It's the latest internet webcam sensation that has taken over the BOL crew. Google is bidding for some sweet telecom patents, but is anyone bidding on MySpace? We don't think so. Plus, Computer Love returns to brighten up this Monday.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 1440

NEWS

Team From Engadget Makes Jump to SB Nation
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/business/media/04carr.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://joshuatopolsky.com/post/4327161218/this-is-my-next-project
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110403/sb-nation-sacks-aol-in-raid-of-former-engadget-team-for-competing-new-tech-site/

IT’S OFFICIAL: AOL Fires Freelancers
http://www.businessinsider.com/aol-fires-freelancers-2011-4?op=1

JPMorgan, Kroger, Capital One, TiVo Warn of E-Mail Breaches
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-02/jpmorgan-kroger-capital-one-tivo-warn-of-e-mail-breaches.html

Google bids $900 million for 6,000 Nortel telecom patents
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-bids-900-million-for-6000-nortel-telecom-patents/46878
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/patents-and-innovation.html

Myspace Bake-Off Starts Wednesday and-Despite Reports-No Bidder in Lead (and No Zynga Interest Either)
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110404/myspace-bake-off-starts-wednesday-and-despite-reports-no-bidder-in-lead-and-no-zynga-interest-either/

Microsoft’s Windows 8 recipe: Hint of Office, dash of Xbox, ounce of Windows Phone http://www.geekwire.com/2011/windows-8-ribbon-tiles-hints-early-leaks
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/04/leaked-windows-8-screenshot-hints-at-easy-file-sharing-syncing/

Howard Stringer says Sony image sensors delayed for Apple's iPhone (updated)
http://www.9to5mac.com/59019/howard-stringer-says-sony-image-sensors-delayed-for-apples-ipad/

OmniVision shares dip 11 pct on fears of iPhone contract loss
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/04/us-omnivision-shares-idUSTRE7333C520110404

Sony’s Howard Stringer confirms Honeycomb tablet in US by summer
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/04/sonys-howard-stringer-confirms-honeycomb-tablet-in-us-by-summer/

Momentum building for online piracy laws
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/153457-momentum-building-for-online-piracy-legislation

AT&T CEO On T-Mobile Softball Question World Tour
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/ATT-CEO-On-TMobile-Softball-Question-World-Tour-113529

Quick Hits

Promoting Science, and Google, to Students
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/technology/04fair.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Cablevision Launching iPad TV Viewing App
http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/04/cablevision-launches-tv-viewing-app-for-ipad-marketnewsvideo.html

AT&T raises prices on iPhone early upgrades by $50
http://www.androidcentral.com/early-upgrade-price-changes-coming-att-rumor

How To Turn Your Amazon Cloud Drive Into A Network Drive Just Like Dropbox
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-cloud-drive-for-windows-2011-4

Science News

New Dinosaur Species Found In China
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/dinosaurs/8420106/T-Rexs-cousin-found-in-China.html

Happy Ending

Millions drop in online to watch Decorah eagles
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/04/earlyshow/living/petplanet/main20050305.shtml
http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/

Google’s Gmail Motion Prank Turned Into Reality [VIDEO]
http://mashable.com/2011/04/04/gmail-motion-prank-reality/

EMAILS

Hey guys! My day idea is “old tech rememberence day” -a day to remeber all the has been tech like Palm. Love the show! Tom W. Livonia, MI

Hello it’s Alaa

We should have the “”Molly’s Rant Day”" :D

Alaa Hamade
Sent from my iPhone

—–

COMPUTER LOVE

Ok so after this girl i really liked broke up with her boyfriend I waited for about a week and decided to ask after i thought she really liked me i mean she was all over me, flirting and so on. So i decided to take the buzz out loud MOLLY WOOD advice and ask her. Her reply was understandable. Reply: “”I am still geting over Garett!”"
So i thought she ment it and she still acted like she liked me i thought i could just wait a little and ask her again until she was completly over him. So i waited a week and found out that she was starting to see someone else. She stopped talking to me and told me i should date her best freind. (freind is not very atractive and not my personality). I got kinda mad and tried to not think about her because i knew she didn’t like me.
Now 4-5 months later she has broken up with her boyfreind, that by the way is one of my mutual freinds and is even flurtier than before. I decided to get some help. YOU GUYS!!! Tell me what you think should, I let her make the move this time or should i so she doesn’t think i dont like her any more?” bt

—–

Dear ComputerLove@BOL,

After raising my children as a single parent for 10 years, I decided it was time to start dating again, but my busy schedule was my enemy. I decided to address the problem with technology, specifically on-line dating. After a few failed attempts, I met a very special woman on eHarmony. The eHarmony process normally takes several days to weeks to get through, but we did it a single day, and began openly emailing each other. Our hectic schedules made it exceedingly difficult to find time to meet face to face. After several weeks, we agreed to meet for the first time at her house (brave move on her part), so I made the 1.5 mile commute to her home. Yes, that’s right, technology helped me find the love of my life in my own back yard. When we met, that all-allusive “”click”" was felt almost immediately. Subsequent conversations lead to us finding out that: our kids attended the same schools, we have been frequenting many of the same local hot spots, we had even used the same divorce attorney. We often laugh as the we discover how many times we may have crossed paths without being able to connect. We owe a great thanks to 21st century technology!

Dr Wendy Walsh had mentioned on your podcast that people 100 years ago would have to marry someone within a one mile radius of their home. It seems that advanced technology has only increased my range about a half mile, but I couldn’t be happier. We have fallen deeply in love, but we never would have found each other, were it not for Computer Love.

<3 the show!

Robert
Wheaton, IL

PS
Is it just me, or does the new iPad have an Orwellian feel to it, almost like a small telescreen? Good thing Steve Jobs doesn't have dictator tendencies . . . oh, wait . . .

Apple: Doublethink different.

—–

http://bol.cnet.com, 800-616-2638 (CNET), buzz@cnet.com

Follow us on Twitter: @mollywood @brian_tong @stephenbeacham

Brock Lesnar doesn't go anywhere without drawing eyeballs. When you stand 6'4" and weigh 270 pounds it's bound to attract notice. Even more so when you're blessed with the genetics to carry that much weight with less than 10 percent body fat. Brock Lesnar, in short, is a physical freak.

In amateur wrestling, where Lesnar shined, physique isn't enough. Those tools and water logged muscles have to translate into purposeful action, what physical scientists call functional movement. Here, Lesnar was equally blessed. Growing up in Webster, South Dakota, Lesnar is farm boy strong. Without the money for a weight set, he improvised, making his own weights out of rocks and 55 gallon drums.

But it wasn't strength alone that has carried Lesnar to athletic glory. He's also fleet of foot and surprisingly fast. He runs the 40 yard dash in under 4.7 seconds and has a vertical leap of 35 inches. He's an amazing specimen, one with a natural showman's flair.

Lesnar used his gifts to help bridge two worlds - sports and entertainment. He studied under two masters, J Robinson at the University of Minnesota (where he won an NCAA championship in 2000) and the P.T. Barnum of his era, the incomparable WWE owner Vince McMahon.

