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UT-Chattanooga QB B.J. Coleman: Decision-Making is Also Fundamental
For a more in-depth breakdown, see my analysis of Coleman at FootballOutsiders.com A few weeks ago, I profiled East Carolina receiver Lance Lewis and demonstrated how his fade routes often appear identical to Patriots receiver Brandon Lloyd. In that post, I mentioned that University of Tennessee-Chattanooga QB B.J. Coleman’s drop, play fake, and release of…
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Logic (Newton) or Chance (Luck)?
If you were in charge of player-personnel decisions for the NFL team that had the opportunity to choose between Cam Newton or Andrew Luck, which quarterback would you take? I think this is probably one of the most compelling questions I’ve seen all season. There are so many layers of analysis to explore with this…
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Behind the Blue Curtain – Part II: A Glimpse at Colts Training Camp With RB Chad Spann
Former Northern Illinois RB Chad Spann led college football with 22 touchdowns in 2010, but it didn’t get him drafted. No matter, Spann was a local star in Indianapolis and no team offered him a scholarship at his position and that didn’t deter him from finding a team that would give him a chance to…
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Behind the Blue Curtain: A Glimpse at Colts Training Camp With RB Chad Spann
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Chad Spann was messing with me. Every few minutes during our hour-long conversation the running back would grunt, yell, or laugh without any discernible rhyme or reason. At one point as he talked his voice quavered as if someone was jumping up and down on him.…
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Pocket Presence
One of my first blog posts was Losing Your Football Innocence: 10 Things to Develop A More Critical Eye. It stresses the importance of studying NFL players and using them as a standard for evaluating college talent. Many of my peers who study games agree that while you’ll be hard pressed to find a college…
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Talent and Production: The Great Emotional Divide
This is my seventh year studying the on-field performance of football players. I can say unequivocally that I know more about the techniques and strategy of the game than I knew when I began. I’m also beginning to realize that I have learned just as much about player evaluation during the four months I have…
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Dan Shonka Part I: Confidence and Competitiveness
Theory and practice, the ivory tower and the battleground. People will tell you that one is more beneficial than the other. I believe there’s not only a place for both, but they complement each other. I think NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell is one of the preeminent theorists of player evaluation. I call him…