Bow Tie Betting Football

Last Week:  1-2

Don’t get me started on Idaho AND LA Tech both snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ATS.  I mean Idaho not only ended up not staying close they completely fell apart when they got within 6 points.  Maybe there is a reason that Idaho is historically one of the worst teams EVER in college football.  But it’s OK – I have no business betting on West Coast teams (and LA Tech twice.)

Game 1

Ohio -6.5

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Ball State + 6.5

Again it seems the betting public has lost sight of how bad Ball State is.  I’ll give them this, they are riding high after beating a 0 win EMU team by 2 points.  Any time you beat Eastern Michigan you know you’ve done something…what that something is I’m not sure, but I know it’s something.  They have 1 friggin win…and it’s against EMU!  And you’re telling me that there is someone that thinks 6.5 points for Ball State is enough?  No.

As for Ohio they have 3 wins.  I would stop now, but I can’t.  They only real “blemish” or bad loss on their record is to Kent State…at home.  So I can kind of understand this line – and understand that there may be some concern about that loss – but I’m here to tell you Frank Solich will not let his team have 2 terrible games in a row.  The guy is actually a good coach, the idiots who fired him at Nebraska are still paying for it.  Take Ohio and thank Frank Solich.

Game 2:

Akron + 12

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NIU – 12

Let me start this by saying that I may be falling into a trap here.  I think Akron is just awful and no amount of points would ever make me bet on them, but is NIU giving up 12 points really a good line?  NIU, under Jerry Kill, is TERRIBLE against the spread when they are favored by more than 14 points!  Lucky for us it’s only 12 right?  NIU is starting their backup QB in DeMarcus Grady for a second straight week.  He can’t pass, but he can run.  That should be enough to beat Akron.

Akron isn’t awful.  I would never bet on Akron unless it’s against EMU, Miami OH or Ball State.  That said they have a very deceptive 0-5 record…well not really.  I can’t find anything nice to really say about them, Akron is only 1-4 ATS, that’s terrible.  The only fear I have is that NIU continues to come out and play flat like they did a week ago vs. Miami OH.  I don’t see that being an issue here however as the game is at home and on Halloween!

Take NIU…it’s going to be a weird game but they’ll pull it off.

Game 3:

Missouri -4

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Colorado

Let me say this Gabbert is an amazing QB at Missouri, miles ahead of where Toledo QB Tim Opelt is on the talent scale.  Tim Opelt made the Colorado secondary look like little kids, not just little kids, but like that one South Park episode where the Detriot Redwings put a hurting on Stan’s pee wee hockey squad.  Sure the kids, like Colorado, had something to play for but in the end they just couldn’t do it.

The Colorado Secondary will once again be in tears...

Colorado, what can I say nice about them…ummmmmm…well they have neat helmets.  Ummm…they also beat Wyoming who isn’t THAT bad.  Colorado has a win vs. Kansas as well.  Again – neither of those teams put the Gabbert on you.  Gabbert will hit you right in the mustache from 50 yards away with a bullet pass if he wanted to.  You can’t bet against that.

Take Mizzou, give Colorado all the points they want.

BONUS PICK:  WMU (-4) Over Kent State (+4)

Well week 1 didn’t go exactly as we had planned, the good news is that we did end up winning 1 game and can still hold our head high and our bank roll isn’t at 0.  And isn’t that what this is all about?

NC State Vs. South Carolina…

NC State was at home but still managed to look like crap.  They have what can only be described as one of the worst coaches in the history of the world.  The play calling was junk, the execution was junk, in fact just about everything they did was JUNK!  Give the Ol’ Ball Coach credit he did manage to bring NC State into his type of game.  Anything that is low scoring fits the South Carolina team to a tee!  We call this the “Chess Club Strategy” – sure they don’t do a lot of scoring, but they do win games.

The Chess Club Strategy, sure it's a slow paced game and you aren't going to do a lot of scoring, but you could win.

What about Mizzou at U of I?