In the world of professional wrestling, his look and physical style made him a star. Former WWE executive Jim Ross claims Lesnar was not just the youngest world champion in company history, he also got to the rarefied seven figure salary club in record time. No one who saw him in action could ever forget Lesnar's iconic moments. Whether he was landing on his head in a botched shooting star press at Wrestlemania XIX against fellow amateur standout Kurt Angle or hefting the 500 pound Big Show onto his shoulders for his signature F-5, Lesnar made his mark in the wrestling industry. He was a millionaire by his mid-20's, bored, exhausted, and ready for a challenge.

His first attempt at renewing his athletic glory was in the NFL. But almost ten years removed from a high school football career that ended with no major scholarship offers, Lesnar didn't have the football skill to make it at the highest level, despite metrics that compared favorably to the very top first round picks. He washed out of training camp with the Minnesota Vikings and then turned down an offer to play in NFL Europe. NFL Europe players made tens of thousands of dollars for an entire season. Lesnar was used to making that for a single week in his WWE prime. He needed something to pay the bills.

After the break, Lesnar makes his mark in the UFC

Today, it's likely Lesnar would have never stepped into the WWE ring or the NFL practice field. Amateur champions like Ben Askren and Phil Davis are making immediate attempts at MMA stardom, and as I wrote at UGO.com, Lesnar was the kind of wrestler who excels in mixed martial arts:

When Brock Lesnar joined the WWE out of college, MMA was not a real option. The UFC was struggling to survive and there just wasn't enough money in the sport to compete with Vince McMahon's millions. But Brock Lesnar was made for MMA: he's a power wrestler, an enormous monster of a man, and he has a mean streak. His first fight, as he built his skills for an inevitable UFC debut, was for Japan's K-1 for a show at the mammoth LA Coliseum. "I'm an amateur wrestler first of all, pro wrestler second. There was a little pressure, but my amateur wrestling is who I am and I'm going to evolve into a fighter," Lesnar said. "Unfortunately I have this black cloud over my head because I was a pro wrestler. It just goes to show that even thought pro wrestling is a scripted sport it is entertainment, this is entertainment but its real when I get in the ring."

 

His debut behind him, Lesnar was ready for the big leagues - the UFC. He was thrown in the deep end immediately, matched with former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 81. Although he lost in just a minute and a half, Lesnar made his presence felt, bum rushing Mir and nearly beating him to a pulp before being caught in a kneebar submission. It was an amateur mistake, one time in the cage would help fix. Mir may have won the bout, but the world saw a future champion that night. It seemed a matter of time.

After literally riding veteran Heath Herring like a stallion at UFC 87 in his adopted home state of Minnesota, Lesnar won UFC gold by beating a game but undersized Randy Couture at UFC 91 in Las Vegas. Just four fights into his career and Lesnar was champion in a new sport, adding MMA gold to his collection of amateur and professional wrestling championships. 

A rematch with Mir followed, this time dominated by Lesnar. Now wary of Mir's submission game, Lesnar showed improved technical skills as he negated the former champ's ground based attack. The rhetoric between the two had grown heated and after his convincing win, Lesnar let the spittle fly, yelling at a shell shocked Mir, insulting the UFC's top sponsor Bud Light, and shooting the bird at the world. Perhaps not his finest moment, but one that crystallized what MMA was to sport's fans who may have seen highlights on ESPN - aggressive, young, and maybe a little out of control.

After the Mir win, the sky seemed to be the limit for Lesnar. UFC 100 had made the promotion more money than any show in its history, and Lesnar was clearly the sport's biggest star. Unfortunately, sports took a back seat to medical drama, as illness kept the champion out of the cage for almost an entire year. In a story that included a desperate race across the border to avoid Canadian healthcare, a hole in his stomach, and a minor miracle, Lesnar survived what could have been a potentially life changing illness.

Upon his return at UFC 116, the angry Lesnar was replaced with a more introspective man. What he gained in happiness, he seemed to lose in the cage. Lesnar was absolutely wrecked by Shane Carwin, kind of a minor league version of Lesnar himself, a hard hitting wrestler who had had success at the lower levels of the sport. Lesnar survived a scare, only coming back to win when Carwin was too exhausted to hit him anymore.

It was a warning sign many missed in the aftermath. Lesnar had won an incredibly dramatic and compelling fight with Carwin. That he had looked less than his best in doing so seemed lost on some. It was clear, however, that Lesnar wasn't the same fighter when he took on undefeated challenger Cain Velasquez. Velasquez beat him so resoundingly some even called Lesnar's desire to be a fighter into question:

Brock Lesnar has all the tools to dominate UFC competition. He's physically overpowering, with strong wrestling and giant hands, tailor-made for clubbering. What he doesn't have is the heart of a warrior. That's not a critique of his value as a person. It's a natural reaction to cringe and defend when a huge fighter like Cain Velasquez is pummeling you. But it's not the right reaction for a man who wants to be the Ultimate Fighting champion.

For Lesnar, the weakness might not even be mental. It could be, like many promising fighters past and present, he just can't take the blows. Tonight he took a glancing blow from Velasquez, careened into his hip, then stumbled around the cage like a drunk at last call (or like Zab Judah after being knocked silly by Kosta Tszyu). It wasn't dignified, but it was certainly memorable.

Now Lesnar is back. For the first time he's starring in the UFC's seminal reality show The Ultimate Fighter. It's a move designed to rehabilitate Lesnar's image, while the subsequent fight with striker Junior dos Santos is designed to rehabilitate his status as a top heavyweight contender. The winner gets a shot at Velasquez, currently on the shelf with a torn rotator cuff. There's a lot at stake in the Lesnar- dos Santos fight, both for the former champion and the sport as a whole. Follow the action starting Wednesday on Spike TV.

Jonathan Snowden is the author of Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting and The MMA Encyclopedia. He writes regularly for Bloody Elbow.

The Atlanta Falcons are in for a surprise on Monday night in the Georgia Dome; especially if they expect to see the same New Orleans Saints that handed them the week three victory with Garrett Hartley missing a chip shot 29 yard field goal in overtime. The last meeting between the two NFC South rivals saw a markedly different New Orleans Saints, as a lot has transpired since then.

Three key players have emerged as integral parts of the Saints Super Bowl defending squad, rookie running back Chris Ivory, 2008 first round draft pick defensive back Malcolm Jenkins, and rookie tight end Jimmy Graham.

Reggie Bush went down in week two, prior to the last meeting, with a broken fibula and Pierre Thomas was injured during the last meeting with a mysterious, slow-healing ankle sprain. They were inactive for eight and nine games respectively. Chris Ivory, who began the season on the inactive list, has since become the Saints’ leading rusher and the primary short yardage back.

Chris Ivory rarely gets stopped for a loss, and not since the departure of Deuce McAllister have the Saints had so much confidence in their short yardage running game. Ivory has shown versatility as well, having a formidable combination of bruising power and breakaway speed. He’s been nominated twice for Rookie of the Week, earning it once, and has multiple 100+ yard games along with 5 touchdowns and a 5.3 per carry average.

