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RSP Film Room No.87: RB Dalvin Cook (FSU)
An extended look at the FSU star. Despite the 20-plus minutes on Dalvin Cook in this RSP Film Room, there’s more that I want to see from the FSU back before I feel comfortable with my overall assessment of him. I’m sold that he’s one of the safest bets in this class of runners, but I’m…
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RSP Boiler Room No.67: Mitch Trubisky (North Carilina), Big-Play Chances
One thing that shows up repeatedly in the UNC QB’s tape is a gap between recognizing a good thing and acting on it. Football is described as a game of inches. The hidden partner in this game of inches are the fractions of a second that span the gap between a recognition and execution. It’s…
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RSP Boiler Room No.66: QB DeShone Kizer (Notre Dame) – Field General
Several things make a strong field general. Notre Dame’s Kizer exhibits some of these skills on two plays during a second-half rally against Michigan State. I’d like to tell you that I’m a laid-back dude. Sometimes I am. A former boss—a far more extroverted, charismatic charmer on the surface—said my team operated like it was…
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RSP Boiler Room No.65: QB DeShone Kizer (Notre Dame) – Long-Range Accuracy
Three plays display Kizer’s arm strength, accuracy, and maneuverability. Arm strength can break the will of a defense, but it takes maneuverability and accuracy to make it happen. DeShone Kizer has this triumvirate of skills. This Boiler Room episode features three plays from Kizer’s Michigan State performance that demonstrates three impressive skills: vertical accuracy; opposite…
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RSP Boiler Room No.62: QB Mitch Trubisky (North Carolina) Pocket Pressure
When does an overreaction to pressure become a chronic problem with a quarterback’s game? Waldman explores this issue while noting a pivotal play involving QB Mitch Trubisky from a one-point game between North Carolina and Florida State with 0:14 left. How a quarterback reacts to pressure is a thorny issue. Publishing analysis that shows a…
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RSP Boiler Room: No.57 – Running Back Leonard Fournette (LSU) and Pacing
When the brakes go out on the dump truck rolling down a mountainside is bearing down on you, the slightest change in movement will create a reaction. Fournette’s best fit is a gap-heavy scheme that creates a downhill exit ramp for him to do his best rendition of a runaway dump truck. And Fournette knows how to…
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RSP Boiler Room No.54: RB Leonard Fournette (LSU)
One thing is indisputable about Fournette: He wants to impose his will on every opponent in his path. When I get lost in a daydream, and that daydream is about football, one of my football fantasies is to accelerate through an opponent and leave him in my wake like a stray bowling pin flying from…
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2017 NFL Rookie Prospects and Draft Analysis
Links to all essays, analysis, Senior Bowl coverage, and scouting reports about 2017 NFL Draft prospects come from research I undertake to write the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Publication. Now in the 12th year of publication, the RSP is the best of both worlds: a summarized magazine of reports, rankings, and analysis that also shows its work at the…
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RSP Boiler Room No.50: RB Jamaal Williams, BYU
While I watch a lot of tape on each player, one play can tell you a lot. This play from the Jamaal Williams library screams NFL running back. When Jamaal Williams was an underclassman, he was a tall, skinny runner with speed, balance, and moves to spare. Combine his frame, his athletic ability, and…
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RSP Film Room No. 50 – WR Mike Williams (Clemson) w/ Matt Harmon
We kick off the 2016 RSP Film Room like the way we ended it: Matt Harmon and I studying a wide receiver. Clemson’s Mike Williams has the build of Martavis Bryant and A.J. Green. Does he have the same game? Matt Harmon and I didn’t see enough contested plays involving Williams against N.C. State and Oklahoma…