Well we learned the U of I is dead.  I don’t know what happened to them after the Rose Bowl but that team is dead.  They aren’t going to come back – and with rumors of a few of their prized recruits leaving school with intent to transfer they are going to be in for a world of hurt.  They did lose offensive guru Mike Locksley to New Mexico…or New Mexico State…whatever – I’m not betting on either, but that’s no excuse for how they looked.  U of I couldn’t score, and they couldn’t stop Mizzou from scoring.  It was just an awful awful ball game.  If there is one thing to take away form this it’s that U of I is going to be awful, they are a dead team, Mizzou on the other hand may get some lines in their favor that they shouldn’t based of beating U of I.  Keep an eye on the Mizzou lines if you want a team to bet against.

NIU invades Wisconsin

Finally a game I could bold as a WIN!  Wisconsin does not look that great, Northern Illinois had some questionable play calling, and that my friends made for a fun game.  Could Northern Illinois have won this game?  Yeah, probably.  Do I care?  Nope.  They won ATS and that my friends is good enough for me.  Last year NIU started off 4-0 ATS, and I see that happening again.  With a week off the betting lines vs. WIU, Northern will invade Purdue.  Purdue had a very nice opening game victory against Toledo, a team that is going to suck this year.  But Purdue still played well.  If the line is anything like the Wisconsin line then I think taking NIU will be a good move.

Purdue starts next week vs. Oregon, so they aren’t getting the same “tune up” game NIU is getting.  In fact, Purdue is probably looking at NIU as a “Tune Up” for Notre Dame the next week.  Purdue will win the game, if the line is more than 14 they will lose ATS.

Well my friends we are 1 for 3, but fear not!  We now have an NFL section of our site that is going to be launching this week that will give you the heads up for 3 games in the NFL this week that should lead you on the right path!

Check it out:  NFL.BowtieBetting.Com
Come back on Wednesday for my week 2 picks.

So often people seem to think there is a system when picking the outcome of sporting events, and so often something like the Kentucky Derby happens.  A 50 – 1 LONGGGGGGGG shot manages to come out of no where and win the whole darn event.  The interesting thing to point out is that the 50-1 odds seem to indicate that someone, somewhere was betting on him.

So how did they do it?  Was there a system that was used that made this 50-1 long shot an obvious choice?  No.  It was simple mathmatics.  Often times some gamblers do not pick the horse/team/whatever that they think is going to win, they pick the team that has the best ROI with a decent chance to win.

What does that mean?  It means it was the Kentucky Derby, just about every horse in that race has some sort of hype behind it – be it the horses sire, or past performances, the moral of the story is that every horse had a chance.  And that was even more aparent when the early line and morning line favorite “I Want Revenge” was a late scratch.

So how does this apply to football – it’s simple really, teams that are supposed to win, don’t always win.  Not something that should be a shock to anyone, but the key is to find 3 or 4 teams to select who offer a fair ROI and have a chance in the game.  For example, Ole’ Miss v. Florida this season.  Why would anyone bet on Ole’ Miss?  Ole’ Miss is an SEC team, and for as bad as they have been they still were able to bring in some solid SEC type recruits.  They had a coach now who knows how to win in the SEC – and their QB was a transfer from Texas where he was supposed to be the next big thing, not Colt McCoy (according to Rivals Snead was only ranked slightly below Tebow.)  Couple with those factors the fact that Florida probably felt like they could walk over a team like Ole’ Miss and you have a recipe for an upset.

Now how many times does it happen that you have a recipe for an upset, and it doesn’t work out.  The favorite goes out and destroys that poor underdog – I’d say fairly often.  That’s why some would suggest you hedge your bets with 3 or 4 upsets that could happen, and not just on a miracle but based on some form of research.  Ole’ Miss is a team that you can keep your eye on as an “underdog” this season.  They have some talent, they won’t pull out a ton of wins in the SEC, but they will win SOME.

That’s just one type of “betting Theory” out there, keeping an eye on ROI not what you think is going to happen.  In fact this betting theory doesn’t suggest you bet on games you feel “good” about but games you feel least bad about.