Drew Brees is probably the biggest beneficiary of the Chris Ivory factor. Despite his 365 yard, 3 touchdown effort vs. the Falcons, Brees’ aerial attack has really come alive since then. The effective running game has opened up the play-action passing game that makes the Saints offense so lethal.

Among active quarterbacks, Drew Brees is tied with Tom Brady for 1st in touchdown passes with 31, third in overall passing yards with 4122, third in yards per game with 294.4, fifth in 40+ yard passing plays with 10, and leading the NFL with a 68.5% completion rate. Needless to say, the offensive juggernaut is back.

With play action back on the menu, Drew Brees has found yet another target to add to his embarrassingly rich arsenal of reliable receivers, rookie tight end Jimmy Graham. A matchup nightmare for defenses, the former University of Miami basketball standout has 25 receptions for 315 yards and three touchdowns.

His size alone, 6’ 7”, 260lbs, makes him difficult to cover, but his uncanny athleticism makes him nearly impossible to cover. For the a little lagniappe, Jimmy Graham runs a 4.53 in the 40 yard dash. He’s been a quick study under the tutelage of four time Pro Bowl tight end Jeremy Shockey.

Pro Bowl free safety Darren Sharper, who led the team in interceptions last season, began the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. In his absence, 2008 first round draft pick, Malcolm Jenkins, has quickly mastered the position and become a major play maker.

The Malcolm Jenkins from week three was clearly learning to play a starting role in Gregg Williams’ complicated defensive scheme. Since then, Jenkins has proven his mettle by twice earning the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Week.

His first POW honors was a result of his aggressive play at Cowboy Stadium in week 12 where helped rip victory from the jaws of defeat by causing and recovering a fumble he ripped from Roy Williams’ grasp as he sprinted for the end zone. Drew Brees and the offense seized their one last opportunity to steal a victory with a quick strike touchdown drive. His second POW honors came two weeks later at the Bengals where he had two interceptions, including one he returned 96 yards for a touchdown. Both Sharper and Jenkins will be on the field Monday night.

Needless to say, The Saints have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to exact revenge for the painful loss sustained at home in week three. The Falcons have quietly put together a very successful season, entering the game at 12-2. The Saints(10-4), however, aren’t intimidated by their record.

As the experienced, battle-tested Super Bowl defending Champion, the Saints know who they are, know what they’re capable of, and intend to show the world that the New Orleans Saints are still the NFC top dog.

For the Saints, the playoffs begin Monday night in Atlanta with a convincing victory over the NFC’s top ranked team. From there, the Saints go marching right on in to Super Bowl XLV.

Jayson Werth, just signed by the Washington Nationals as a free agent, is the grandson of "Ducky" Schofield. I wrote about Schofield's exploits with the 1960 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates here.

Werth's mother (and Ducky's daugther) is Kim Schofield Werth, who competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the long jump and 100 meters. I'm told that she holds the world record for women in the 100 yard dash. Of course, that event hasn't been contested for decades (nowadays sprinters run 100 meters instead).

Werth's father, Jeff Gowan, led all Division I wide receivers in receptions playing for Illinois State University in 1976. He later played in the St. Louis Cardinals' minor-league system. Werth's step-father, Dennis Werth, played for the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees.

Werth's uncle is Dick Schofield. a long-time major league infielder, who played mostly for the California Angels.

Ducky Schofield, Dick Schofield, and Jayson Werth all have World Series rings. However, Dick Schofield wasn't active for the 1993 World Series, which was won by Toronto for whom he played that year.

Here I was having an pretty blah Tuesday. Just back from taking my sick (again) cat to the vet, working at my desk, a little hungry, a little grouchy from the heat even with the A/C on inside -- yes, it's 100 degrees here on this 28th day of September -- watching the minutes tick away before I need to go pick up both boys.

And then I stumbled upon on an article on NPR that filled my heart with joy and subsequently, via an iPhone app, made my afternoon more colorful.

The article? It was a quick bit about a man, a legally blind man, and how a simple $0.99 iPhone app opened up a whole rich and beautiful world to him that he had never known.

It started like this: "Last Wednesday, my life changed forever. I got an iPhone."

Austin Seraphin, who is legally blind and can only see "in blurs, and objects don't really have a color, just light sources" recently reviewed a new iPhone app called Color Identifier that uses the iPhone's camera to detect colors and then speaks the color aloud. For Austin, everything changed in an instant.

On his blog Behind the Curtain, Austin writes:

"I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as "Horizon," "Outer Space," and many shades of blue and gray. I used color cues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone. I spent ten minutes looking at my pumpkin plants, with their leaves of green and lemon-ginger. I then roamed my yard, and saw a blue flower. I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened. The next night, I had a conversation with mom about how the sky looked bluer tonight. Since I can see some light and color, I think hearing the color names can help nudge my perception, and enhance my visual experience."

I'm not legally blind, but still I wondered, could this Color Identifier app do something to change my observations of the day? Could it turn an otherwise *meh* Tuesday into something more? I downloaded it to find out.

In just a few clicks, suddenly my yellow notepad full of work scribbles became Lime Dash and the boring gray sundress I was wearing became a lovely River Bed. The top of my desk, Don Juan. Oh my. It does get a whole lot of action. The sky out the window, out there in the 100-degree heat, Cornflower Blue. Wow. That sky really was Cornflower Blue. Gorgeously Cornflower Blue, and just think, I almost missed it.

I went further. My sick black cat was suddenly Mine Shaft. My tired brown eyes Coffee Bean. The big hot white ball of sunshine outside Ceramic but its beams Romance. Hmmm. This was working for me. Everything looked different all the sudden.

Later, in the car after picking up my super-cranky 7-year-old from afterschool care, I checked and he was Astronaut. Yes, blasting off into space, I see ... and I was here to watch him soar. And still there when he came back down to Earth. When we picked up my 3-year-old from daycare and he promptly used his lunchbox to bop his brother in the nose, I sighed, aimed the iPhone and realized he was glowing in Treehouse. Treehouse. Yes, that place where we can all hide away and feel safe. Safe enough to bop each other, even if it's not without consequence, and cry all the way home. Treehouse, where we can finally act how we really feel inside.

Once finally home, tired, dragging, and the crying mostly done, we made our way from the car to the house. In my arms, no longer baby boys but their artwork and big boy sweatshirts and lunch boxes, now empty of whole sandwiches. My 7-year-old hopped all the way to the door, his legs long and getting strong. My 3-year-old picked up a sawtooth acorn off the driveway. He said he would take it for share day. The days are passing us by so fast these days. Floating away from me the way the brown crackling leaves will once fall finally makes it start.

I put my key in the lock and pushed open the door and the boys pushed past me inside. I juggled all the stuff in my arms, aimed the iPhone into the front door, and closed my eyes to listen. "Envy," the app said, and I opened my eyes and for a moment, I could see.

Image via Evil Erin/Flickr

From Brandon Marshall, to Dez Bryant, to quarterback Tim Tebow, it seems like Denver Broncos rookie wide receiver Demaryius Thomas couldn't buy a headline from anyone this offseason.

