will go late!!!
Playing for PJ ruins your chances of getting in the pros!!!! Even a dim-bulb tek engineer knows that!
GDBurdell
April 29th, 2011
4:16 pm
Techron, get it “techron”
A good coach makes all the difference, PJ ran his “system” without any change all season and he didn’t even have a special teams coach! Winning in 2009 was the worst possible thing that could have happened to tek fb. All the players can be coached into winning form. THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF PJ AND HIS “SYSTEM”, RIGHT?
Observer
April 29th, 2011
6:18 pm
This is about young men getting an opportunity to proceed to the next level of thier football careers. Some have it and some don’t. As in the case of David Green, a good college QB but a clipboard man in the NFL. Same for DJ Shockley. Then there are those who have thier careers ended like David Pollack by injury or Odell Thurman who couldn’t stay out of trouble. If any player is drafted or signs a free agent contract it is probably better than most of the people who read these blogs. But sometimes we forget about Calvin Johnson, Keith Brooking, Daryl Smith, Dorsey Levens, James Butler, Richard Seymour, Champ Bailey, Mohammed Massoqua(mis-spelled), and all the others who just got the chance to play on teams that either won Super Bowls or they are Pro-Bowl players themselves and the TWO Georgia schools have produced plenty of players that have done well for themselves and the schools that they call “Alma Matter”.
These are young men trying to prove themselves to the world against the best of the best…..And sometimes they win and sometimes they fall short because of injuries, self inflicted troubles or just not being good enough.
But when you are a highly touted recruit out of HS and then get drafted to the NFL you are competing against other highly touted recruits for a paycheck. How would each and everyone on here like to compete for your paycheck based on your performance against equally or better skilled peers every year just to feed your family?????
Most would fail miserably and then that is the whole point. I wish all these young men the best and I hope that they make the right decisions with the money they make and the life paths they take. Not all will. But maybe one day we will see them playing in a Pro-Bowl or Super Bowl and say they did well and played at the school that I cheer for or that I saw that kid play in HS, College or whereever. But it is always a joy to say that I am a College Football Fan. I follow the players as they go on to the NFL and occasionally have to Google them to see where they are now.
Be a fan of your respected team and a fan of these young men at the same time. They have probably done something that most have never done….played college football and tasted the NFL.
Kent
April 29th, 2011
8:01 pm
Da truth ur a retard. U mean become independent and play with NOTRE DAME who has won the most NCAA championships.
Kent
April 29th, 2011
8:02 pm
Georgia tech has won 4 nat champs how many has Georgia won?
UGA owns you tasty bees
April 29th, 2011
11:21 pm
hmmm.. three rounds down, and no techie to be drafted yet.. Nothing to see here folks, move along… lol Quick question, does tech even hold a “pro day” like other schools, or do they just sit at home and let the real athletes work out for the pros?
Macon Jacket
April 30th, 2011
9:13 am
The facts are:
1. Georgia Tech won’t be sending many players to the NFL, the next few years. Paul Johnson has recruited mediocre (at best) talent on the Div-I level.
2. UGA owns Tech.
3. UGA will never win another NC.
Idiots
April 30th, 2011
10:55 am
Hmmm. lets see I am pretty sure we had two first round draft picks last year, and I gurantee you GT will be very good soon and will have players in the draft. I swear some of you UGA fans are so delusional and what does it matter having a top five pick if you still go 6-7. GT has a much better coach than UGA and will be more successful than UGA just watch.
Old Blind Dawg
April 30th, 2011
11:24 am
LOL @ idiots we will be glad to wait and see. Do you want 2, 3, 5 or 10 years to measure the results? CPJ will be gone long before CMR write it down.
threetrone
April 30th, 2011
11:31 am
Re: Winnipeg, Canada comment…Nez per se was good, but he was not an All-American like Perdoni was. That’s why I said he might have to go to Canada. Perdoni was considered too short to play D line in the NFL so he had to play LB in Canada. Nez’s reliability throwing ended after his first year. He seemed to develop some sort of the yips to passing, throwing grounders on short passes and throwing it way over receivers heads downfield. He was way, way off target. Running it was no problem for him, and I noticed he used to seem to love getting tackled by more than one person, not afraid to run right into people. He should be drafted as a runner. There’s plenty of college runners who will play in the NFL, and he is as good or better than many of them, judging from his breakaway runs downfield for Tech. Those runs should interest NFL teams.