It’s just about 24 hours before the start of the NFL draft and there are some rumors to touch on right now:

The Lions, yeah the 0-16 Lions, are rumored to be listening to the Browns about a swap of 1st round picks if the Browns toss in Brady Quinn.

Why Might this happen:  The Lions need all the help they can get, with this trade they get a Quarterback and they maintain a top 5 pick.  The Browns seem to be all kinds of in love with Mark Sanchez and this is their shot to make a pass at him.  The Browns would save a few bucks by picking up Quinn and not paying a #1 overall price to Stafford.  It also makes sense because it would seem in the first round the Browns could pick up a QB (Quinn), an OT at #5, and a MLB/CB at #20.

Why it might not happen:  The Lions are the Lions.  They seem to have a genuine interest in paying Stafford to sit behind Culpepper and a bad offensive line for a few seasons.  The Browns may also be a bit nervous about trading to #1 and grabbing a QB with all of their receiver issues at this point.  Although if you factor in a trade of Edwards to the Giants for some picks(which would be WRs) then you can see how this is starting to workout.  The reports are no one in Browns-Town seems to care for Brady Quinn.

Cardinals trade Boldin to Bears/Eagles/Giants/Jets for a 2nd and 5th.

Why it might happen:  Well it kind of has to happen.  One of those teams is going to end up ponying up the 2nd rounder for him.  The Bears are a surprise team on this list, but consider this:  With their 2nd round pick they want a receiver Boldin > Any 2nd round receiver and the Bears have the 5th rounder from Denver that was thrown in in the Cutler deal.  So the Bears are very much alive in this with everyone else.

Why it won’t happen:  It can’t not happen…can it?

Washington Redskins move up to #1 overall

Why it might happen:  This is an interesting rumor, I don’t know that the skins have the fire power (it would have to be Campbell the #13 and some change) but they seem to really hate Campbell in Washington.  The Lions could duff this all up by coming to an agreement with Stafford on terms…but it’s not like the Lions to duff it up.

Why it won’t happen:  The Lions are the Lions, they are finally getting interest in the #1 pick, from teams who don’t want the guy they want(Which should set off some alarms…), but if they come to terms with Stafford the whole deal goes kablooeee!  So would the first trade I’m talking about.  The interesting team in all of this is the Rams, everyone kind of gets the vibe that you can’t trust them to NOT take a quarterback – very interesting.

And those were just some draft trade rumors to keep an eye on a little under 24 hours before the draft.  As drafts usually go the NFL draft is the most busy in terms of trading but the trades kind of slip by the rumor mills – so I fully expect the Lions to take Stafford and a battle royale to break out between 6 teams for Sanchez (who probably goes #2 to someone…)

Roc Hoover, aka Mark Schlereth, made a complete ass out of himself today on NFL live after the Jay Cutler trade was announced when he said, “The Bear’s just got worse today…”

I want to like Mark Schlereth, the Alaskan great, but I just can’t.  When you say something as stupid as that people are going to begin to question not only your football knowledge but also your sanity.

I understand that Mark Schlereth played 12 amazing NFL seasons, but just because you can play doesn’t mean you understand the game (see:  Chris Weber and Time Outs).  The big problem I have with Roc, and ESPN, is that they let him go on the air when he was clearly a very jaded Broncos fan.  He feels like Cutler let him down, and that’s understandable, but to go on national TV and proclaim that the Bears got worse is just stupid.

I think to put an exclamation point on his stupidity Roc decided to take it a step further and say the Bears were “Just barely ahead of Detroit now in the division…”  This is the same Detroit who was 0-16, and the same Bears who were 1 half away from the playoffs?  What?  Correct me if I’m wrong but the Bears MINUS Jay Cutler were better than the Packers last season.

I think ESPN needs to gain some control over their programming again, it’s nice to parade out these former NFL players, but when the class of the NFL players who can actually do some analyst work go to the NFL network ESPN is stuck picking from the trash heap, or “The Roc Pile”.