Being overshadowed by Marshall is understandable enough, but I doubt people would really know without looking it up that Thomas was actually drafted ahead of both Bryant and Tebow back in April.

When the Broncos traded back multiple times in April's draft, I thought for sure they would snag Oklahoma State product Dez Bryant with the 23rd pick.  After all, head coach Josh McDaniels had nothing but good things to say about Bryant in a pre-draft interview, and it appeared as though he would be a steal with the pick the Broncos had.  When they jumped in front of the Ravens and traded picks with the Patriots, I knew something was up.

When I read the Tweet saying the pick was Demaryius Thomas, I was stunned, to put it lightly.  Why would the Broncos take Thomas over Bryant at this point in the draft?  Bryant would have been an absolute bargain, and Thomas had been injured leading all the way up to the draft.

I went back to my draft evaluations, pondering the pick.  I looked at scouting reports of the two players, and tried to determine why the Broncos had taken the lesser known Thomas over the big name.  It became very clear shortly why Denver made Thomas the top receiver selected in the 2010 NFL Draft, and he's turned into one of the best kept secrets in all of the NFL.

At Georgia Tech, Thomas had a career year in his junior season, catching 46 passes for 1,154 yards and eight touchdowns.  For those not in the know, that's an average of over 25 yards per reception.  What makes Thomas' production last year at Georgia Tech even more amazing?  The Yellow Jackets run the triple option as their offensive set.  It is heavily reliant upon having a running quarterback as well as a powerful running back.  Wide receivers are most certainly not supposed to be productive in this type of offense.

As we saw with Calvin Johnson, Demaryius Thomas is simply a special player, and he made the most of his opportunities.  Despite Tech averaging over 300 yards rushing per game, he was still able to put together a 1,000 yard season at the wide receiver position, and that is nothing short of stunning.

Still, there were questions surrounding Thomas.  Would his foot be able to stay healthy?  Would he be able to learn how to run NFL routes?

Two things that Thomas possesses as a prospect, coaches simply cannot teach receivers at this stage of the game. 

The first asset Thomas has that not many receivers have coming out of college is his fantastic blocking abilities.  Coming out of the triple option offense, Thomas was asked to block a lot, and he's well versed in that regard already, and that's one less thing coaches have to worry about.  Instead of coaching him on his blocking all the time, the Broncos can focus on making Thomas into a better receiver.

The other asset is his intelligence, and I'll tag humility along with it.  To say Thomas grew up in a bad situation is putting it lightly.  At the age of 13, Thomas' grandmother was sentenced to 40 years in jail for drug dealing, and his mother was sentenced 20 for being involved with it financially.  Demaryius moved around with some of his relatives, first with his grandmother's youngest daughter.  He finally settled in with his grandmother's oldest daughter and her husband who is a preacher.

Thomas said when he made the final move, he decided to start living his life the right way, and said that he became a Christian and vowed to always stick to his word.  He said one of the things he told his mother was that someday, he would go pro in some professional sport, whether it was basketball or football.  That promise was fulfilled when the Broncos selected Thomas with the 22nd pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.

I say Thomas has intelligence, and that is backed up with facts.  Thomas had the 10th highest wonderlic score of any player at the NFL scouting combine with a score of 34, which is well above the average for a wide receiver.  His humility is very easily detected in his demeanor.  He is a quiet player who lets his play do the talking. 

Another thing coaches can't teach?  Speed.  Thomas reportedly was running a 40 yard dash in the 4.36-4.38 range prior to his foot injury.  At 6'3" 229 pounds, the only other receivers in the NFL who might possess that kind of size/speed ratio are Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and Calvin Johnson.  It's almost unheard of.

Certainly, Thomas is an interesting athletic specimen, but he's having trouble staying on the field.  He missed quite a bit of the Broncos' OTA's this offseason, and when he finally got to camp, he re-injured his foot at the Invesco Field practice (on a touchdown catch, no less). 

When Thomas finally came back from that minor tweak, he tweaked his foot again in practice and was held out not just the entire preseason, but he was inactive for the Broncos' week one matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Thomas is again getting healthy, and hopefully the Broncos have allowed enough time this time around for his foot to fully heal.  He has been a full participant in practice this week, but he admitted earlier on that he still might be a couple of weeks away.  Head coach Josh McDaniels was more optimistic about Thomas' return, giving hope that the rookie could possibly suit up for his first game this weekend when the Broncos host the Seattle Seahawks.

Whatever the outcome, the Broncos simply need to wait until Thomas is at 100 percent.  He is going to be an asset to this team when he is fully healthy, and outside of his broken foot in the offseason, Thomas had absolutely no trouble staying healthy at Georgia Tech and is not by any means an injury prone receiver, and hopefully it doesn't become that way either.

What the Broncos lost in Brandon Marshall, they gained back everything and then some in the talent of Demaryius Thomas.  He was absolutely dominant for the most part at camp, and caught two touchdown passes in scrimmage action at the Invesco Field practice before he re- aggravated the foot injury. 

Still, nobody in the NFL seems to be talking about him.  That's good news for the Broncos, who would just as soon keep Thomas one of the NFL's best kept secrets and unleash him at the expense of an unexpecting opponent.

Thomas was the first receiver selected for a reason.  This week might be the first that NFL fans get to experience exactly why.

There is an influx of little men in the 2010 NFL season expected to make significant impact. Darren Sproles of the San Diego Chargers has been making an impact with his team since 2005. He excels on special teams, but also makes a contribution on offense as well as a 5'6" running back.

Dexter McCluster is said to stand 5'8" , though some say he is shorter, and weighs 170 pounds. He was drafted in the second round by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2010. Though he is listed as a kick returner, running back, and wide receiver, the Chiefs are expected to use him in a variety of ways.

Brandon Banks reportedly stands 5'7" and weighs just 149 pounds. He joined the Washington Redskins as an undrafted free agent rookie this year, and has done well returning punts. He scored on an electric 77-yard return, but has a propensity to fumble. He coughed up the ball three times in preseason.

Trindon Holliday tips the scales at 5'5" and 165 pounds. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 2010 draft by the Houston Texans. Considered one of the fastest men ever in college football, he hurt his thumb in the preseason and will miss the rest of the year.

This recent influx of tiny players is nothing new for the league, but has been seen less and less over the past few decades. The 1980's had Joe Morris, Stump Mitchell and Lionel "Train"James, three smaller running backs. Morris was listed at 5'7" and played with the New York Giants from 1982 to 1988. He went to the Pro Bowl twice, ran for over 1,000 yards three times, and led the NFL with 21 touchdown runs in 1985. He ran for a career best 1,516 yards the next year, helping the Giants get to Super Bowl XXI. He scored once in the New York victory over the Denver Broncos. He attempted to play for the Cleveland Browns in 1991, then retired.

His younger brother Jamie, also listed at 5'7", played three years in the NFL. He once carried the ball a whopping 45 times for 152 yards in a game for the Washington Redskins during the 1988 season. It is still an NFL record for the most carries in a single game.

