Street Art in Ann Arbor; RSP Film Room Hangouts; Inches, Milliseconds, and Jamison Crowder; and Writing Advice From Two Greats

What is Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  I post links on Fridays to content I’m saving for later consumption or pieces that I found compelling. You may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

RSP Film Room Google Hangouts

Here’s a two-hour hangout that Ryan Riddle and I did last night: One hour devoted to Washington LB Shaq Thompson and another to Boise State RB Jay Ajayi. Riddle’s takes were fantastic and the time flew. Bookmark this page so you can view this in snippets if you don’t have a couple of hours. You’ll learn a ton and the joy we share for the game really shines through.

Future guests will include Draft Breakdown’s Ryan Lownes, Optimum Scouting’s Alex Brown, and Footballguys’ Cecil Lammey.

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel or this blog to see the Film Room sessions with Rotoworld Josh Norris and Sigmund Bloom of Footballguys.

Download the 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio + Post-Draft Update!

Friday’s are also my chance to thank you for reading my work, encourage you to follow the RSP blog, and download the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication.

The 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Post-Draft Add-On is ready for download.  If you’re in a dynasty league, the combination of the 2014 RSP and the RSP Post-Draft will have you prepared for this year and beyond. Want details? Need details? I have ’em right here:

• 84 pages
• How to use the RSP and RSP-Post Draft together
• Overrated/Underrated
• Good/Bad post-draft fits
• UDFAs to watch
• Long-term dynasty waiver wire gems
• Strategic overview of 2014 rookie drafts
• Tiered Value Chart Cheat Sheet across all positions
• Post-Draft rankings analysis and commentary–including notes about impending contracts years of competition on the depth charts
• Average Draft Position (ADP) Data of 19 dynasty drafts
• RSP Ranking-to-ADP Value Data
• Raw Data Worksheets to continue calculating additional ADP data for future drafts

Hell, take a video tour of the 2013 post-draft to see what I mean:

Seriously, this analysis is worth the price of the 2014 RSP package alone, but you get this as a part of your purchase with the 2014 RSP. Remember 10 percent of each sale is donated to Darkness to Light to prevent sexual abuse in communities across the United States. While that alone should get you to download the RSP package, do it because you will be blown away with the detail and insight of the analysis and content. It’s why the RSP has grown so much in the past nine years.

Best yet, 10 percent of each RSP sale is donated to Darkness to Light, a non-profit devoted to preventing and addressing sexual abuse through community training in schools, religious groups, and a variety of civic groups across the U.S.

Download the 2014 RSP and RSP Post-Draft here

In Case You Missed It/Coming Soon

• Boiler Room: Duke WR Jamison Crowder – Inches and milliseconds separate good college players from quality NFL starters. Two plays from Crowder illustrate how close (and far) he is from a pro career.
• DLF Podcast – I join Karl Safchick and Jarrett Behar for a discussion on the nuts and bolts of scouting wide receiver talent.
• Futures: Miami RB Duke Johnson – Available Saturday 9/20/2014
• No-Huddle Series: Yabba Dabba Yeldon – I know corny, but  Alabama RB T.J. Yeldon has that Flintstone stride. How does it impact his NFL prospects?
• Futures: Alabama WR Amari Cooper – A promising player, but his NFL trajectory more Roddy White or Michael Crabtree?
• Boiler Room: Wisconsin RB Melvin Gordon – The two plays I share reveal a lot about Gordon’s footwork, quickness, and vision.

Reads/Views (Football)

• The Rate of Domestic Violence Arrests Among NFL Players – A FiveThirtyEight Joint by Benjamin Morris.
• Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Football Reaction to Adrian Peterson – Not sure where I stand on this issue, but well done.
• Fantasy Throwdown – Looking to get into the daily games space. Fantasy Throwdown is a fine site where you can play head-to-head for free or for money.
• Mike Tanier’s Monday Morning Hangover: Super Bowl Sequel, or Prequel? – Fine writing here. Love the humor in his section about Kaepernick.

Views

David Zinn has made these drawings around the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can see more at thisiscolossal as well as his Facebook page. Zinn also has a book Lost & Unfounded: Street Art. Looking to get your kid (or the person in your life in touch with his or her inner child? Supporting an artist like Zinn is a nice way to do it.

 Reads (Life In General)

 

• This Childhood Mortality Map is The Best New You’ll Read This Week
• The sexual threats on Emma Watson are an attack on every woman – Sex is great and it’s a subject rich for humor, but not at the expense of victimizing women. Watson’s U.N. speech is worth a listen.
• David Mitchell on How to Write: “Neglect Everything Else” The author of Cloud Atlas keeps a James Wright poem on hand as a reminder to live in the now.
• Famous Writers And Their Cats– Bob Harris and I can identify with the cat part.
• Group Sex Parties: Strict Rules Make for Safe Spaces – I’ve always been a one-woman guy, but the way people negotiate this lifestyle is fascinating to me.
• “Get In, Get Out, Don’t Linger” – I can’t help but post the title of this fine story about Joyce Carol Oates’ writing advice and her work with prisoners directly below the story above (makes it sound like bad advice in the bedroom).
• Here’s How Two Hip-Hop Experts Explained How Rap Works to Antonin Scalia
• Beyond the Headlines: Race, the Inner City, and Books That Delve Deeper  – Will definitely be adding these to my “buy/want list.”
• Remembering ‘The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace’ – “On a May night in 2011, a man was murdered — shot — in a basement just outside Newark, N.J. Cash and marijuana were found at the scene. Given the circumstances, it might be easy to make assumptions about that man. Reality, however, is more complex.”
• Mars Farming Soil

Listens – A Neuroscientist Debunks Common Beliefs About Drug Addiction

Listens – Senor Blues

Listens –  Galactic, featuring Irma Thomas