Let’s break this trade down logically:

The Bears Get

-  Jay Cutler

-2009 5th Round Draft Pick

The Broncos Get

- Kyle Orton

- 2009 1st and 3rd round draft picks

- 2010 1st round draft pick

Let’s break it down.  The Bears got the jewel of the trade in Jay Cutler.  A 25 year old, pro bowl quaterback.  The Broncos got serviceable 26 year old, and really not a bad dude, quarterback in Kyle Orton.  If you compare just the PLAYERS in this trade the Bears robbed the Broncos, thankfully it wasn’t a straight up swap.  The first round draft pick this year from the Bears is an interesting piece.  If the Bears had held on to this pick they would have been stuck in no-mans land in terms of their needs.  The Bears NEED some receiver help, and it just wasn’t there for them in the middle-late 1st round.  With that in mind the Bears would probably have had to draft an offensive tackle, who probably wouldn’t be as good as Orlando Pace…whom the Bears signed today.  So this pick to the Bears would have been tough to use, so it was in fact expendable.  The Broncos on the other hand can really use this pick, they need help on defense and, some are saying, at quarterback.  I just don’t see it that way, the Broncos have Kyle Orton, a guy who can run the type of offense that they want to run in Denver, he has the exact same skill set as Matt Cassel, except he has more starts under his belt.  With the first round picks Denver now has, they can really start to build that defense with whatever they want, Vonte Davis anyone?  With Davis opposite Bailey than can put to rest any concerns they are going to have in that secondary, at least for this season, at corner.  And don’t forget that the Broncos signed Brian Dawkins to fill a void in their secondary (he won’t last long, but could do the job for a season or 2 when the safety class gets much better in the draft.)

The third round pick this season is probably the one that confused ol’ Roc Hoover.  This third round pick is going to be a nice pick for Denver, it’s well within the top 85 – the unofficial cut off for high level talent that slipped, and they have a lot of positions they could draft that a player in this spot can come in and start at.  The Bears did indeed give this one away, BUT Roc, they have a compensatory pick at the end of the 3rd round that they received when they lost Bernard Berrian last season.  So the Bears do still have a 3rd round pick – I see this as a wash (when you compare it to gaining Cutler this isn’t anywhere near a loss, ROC!).  At then end of the 3rd round the Bears can still grab a receiver or, if they wanted, a strong side linebacker who could come in and push for minutes right away.

The 5th round pick the Bears received could be an important part of this trade.  With this 5th rounder the Bears could grab a young offensive linemen who isn’t goin to have to do anything his first 2 or 3 seasons in the league other than sit back and learn.  (You kind of see how this is going to take the place of the first round offensive linemen who was going to have to come in and start right away Roc?)

The first rounder the Broncos get in 2010 is going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on.  If, like I think, the Bears do make the playoffs this pick is going to land somewhere in the 20′s, maybe even late 20′s, and next years draft class isn’t exactly “loaded”.  The top of the draft looks good, you have guys like Bradford and McCoy who are going to be highly sought after, but after them things look a little bit thin (at least as you head to the 20′s.)  This pick is HUGE for the Broncos if, like I suspect, they fill in their defense quite a bit in 2009 they are going to be able to use this pick more for a “want” than a need. And that is a very nice position to be sitting in.  I’d like to point out that if they fight the urge to draft a qb early in 2009 they could have their choice of the top QBs in the 2010 draft (McCoy, Bradford.)  If they have a nice season in 2009 they don’t need to worry about a quarterback, BUT even if they did they could still package their 1st rounders in 2010 and get a top QB of their liking in the draft.

So let’s review shall we?

The Bears ARE better right now, than they were 24 hours ago.  The Broncos were able to get A TON of value for a PRO BOWL quarterback.  Both sides did well, and no one was robbed here ROC.  The Bears put themselves near, if not in, the front of the NFC North.  For my money the Bears still have a very talented defense – now all this defense is going to have to do is not allow over 24 points a game and Cutler should carry the Bears to victory.  I think the Broncos now have the ability to fill a bunch of the holes that they have on their team (provided they don’t waste the picks this year on a QB.)

A Win – Win early trade recap, and that’s a fair way to look at it.  To claim that any team lost this trade is almost as dumb as the name Roc Hoover.