 


The Redskins loved to use small running backs in that era. Reggie Brooks stood 5'8", and gained 1,063 yards during his 1993 rookie year. Keith Griffin also stood 5'8", and was an important reserve who helped the team capture Super Bowl XXII.

James, like Sproles, stood 5'6" and played for the San Diego Chargers from 1984 to 1988. He led the NFL in kickoff returns and yards as a rookie before playing his way into the starting lineup the next year. He led the league with a then NFL record 2,535 all purpose yards. He had 1,027 yards receiving, which was then a record for a running back, on 86 catches. He once gained 345 yards in a single games as well.

Mitchell, who played with the Saint Louis Cardinals from 1981 to 1989, was said to have been shorter than his listed height of 5'9". He led the NFL in kickoff return yards as a rookie, and became a 1,000 yard running back five years later after averaging a NFL best 5.5 yards per carry.

Buddy Young is easily the most famous small player in pro football history, standing just 5'4" and weighing 175 pound. He join the New York Yankees of the All American Football Conference, the precursor to the NFL Colts franchise, in 1947.


Known as "The Bronze Bullet", Young was considered one of the greatest football players of that era. He was an All-American in his freshman year at the University of Illinois after equalling several of Red Grange's school records, including touchdowns scored in a single season. Like many players, he then had to joined the military to serve because of World War 2 after his freshman season.


When he fulfilled his obligations in 1946, he spurned offers to turn pro and returned to Illinois. Young then helped them win the Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl. He was also an All-American in track. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.


Young was a trailblazer, being one of a few African-American players to play professional football then. He joined the Yankees and formed one of the more electrifying backfield tandems in pro football with Spec Sanders and gained a career best 712 yards on 116 carries, a 6.1 yards per carry average, as a rookie playing fullback. Young was also a superb return specialist. In his first year, he scored a touchdown on both a punt return and kickoff return. He was fifth in the AAFC in total yards, and was named Second Team All-AAFC that season.


The Yankees became the New York Yanks in 1950, then became the Dallas Texans in 1952, and he stayed with the team even though bigotry in Texas was so bad that season the team had to play many of their home games in Hershey, Pennsylvania and Akron, Ohio. He still led the NFL with 23 kick returns for 643 yards for a team that failed to win a single game.


The Texans became the Baltimore Colts the next year, and Young was still with the team. He returned 11 kicks for 378 yards, a career high 34.4 yards per return average, and scored on a 104 yard return. It was the second longest return in NFL history at the time, and is still the 13th longest ever.


He made his lone Pro Bowl squad in 1954. His last season as a player was in 1955. He then retired and became the first Colt to have his jersey retired. He continued to break new ground after retirement. Young became the first African-American to be hired as an executive by the NFL, and later was named Director of Player Relations.


Buddy Young was a tough man who preferred to play without a face mask and hardly any pads. He was the fastest player in the FL at one time, and once tied the 60-yard indoor dash record of 6.1 seconds. He even beat a race horse in a 100 yard dash while with the Colts.


The shortest player in NFL history was Jack "Soapy" Shapiro of the the 1929 Staten Island Stapletons. He stood five foot and a half inch, weighing just 119 pounds. Though he is officially recognized to have played blocking back in one game, records in those days were poorly kept. Shapiro clams he was with the team three regular season games and two exhibition games, playing in three games total.


There have been diminutive quarterbacks that excelled in the NFL. Eddie LeBaron supposedly stood 5'9", but reportedly was closer to 5'7", and weighed 168 pounds. The tenth round draft choice lasted 11 seasons in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl four times.

Davey O'Brien stood 5'7", weighing 151 pounds, and was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1939 after winning the Heisman Trophy. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie before suddenly retired to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and there is an award named after him that is annually given to the best quarterback in college football.

Doug Flutie was the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner. Because he appeared to be shorter than his listed height of 5'9", the Los Angeles Rams drafted him in the 11th round. Flutie opted to play a season in the United States Football League before giving the NFL a try. He started with the Chicago Bears, who had traded for his rights, but did not last eve two years with them before being moved to the New England Patriots. After winning eight of 13 starts over three years, he was released.


Finding no job offers he liked in the NFL, he went to the Canadian Football League and played with three teams over eight years. After winning three CFL championships, and setting numerous records, he returned to the NFL for eight more seasons and was named to the Pro Bowl once. He converted the first successful drop kick in over 65 years during the 2006 season.

There are countless other stories of small men who were superb in the NFL. In 2009, there were 27 players listed at 5'8" or shorter on rosters. Men like Darrell Green and Barry Sanders were Hall of Famers from the 1990's, while others like Maurice Jones-Drew, Ray Rice, Kevin Faulk, Jim Leonhard, and Bob Sanders star in the game today.


The expression that the size of the heart overcomes the size of the body is modeled by these people. With the inevitable growth of the human race each generation that is shown by the fact that a man rarely under 300 pounds plays in the NFL trenches anymore, these little guys give hope to the ordinary man who still hangs onto childhood dreams of having the ability to play the game.


They keep us grounded as they soar in the eyes of appreciation. For it is these David's that walk in the land of Goliath not needing a sling shot to win.

Week One Picks

Cleveland @ Tampa Bay : Cleveland gets one of their few wins of the year. Of course, the Bucs could be saying the same thing.

Miami @ Buffalo : If the Dolphins are going to get respect, they must win these type of games.

Cincinnati @ New England : A playoff game on opening day. If Cincy runs, then it will open the pass. The Pats have a very happy quarterback intent on earning his $72 million.

Indianapolis @ Houston : The Colts were flat in preseason, while the Texans get a lot of love as a team on the rise. I expect these two to split the series this year.

Denver @ Jacksonville : The Broncos seem to start each season fast recently. An opening day win seems probable if Orton can throw well, since there is no running game yet.

Atlanta @ Pittsburgh : A lot was made of the loss of Ben Roethisberger for a month, but the Steelers still had three very capable quarterbacks on their roster. After an injury to one, they have two. How many teams can claim this?

Oakland @ Tennessee : I expect the Raiders to be much better than some expect. They had a very good offseason.

Carolina @ New York Giants : The Jints need this "W" bad to stay pace in the NFC East already. Carolina will struggle against all of their receivers.

Detroit @ Chicago : The Lions are no longer the joke of the NFL, and the Bears learn this Sunday.

Arizona @ Saint Louis : The Cards might be able to win this with even Matt Leinart at quarterback. MAYBE.

Green Bay @ Philadelphia : Maybe 80 passes will be thrown....or more. Shoot out here perhaps.

San Francisco @ Seattle : The Niners defense will be the difference here.

Dallas @ Washington : The best rivalry in the NFL. A flat Dallas against a beat up Redskins. The Cowboys have a history of healing against the Redskins.

Baltimore @ New York Jets (Game of the Week) : Ray Lewis is saying his ex-defensive coordinator, now current Jets head coach, Rex Ryan is trying to cash in a check his mouth can't cover. Baltimore has too many weapons and much too much pride to lose here.

San Diego @ Kansas City : The Chiefs are better, but they just aren't ready to be on the Chargers level yet.

