The Rookie Scouting Portfolio (RSP)

Month: December 2011

  • News of the Weird: Cameron Kenney

    Around this time last year Cameron Kenney was eluding top prospect Prince Amukamara on the football field for a more-impressive-than-the-stats-suggest, 6-65 performance without Ryan Broyles in the lineup. This year, Kenney couldn’t elude a trashcan and a pole in my home town.

  • The Curious Case of Montee Ball

    The Curious Case of Montee Ball

    Wisconsin has earned the moniker “Lineman U” during the decade for its excellence at the position. One of the unintended consequences with this unit’s excellence is the parade of productive college running backs that underwhelm in the NFL. Ron Dayne, Brian Calhoun, Anthony Davis, P.J. Hill, and John Clay are all examples of players that…

  • Reads, Listens, Views 12/9

    Fantasy Football Congratulations to Footballguys.com David Dodds, who was elected to the Fantasy Sports Writers Hall of Fame. Although there are some who wonder why we have a Hall of Fame, if accountants can have one I suppose fantasy writers can, too. That being the case, Dodds is most deserving of the honor. He’s an…

  • Fond Memories(?) of a Violent Game

    Fond Memories(?) of a Violent Game

    The sum of my experience playing organized football is one season in a DeKalb County Pop Warner league in Atlanta, Ga. I missed tryouts because my family had just moved there from Cleveland, Ohio and I joined the team a week before its first game. I had no experience playing in pads and like most…

  • RSP Contest Results

    In case you missed it, I held a contest last week. I provided evaluations of three NFL players when I studied them at the college level. The first three people to correctly name the three prospects would win a past issue of the RSP from 2006-2010. The contest had a good response, but the question…

  • Tuesday (Wee) Morning Thoughts on Blaine Gabbert

    Scared. That’s how most will characterize Blaine Gabbert’s performance from the pocket on Monday Night Football. It’s how I see it. It’s hard not to see it this way after watching several of Gabbert’s rookie performances. When the rookie throws the ball, even from a reasonably clean pocket, he doesn’t follow through by shifting his…

  • “Football Player”

    “Football Player”

    We live in the football era of specialization: Slot receiver. Third down back. Move tight end. Pass rush defensive end. Nickel back. In the box safety. But there was a time when its best players played more than one role. Sammy Baugh was both a great passer and ball hawking safety. Chuck Bednarik played on…

  • RSP Contest Update and Reads, Listens, Views 12/2

    The Name the Prospect Contest has earned a great response and a lot of readers are asking me if I have revealed the answers. You’re going to have to wait a little longer because only 1 reader out of nearly 100 entries has correctly identified all three players. I love a good contest and the…

  • History Lesson: Three Pros You Should Know

    Every era of the game has players that were great in many aspects of their game, but didn’t have an extended opportunity to prove it statistically. Brandon Lloyd is one of the greatest receivers in the history of the league when it comes to adjusting to the football, but he approached the precipice of his…