The Chicago Bears had a very interesting team last season.  With a squad that seemed to have no skill players on the outside or any offensive line protection they still managed to be 1 half away from making the playoffs.  And in the wacky NFC north just about anyone can make the playoffs this season (in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not sold on the Vikes at all, but wait for their preview.)

Devin Hester developed into the Bears #1 receiver, the only problem, he didn’t put up #1 receiver numbers.  I think everyone in the NFL and the bears front office seems to feel like he will this season so that is going to give the Bears flexibilty in this draft.  They don’t have to grab a receiver round one if they aren’t in love with any of them.  

On the subject of flexibility the signing of Kevin Shaffer means the Bears don’t have to go round one OT either.  

However, the Bears should pick a receiver or tackle round one, not just for value, but for the simple fact that they need players at both of those spots.

Looking at my mock draft (which will be posted sometime soon) I have the Bears hoping to take Andre Smith or Michael Oher and smiling all the way home.  The roadblock the the Bears may find is that like last season there may be a rush on tackles and if there is the top 4 should go quickly and the Bears may be stuck picking between Eben Britton and a receiver.  If this is the case I believe the Bears will probably lean towards receiver if they can grab a guy like Maclin/Britt/and MAYBE Nicks, if not look for them to go Britton.

I don’t think Harvin is on the Bears radar, he’s a slower Devin Hester, if you already have the fast version what do you want the junior varsity version for?

I think something interesting to note is that if the bears pass on an OT in the first round to draft a receiver they may pass on an OT in round 2 to draft Guard Duke Robinson.  This would be a pick the Bears brass seems to be trying to keep secret, they want a guard.  They have an aging guard and a guard they want to move to center in the near future currently manning their interior spots (although free agent Omiyale will probably take one of those spots).  The reason for the pass is the bears seem to be in love with some smaller school tackles they can grab with one of their third round picks.

Before I post my first mock draft this week I’d like to do something nice for the fans of Detroit.  I’m going to take your last place, we can’t win a game, team and turn them into a winner with a few moves before and during the NFL draft.

The first thing the Lions need to do is move from their spot at #1, I don’t think anyone in the NFL is really 100% sold on Matthew Stafford being the next great QB let alone a guy who can crack the starting lineup and perform.  Paying a quarterback #1 draft pick money is next to crazy – what I would love to see them do is strike up some sort of conversation with Denver, which they were rumored to be doing anyway, and see if they could get the #12 pick and Cutler for the #1 overall and maybe a very late rounder (or just straight up).

The next move the lions need to make is to take the St. Louis Rams up on their broadcasted offer of Holt + Pace for a mid rounder.  Why do this?  You can pair a vet receiver with young mr. Johnson and get a guy to finish out his career at RT.  I’m not saying I don’t like the Backus or Cherilus/Foster combo – but I am saying that adding those 2 guys will help out your offense more than a little.  Orlando Pace is old, but at 33 he’s probably still better than anyone else you have.

I know it’s rebuilding time, but in the NFC North you are always 1 season away from being champion.

So now you have Cutler, the #12 pick, Orlando Pace, and Tory Holt – what’s the next move?

You have the #12 pick it’s time to make it work for you.  Most likely you will have a choice at that spot of any corner you want, most likely Jenkins didn’t do himself any favors with a sub par combine so you could pick from him or Vonte Davis.  I’d suggest drafting Davis with the #12 pick.

Guess what, you still have the #20 pick!  This pick is going to be tricky, you can do 1 of 2 things with it, grab the best guy out there or fill a need – good news, you’re the lions you’ll probably end up doing both no matter what happens.  Again, a spot you would look to trade down if you could – but if by some miracle a guy like Knowshon Moreno and STILL have traded down you deserve a pat on the back.  But at this point I don’t like to look a gift horse in the mouth, you take Moreno if he is there OR you grab a defensive player that you like.  Personally I’m a fan of a guy like Ayers/English/Jerry/Mabin at this point in the round, but again it’s probably a reach.  The goal would be to trade down a few spots and settle on whatever defensive guy you can grab if you can’t get mr. Moreno.