Recently I "celebrated" 18 years of marriage. At a point when so few marriages seem to last for any significant amount of time, you may be hoping I can offer some insights into how I have managed this feat. I believe the key is thinking of husbands in terms of cars. You may wonder what brings about this unusual theory? Well, I have done intense research over these last 18 years, and by "intense research" I mean I have observed and heard my fellow wives' experiences, and I have found husbands all have similar factory defects. I think the secret to surviving marriage is in recognizing that all women discover these warps in their own husbands, no matter which style they selected.

And knowing this can be the difference between going quietly insane over time, and life in prison. While this may discourage some, I have found it liberating to know that I can do no better than the model I currently possess. It might help you understand if I point out a few examples of these common deficiencies.

Malfunctioning Audio System -- One day I am at my friend's house chatting in the kitchen. Her husband is sitting on the couch watching TV. My friend leaves the kitchen and goes to stand next to him. There she informs him of something that she needs him to do. He responds. First he nods his head; he even goes so far as to verbally reply to several parts of the apparent conversation. I am envious. I wish my model was this engaged. Often I speak to mine and he doesn't react. Then when I repeat myself he'll bark, "I heard you the first time!" Except, of course, when I don't repeat myself, he'll later come back and bark, "You never told me that!"

Anyway,  my friend finishes this lively encounter and rejoins me in the kitchen where we continue to visit for a few minutes. Suddenly, her husband appears in the doorway looking confused.

"Were you talking to me?" he asks earnestly. My friend is dumbfounded.
"Who did you think I was talking to? I was standing right next to you!"
"I don't know," he says.
"But you answered me!" she says incredulously.
"Yeah," he replies, "I have no idea what you said."

He says this casually as though it is fairly common for him. I am not only delighted; I find it hard to hold in my laughter as the scene unfolds. Do I feel for her? Of course. But more importantly, I'm relieved. Her model is no better than mine. Sure, her model came with the ability to look like he was listening, but I'm not certain that feature was useful. At least with mine, I'm certain that no matter what I say, it won't be heard, including "I'm taking the credit card" and "I'll be out Friday night, so it's just you and the kids." My friend, on the other hand, has a model which leaves her in a constant state of uncertainty.

Busted On-Board Repair Kit -- Recently my friend's husband has suffered recurrent pain from an injury he sustained doing some physical labor in which she cannot recall him participating. This chronic pain is in his shoulder, which seems to randomly cause so much agony that a nap on the couch is the only remedy. His lawn has not been mowed for six weeks because it inflames the injury. Playing video games for countless hours back-to-back does not seem to have an adverse affect on this injury, nor do hours of computer use or the occasional golf game. However, the pain is so bad that often he will be found grinding the offending shoulder into a doorframe, with the belief that he can compress the spot into submission. She, of course, asks the same question I always ask my husband when he is suffering from one of those headaches that only five solid hours of uninterrupted World of Warcraft and a subsequent five hour nap can cure

"Did you take something for it?"

As women, we have come early in life to the knowledge that a good anti-inflammatory can cure ungodly, excruciating pain.  Never in my life has non-stop Mario Brothers relieved an agonizing case of cramps, an anemic headache, or the ache in my hips from excess water retention. But a little pill or two can do wonders. Maybe they need to develop Midol for men. Still, as you may know from your own model of husband, their answer is always, "No."

I don't know if they are just ashamed to admit their inability to break through the childproof cap, or they fear that finding relief in this manner will prove them less manly. Either way, not only did it never occur to them, but even after the suggestion is made, they will rarely actually seek assistance outside self-treatment. Furthermore, they resist the idea of paying for treatment by a professional. However, when finally they are coerced, against their will, to make that visit to the medical professional, they gladly accept a prescription which better enables them to take a longer, more effective nap undisturbed by our resentful vacuuming all around them.

Damaged Roadside Assistance Package -- This disturbing defect is found in all models. They seem to think they can milk another 100 miles out of a gas tank despite the gauge registering "E" for the last 3 days. I honestly believe that in a bar somewhere at this very moment, there's a group of husbands, of several models, that are telling their own "big fish" stories about how far they were able to drive after their gauge registered a full inch below the "E."

Now one of two things usually happens when one owns a model with Roadside Assistance problems.  The first is inevitably you are the unfortunate woman who receives a car in this condition, with no warning that the previous user has run it dry despite your filling it just the day before; and a quick dash to the market results in a seven hour roadside respite in either: a torrential downpour, a 114 degree summer afternoon, or my personal favorite, a dark secluded street. You are eventually rewarded with an outrageously priced can of gas from a tow truck driver who at least three times "flatters" you with salacious and uncomfortable flirtations. Those lucky enough to have connected with a husband who will bring the can of gas himself inevitably have to hear how they must have been driving "wrong" because he knows that car should easily have been able to run another four days past the "E."

The second incident which occurs from Roadside Assistance damage is the even more delightful Family Vacation Disaster. This one usually occurs on a summer trip, so at least there's no suspense here. It will be on the long stretch of deserted highway in the 114 degree weather. Usually the husband is driving and there is an effort being made to "make good time." This one is enhanced by: a minivan full of cranky children at least one of whom has an immediate need to pee; a wife who repeatedly warned that not stopping 75 miles ago would result in this very occurrence; a husband model who is convinced that it was the extra weight of the family which made his calculations inaccurate and that they would have made it if little Jenny had just left that second pair of sandals at home. The joy of this situation is that rather than roadside stewing alone like the first predicament, you get the opportunity to continue to agitate your spouse until one of you is drawing up a rough draft divorce agreement on the back of the unused map from the glove compartment, and the other is pondering how much witnessing murder with a fast food straw will traumatize the kids. The bonus factor here is that the tow truck driver will keep his indecent proposals to himself, but the price of the five gallons of gas will mean you can no longer afford for one of the kids to go to Disneyland this trip. Poor little Jenny.

Inoperative "Geartronic" Microprocessor -- My friend was leaving on a three day trip. She was leaving her humongous puppy behind. The puppy had never spent the night alone or outdoors. She wanted to take the puppy on a test drive for about a week before they left, just to be sure the dog could manage being left out overnight alone. She told her husband, who then decided the dog-hut they already owned was not enough protection from the pleasant spring weather and that he wanted to construct a proper dog house. Fine. The dog slept in the house that night and the next before my friend inquired about the build. She was then informed that a set of plans involving graph paper and drafting tools had been drawn up, but that it would take about three weeks to construct.

Undaunted, she informed him that he had three days, and the dog slept in the house another night. The next day her husband spent a better part of the daylight hours making a necessary repair to the car for their journey. This way they would only run out of gas, rather than need a full engine replacement on this trip. The dog slept inside that night. Her husband spent the following day alternately pressing his shoulder into a doorjamb and taking medication-induced naps on the couch, in order to recover from his labors the day before. And that night the dog slept in the house. The next day my friend called and asked me to sleep in her house with the dog while she was away. I was more than happy to and suggested she may one day want to take a look at the beautiful blueprints and three dimensional scale model of a cradle my husband is fabricating for my newborn son who is currently 17 years old.