BYRDDAWG
April 30th, 2011
12:57 pm
WOW this is a dangerous bloog!!!!! Where are my buds Supersize , Juvie & IL ??? This DAWG isn’t throwing any gas on da fire…….Eveyone have a blessed day!
DJ
April 30th, 2011
1:20 pm
Yawn. Seriously guys, what is all the hype about? We (Tech) had a top 2 pick a few years ago and had absolutely nothing to show for it record-wise. But he was an exceptional young man and superior athlete. Last year Tech had 2 first rounders, a third rounder, and perhaps the most valuable player from that group barely picked (I know, the valuable part is debatable, but that’s not the point). This year there are the usual amount of Dawgs getting drafted. Outside of beating Tech (again) does all this draft success make you feel better about 6 – 7? No. Just a forum for idiots (on both sides) to make stupid comments and show their true ignorance.
As a Tech fan, I’m much more concerned about Tech having future pro players on the defensive side of the ball and the OL than anything, because our “system” guys will do just fine running that “high school offense” up and down the field the majority of the time. Anybody on here who can say whether a couple of those kids aren’t at Tech currently or won’t come to Tech are merely speculating. Remember, 7 rounds in a draft. Let me know when all of the 25 (or more) signees from any program get drafted in one draft.
Bill Engvall
April 30th, 2011
1:57 pm
I’m surprised that Allen has not gone yet. However, it goes to show you and recruits in the near future that if they want to go to the next level after college tech is not the place to go. CPJ scheme does not fit the NFL and they will, for the most part, lose any hope for the NFL. Proof is in the pudding. No tech players have been drafted. It’s not that they are bad players. Just overlooked because of the scheme they were under.
DJ
April 30th, 2011
2:28 pm
Bill, wow thanks for posting and taking time off from your “comedy”. Anyway, I think you’re spot on. Brad Jefferson, Mario Butler, and Jarrard Tarrant haven’t been drafted yet because of the system they played in at Tech. Way to use ONE PLAYER as your “proof is in the pudding” genius comment. I like Anthony Allen, and I hope he has a great career in whatever he does, but him getting drafted or not likely won’t impact whether we continue to have major production out of the postion he played at Tech. Fortunately for all of us, there’s no proof there….time will tell, especially with the upcoming season. Now, back to the fact that nobody from this Tech draft eligible class has been taken…hmmm, maybe it’s because 3 of them (D. Thomas was a year older) already came out. And again, out of that recruiting class, I’m pretty pleased that we had 3 NFL-caliber players, plus Cord Howard as a free agent. Maybe Jefferson, Butler, Tarrant, Claytor, etc. just aren’t that good…decent college players, but not elite enough to be drafted in the first 4 (possibly all 7) rounds.
Bill, stick with stand-up, or use a different name so that the real Bill Engvall doesn’t look like he knows very little about the larger picture of college ball and the NFL Draft. That proof was in your post.
NFL Draft
April 30th, 2011
6:23 pm
The Baltimore Ravens drafted Anthony Allen.
UGA owns you tasty bees
April 30th, 2011
9:01 pm
so the *best* player Coach Peanut butter and Johnson has recruited to tech was a geniune 7th rounder. Any of you techies who aren’t scared to death of his utter failure of recruiting, are delusional or aren’t paying attention.. This will only hurt recruiting, and with sub-par players such as the ones he recruits, you can book 2-3 losing or .500 seasons at best. i would honestly love to meet ya’ll every year undefeated, because it would be just that much better, but alas, with the likes of Duke and Wake Forest in your conference, that’s highly unlikely, isn’t it?
Wes Durham's Gigantic Bottom
April 30th, 2011
9:02 pm
kind of sad.