Second round time – I would say it’s time for another move.  With the first pick in the second round someone is bound to slip and that’s when you take whatever offer you can get and slide down just a bit.  Or you can grab a guy like Jerry/mabin/ayers/english here if you went with Moreno in the first.  Which would be the ultimate high five to yourself.  The problem is that one of your huge needs is going to end up being linebacker, Paris Lennon has actually not done a terrible job for you – you’d love to wish Dizon could play football, but it just doesn’t look that way.  So you have to ask yourself at this point, need or highest rated?  Highest rated will fill a need, just not THE need.  So here’s what you do, if there wasn’t a slide guy that you wanted (read:  linebacker) you trade the pick if you can.  If not you take the best backer who is here, probably James Laurinaitis who happens to be sliding his way out of the first round.  What a great pick that would be.  That opens up a 3rd round choice of a TE – I’d go with whoever is there, probably Ingram with his missing the whole 2008 season and all.

So let’s review shall we?  If you Detroit Lions listen to me you’ll have:

QB  Jay Cutler

RB Knowshon Moreno

WR Tory Holt

OT Orlando Pace

CB Vonte Davis

LB James Laurinatis

TE Cornelious Ingram

And all of that after the 1st 3 rounds of the draft.  I assume you are going to have to give a 4th or 5th to STL and Denver to finish out those trades (maybe give them george foster back?)  Talk about an instant shot in the arm, you would be a contending team at least (in the NFC North) – and would have by far the best QB and WR in the conference.

Thank me later Detroit, or hire me as your GM…whatever is fine with me.

The corners and safties ran their 40′s yesterday, in what can only be described as the biggest disappointment in the combine this year:

Corners

***NOTES:  The fastest guy of this group was a saftey at Nicholls State.  Not exactly the type of numbers that are going to make any teams reach early for him however.  Vontae Davis probably put himself into the #1 corner slot.  Malcom Jenkins was so slow it hurt everyone who was watching.  A very thin year for corners, I’m not sure if I was a GM that I would draft and pay any of these guys first rounder money.  The free agent class may be better than the rookie class for the first time in a long time.

Safties

***NOTES:  Clemons…from Clemson…probably did himself the most good at the combine.  In my mind he moved ahead of Delmas out of Western Michigan, who didn’t show up in the top 5 40 times.  Burton out of ND really suprised me, you would think with their pass defense none of their guys could run.

Overall it was a terrible day for DBs, and as I was saying all along, USC really proved to have some of the most overrated guys in the world when their DBs hit the field.  Cary Harris, the corner from USC who has been on the rise for a few weeks now, saw his stock fall harder than anyone in the DOW with a 4.65 40 time.  You just can’t play a ton of corner with that time.  USC safety Kevin Ellison ran a 4.88 40…Which is good if he wanted to play some defensive tackle.  Again, this is going to be a bad year to draft a first round DB.  Outside of Davis, and I don’t really think Davis is that great, there isn’t a first rounder to be found.

Now that all position groups have run their 40 yard dashes here are the top times in each group:

Quarterback

*** Notes:  No real suprises with this group, a lot of big guys who were not really expected to be the best movers out there.  I think Willy, Painter, Bomar and Stafford all did better thana lot of us probably expected.  From time to time those guys seem to be statues out there in the pocket, maybe it speaks more to their pocket presence than anything else.  If you had to ask me, that’s probably a lot worse than being slow.

Running Backs

***Notes:  This group was full of suprises for me, when is the last time that you recall the projected top 2 backs in the upcoming draft did not finish in the Top 10 40 times?  You would have liked to have had a few of these backs go a little bit faster, the big suprise in the Top 11 had to be Ian Johnson, or the fact Knowshown Moreno didn’t show up on the list.  You would have liked a better time out of Kory Sheets, at least if you were his agent.  Glen Coffee was a nice suprise up near the top – and Marlon Lucky needed to be a top 10 40 yard dash guy to get drafed, and he was.  Once again these 40 times were subpar as a group.