Automatic Transmission Slippage -- When I met my husband, one of his selling points was a unique feature I hadn't seen in any other model. He ironed his jeans. This, by implication, meant he washed them, too. Additionally, he had a system for folding his shirts, which were also washed. He liked to cook, which while less rare in the make was still a feature not offered in most standard models. He washed his dishes immediately after eating the food he cooked, and he owned his own vacuum which he knew how to use. His mail was in an ordered stack, his bed was made, and his place was cleaner than mine. Clearly his factory had invested a lot of time and energy into manufacturing a "Best in Class" model. He wasn't even pre-owned! I was intoxicated by that "new husband" smell so I snatched him off the market as quickly as possible.

I probably should have looked under the hood more carefully. I think the engine had been polished up for my benefit. I wish I could tell you what happened. Shortly after I made my down-payment and the contract was signed, the automatic transmission I bought converted to manual! Worse yet, my children inherited this conversion technique. The vacuum sits in the hall closet buried under a pile of winter coats. It makes an appearance once every few months for social occasions. And did anyone else know men can live out of the dryer? Needless to say, the jeans and shirts don't get folded, much less ironed. He still cooks, but the dishes are a lost cause. I've given up on washing them, since they never seem to find their way back to the kitchen.  I just buy new dishes every few weeks, usually paper ones. Last week a spoon from three sets ago turned up in the car. I assume it had gone to visit all the lost socks from the dryer, but finding none of its kind returned, only to discover it had been replaced by a plastic spork.

To be fair, I'm sure husbands can point out some similar flaws in their wife's make. If she ever asked, "Does this make my butt look big?" she clearly has a defect in her Rear Differential. If she's worried about her Dual Airbags deflating maybe she needs fewer Vanity mirrors. Many wives come with a factory installed Spoiler which is too high maintenance. And more than a few models could use some work on their Climate Control options. I don't think I've ever met a husband whose wife didn't come equipped with faulty Ignition Timing, so he can't even turn her on and off when he wants. That's got to be frustrating!

In addition some wives really do get lemons, not just little defects. In some instances, it's a case of extremely delayed sticker shock. She may suddenly become aware that she can't afford to pay the price originally agreed upon. She didn't see the fine print and the hidden fees. She got a husband model with aborted Electronic Stability Controls or a defective Theft Deterrent System. He had a great exterior but poor performance in the long run or no Towing Capacity. Worse, a few models have failed Safety Equipment which creates dangerous conditions for driving. Factory recalls that belong in the first junk yard you pass. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Still, I have in the past few years noticed an increase in women around me wanting to trade in their current husbands in search of newer models with better features, and more options than the standard model they originally selected. They feel they have outgrown their previous purchase, and they are trading up. Their old model has a few scratches and dents, or the interior has gotten lumpy.  Perhaps it uses more gas than it did during the test drive. Simple wear and tear issues.  It probably does need some major repairs after a few years of fully-loaded hard-driving and excessive use of the emergency brake. Who isn't looking for a little more "Torque" or some "Four on the Floor" performance action? (I don't even know what these things are, but they sound like a lot of fun, don't they?)

Here is the benefit of my few years of limited experience and research. There are NO better makes available. This year's husband is the same as your old make, your mother's make, and that clunker your great-grandmother drug through life. You may get another model, but it's just the same husband with a fancy interior or a newer paint job. Oh, there may be one or two special amenities that weren't featured on the original, like Optional Seat Warmers, but the minor defects all seem to be about the same. It's a lateral move at best. Stick with the original model because marriage is a great deal more complicated than purchasing a car -- and if you have ever purchased a vehicle you will understand the magnitude of this statement. 

The fundamental keys, for me at least, have been these: Classics increase in value, but only after a period of time where you couldn't give them away, and you have to be willing to put a lot of work into them first. Husbands aren't cars, and marriage doesn't come with an Extended Warranty. Most of all, the journey isn't even worth making if you're just planning on putting it on Cruise Control. Enjoy the ride.  And that's how I've managed the first 18 years, for better or worse.

Erin Knell writes about life and family at When Life Gives You Melons: Diary of a Dyslexic

The 40 yard dash was a factor NFL teams such as the Dallas Cowboys started using in the early 60's to evaluate football players. The 40 yard dash was one of the many innovations Paul Brown is credited for.

Legend has it that when Brown was coaching the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 1940's, he figured that a punt traveled 40 yards, so the 40 yard dash was created to see which player could get to the punt returner the fastest.

The Raiders actually have three of the all time top ten 40 yard dash players on their team.

Here is the the NFL Combine 40 Yard Dash top ten record holders

4.24 Rondel Melendez WR 1999 Atlanta Falcons
4.24 Chris Johnson RB 2008 Tennessee Titans
4.25 Fabian Washington CB 2005 Baltimore Ravens (Drafted by Raiders)
4.25 Darrius Heyward-Bey Oakland Raiders
4.28 Champ Bailey CB 1999 Denver Broncos
4.28 Jerome Mathis WR 2005 Houston Texans
4.28 Jacoby Ford WR 2010 Oakland Raiders
4.29 Stanford Routt CB 2005 Oakland Raiders
4.29 Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie CB 2008 Arizona Cardinals

Thing we have learned 60 years later, is just how overhyped the 40 yard dash can be when it comes to evaluating players. Defenders whose experience and technique often give's them an edge on the field that can often time not be translated or computed on a track.

5'7" Maurice Jones Drew is among many many players who have undermined conventional scouting methods used to determine success at this level. How tall or short you are, how you throw the football, and even how fast you are, should never undermine the intangible that the player brings to the field of play in the form of results. 

A players heart is an intangible that can virtually be impossible to compute.

"Our biggest thing was we had to get accurate information into the computer, so the more information you got the better results you got," former Cowboys personnel director Gil Brandt said.

"So we had a chart made up that if a player was X height and ran a 4.45 he'd get 40-plus points. If a player was X height and ran a 4.6, he might get 10-plus points. To me, what the [40] does is it becomes something of a tiebreaker or it's something that alerts you to a player that can be pretty good."

"I'm glad the Saints didn't put too much emphasis on my 40 when I came out," said Jack Del Rio "It's a tool. It's another thing for us to measure, grade, evaluate. I think at the end of the day you're looking for football players that produce for you on the field."

"It's been like that for years," Syracuse  cornerback Tanard Jackson said. "Nothing's going to change it. But I'd still like to think the decision-makers want a football player. They want a guy with speed, especially at the position I play, but the film is the film. They want a football player."

"You can get too carried away with straight line speed because change of direction is so important in this game," said Wade Phillips. "Guys that run with their feet a little further apart, even running backs sometimes, aren't as fast but their change of direction is quicker."

Former Ohio State Buckeye linebacker Chris Spielman ran 4.85 40 coming out of college, he still managed to make it to four Pro Bowls in 10 seasons.

To put some perspective on just how slow 4.85 40 is, OT Bruce Cambell, the fourth round  selection of the Oakland Raiders in the 2010 NFL draft ran a 4.85 40; this is a guy who is 6'6" and weighs 314 pounds.