Wide Receivers

***Notes:  This was a nice group full of  surprises. Percy Harvin?  Where was your top of the line speed?  For a kid who has to play in space to be worth anything in the NFL he doesn’t have the Top Line speed that you would want out of a player like him.  If I had to pick one receiver that was under 6’0 to draft in the first round it would be Deon Butler.  Harvin may have ran himself off of a few draft boards (cough * bears * cough)

Tight Ends

*** Notes:  A pretty standard group in terms of speed at the combine, no real “burners” but Cook was a suprise.  A bigger guy who has that kind of straight line speed may have run himself into the first day for sure, maybe even the first.  Ingram was someone you would have liked to have seen run better – he wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t under the 4.65 you like to see out of a pass catcher.  Shawn Nelson is the class of the TEs.

Offensive Linemen

***Notes:  This doesn’t really mean to much to anyone, it’s nice to see your guy move a little bit, and Fulton, Meredith, and Murtha gained some bonus points.

Defensive Linemen

***Notes:  Some of these guys are going to see life as a rush end, some are going to be draftable in the 3-4.  Larry English should be on this list at 4.77 – but he will be recorded as a linebacker.  Sidbury needed that time, speed has been a little bit of a question about this guy, but he did great.  Not really a group of burners but not bad at all.

Linebackers

***Notes:  Remember when I said that USC has the most overrated group at this draft?  I feel that way more than ever after seeing some of these 40 times.  Cushing?  You can’t come in at a 4.74, with his durabilty questions and lack of speed he really didn’t do himself any favors.  Curry just made himself the #1 backer in the draft easily.  Clay Matthews, USC, did a better than expected job – I currently like him the most out of all the USC backers.  6’3 240 is MAYBE a little small to play a SAM backer so he may be looking at a rush end or a 3-4 outside backer.  But he really did a great job to jump ahead of some guys with his performance (I’m not sure they are going to move him ahead of his teammates on any draftboards, but they should).

Those were the 40 times in this years combine.  Stay tuned tomorrow when we talk about the bench press, and add the DBs to the 40 mix.  A quick note, Pat White NEEDED that 40 time to get drafted, anything slower than 4.65 he would have been hard to draft early, but now he can be a legit reciever in the NFL.  That is of course if a team doesn’t want him to play any QB.  I think he’d be worth giving a shot at QB.

In a move that can only drum up good will from males in the age demographic, 18 – 25, Navy superintendent Jeff Fowler decided last Friday that Eric Kettani will not be allowed to attend the NFL combine.

Eric Kettani has another 5 years left to give to the Navy after he graduates – but NFL teams knew that and still wanted to work him out.  Check out what his agent said:

“We respect the decision of the U.S. Navy,” Chad Wiestling, Kettani’s agent, told the Baltimore Sun. “I know Eric is very disappointed in the decision. What the combine basically is, it’s a job interview. My take on it is that the Navy is denying him an opportunity to interview for a post-military career, whether right or wrong.”

And he’s right.  It’s not like the Navy, or military for that matter, has been oozing with good will over the past 5 or so years, this would have been a chance to just let a kid workout, build up some good will, and tell the NFL they can see him in 5 years.

I understand that Eric Kettani will be an officer in the Navy, so it’s not exactly like not letting him workout at the combine is going to hurt the sizes of classes at the Naval academy – but it will hurt their recruiting of guys who aren’t going to be officers.  Males 18 – 25 like football, I don’t know if the Navy knows that or not, or I guess more specifically if Jeff Fowler knows that or not, but it’s a fact.  And guess what demographic the Navy recruits from?  That’s right sports fans Males 18 – 25.

I think this is a terrible choice, it’s not like anyone was asking to let Kettani be allowed to play this year, they just wanted to let him workout.  Yeah, kind of like just letting him practice like he was going to be an NFL player, and you know what AI thinks about practice!

Some dudes don’t even like Practice!!!!  And all this guy wanted to do was practice.

Well that’s my rant on the combines “opening” day.  Basically the day the guys report and get their stuff taken care of.  The real events start up on Friday.