"He (Spielman) was so instinctive and anticipated things," Phillips said. "A lot of times, it's the shortest distance between two points. You figure out where that point's going to be and you get there."

Speed is a premium in this league, but like anything else, you can find the "it" factor in players who lack the premium of speed.

There are players that don't have speed, but yet have allowed their heart and mind to take them to a level where a fast player may not have felt compelled to go because their talent's can often time keep them from having to strive as hard.

In the art of war adopting the strategies of sophisticated techniques to the point where they are an instinctual facet of your game, will indeed allow you to overcome stronger and faster opponent's lacking the same.

Dre' Bly was drafted in 1999, and he just signed a two year contract with the Detroit Lions. Bly has been to two Super Bowl's, he won one with the St. Louis Rams, he has also made two Pro Bowl appearances. In 2007 Denver Broncos gave Bly a $33 million contract with an $18 million in bonus money and $16 million guaranteed. 

Dre' Bly runs a 4.51 40

Too often the premium of speed in this league, is substituted for phenomenal ability. That appears to be exactly the case with Syd’Quan Thompson who ran a 4.75 40 while recovering from a hamstring injury.

He is not fast as track times go, but when it comes to being up to par to game time speed and knowing where to be, he has all the makings of a Pro Bowler at the very least as a safety in this league. Syd has that all to coveted "IT" factor that coaches look for in a player.

"If you were to ask me the most important players on our team, I'd say Kevin Riley, Jahvid Best, Alex Mack, and Syd'Quan Thompson," said middle LB Worrell Williams. "Syd is the only guy I listed on defense, so what's that tell you?"

"He's going to shut down one side of the field when he's out there."

Having 4.5 40 Mardy Gilyard blow by you in the Senior Bowl will make your stock drop like a rock. Syd injured his hamstring in January, the week of the Senior Bowl.

Syd was not able to run at all during the combine. Many of the scouts came to see Cal’s Pro Day 40 time, 19 teams attended, only to see Syd re-aggravate his hamstring in his 4.7 40 attempt.

"It's frustrating that I'm not 100 percent and able to run full speed," said Thompson.

"There are some guys who can cover well, execute assignments and grade out well when you watch the video, and you're happy when you find those guys," defensive backs coach Al Simmons said. "What Syd can do is a step above; he can make a play for you."

"When you've got a guy who can do all those things and make a play, it's something special."

"...there's not a receiver out there who can embarrass Syd. He's a shutdown corner with 1,000 pounds of heart."

Scouts had considered Syd, a potential first-round draft pick heading into the 2009 season.

Scout.com rated him the number-five player in its West Hot 100. Rivals.com rated him the 13th-ranked athlete in the nation and the 21st-ranked player in California.

ESPN assessed him as the 11th-ranked cornerback in the nation.

The hamstring injury plagued Syd’s stock, not to mention Cal being blown out in its last two games.

Syd’s lack of elite speed along with his 5'9" 193 pound size has a lot of folks thinking Syd may be forced to make a position change at the pro level. A switch to safety, where his ball hawk skills along with his sure handed tackling abilities could pay off with huge dividends.

Syd is a physical player who is known for being a good hitter. His coverage instincts, return and open-field tackling ability ought to give him in advantage in making it on the team for the depth he adds both to the secondary as well as Special Teams.

Syd’s intelligence and instincts have been proven to more than make up for his lack of elite speed.

Syd said...

“Returning punts is a way to get my hands on the ball as a defender, I like to be on the field no matter what. I’ve always returned punts since I was a kid.”

“I’m always real critical about everything, even when someone says I do it well. I can always improve. I want to be the complete package,”

“I’m the most complete player. I’m tougher, I’m smarter. I’ll do anything to make the team successful.”

So Broncos fans when you are projecting your 53 man roster, be careful not to write off Syd’Quan Thompson.

Today on Fox 7 AM Evansville we talked about common guest faux pas that happen at weddings. As planners, we see A LOT of them, but here are the highlights…

1. Arriving late to the ceremony. If the ceremony starts at 1:30pm you should be arriving NO LATER than 1:20pm. Seriously, I see people give more attention to arriving at a movie theater early than they do at weddings. But let’s say something happens beyond your control and you are strolling in at 1:34. If you see pretty girls lined up and a bride at the front of the church, kindly step to the side and wait. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, scoot by the wedding party and enter the church. If you wanted to see the bride’s face as she walks down the aisle, you should of arrived on time.

All of the guests will be focusing on the entrance of the church as the processional has already begun, so you’ll be seen by EVERYONE. Also you ruin the video and let’s face it, you’ve drawn attention to yourself at someone’s wedding. Instead, wait to the side until the bride has walked down the aisle and is at the altar. The guests will be turned around and you can slide on in, unseen.

2. Manage your children. Everyone should know that if your child starts to cry during the ceremony, please get up with crying child and leave as to not disturb all the guests. Most parents will do this. But I’d like to add, do not forget about your children at the reception. For some reason, I see parents completely relax and let their children run everywhere. And when I say run, I mean the 100 yard dash sprint. And fingers poking into the cake is not cute, nor sanitary. So please watch your child(ren). It may even mean leaving the reception to take them home.

3. You forget the gift. This is easy. Don’t say anything. Do not apologize to the parents of the bride, do not mention anything to the bride and groom. Just send the gift immediately when you get home. There is no need to draw negative attention to yourself.

4. You’ve drank too much. The best advice is to not get to this point, but I know that sometimes it can happen, to the best of people. So if you have had too much, or the bartender has cut you off, realize that they are doing this for a reason. And if other guests or staff is taking your keys from you and calling a cab, do not argue. Know that your friends are looking out for your safety and others.

ps Catch the TV version of this blog post with Saundra Hadley, Fox 7 Wedding Planner.

More photos » David Zalubowski - AP

about 1 year ago: Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey takes part in drills at footbal camp at the Broncos' headquarters in the south Denver suburb of Englewood, Colo., on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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The primary responsibility of the cornerback is to cover wide receivers and allow the pass rush to reach the quarterback. However, it isn't always that simple. There are blitzes and zone coverages mixed in. They also must be able to provide run support during rushing plays. Fortunately, for us, the Denver Broncos cover the pass better than most of the NFL. In 2009, the Denver Broncos allowed the third fewest passing yards in the NFL. A lot of that success can certainly be attributed to the cornerback position, anchored by veterans Champ Bailey and Andre Goodman.

The cornerback position hasn't always been a strength of the Broncos, though. The cornerback position used to be an area of weakness for the Denver Broncos. In the 2003 and 2004 playoffs, the Broncos were beaten handily by Peyton Manning and the Colts offense, largely because of the lack of depth at the cornerback position. The Colts used the spread offense to expose the holes in the Bronco depth chart, which left us scrambling for solutions. We all thought we had found our answer in 2005 with Darrent Williams and, unfortunately, he was taken from us much too early (R.I.P. DWill). The Broncos continued looking to fill the void at the corner position. I believe we finally found a solution with Bailey and Goodman but the goal going forward is to maintain that level of success for years to come. We'll take a look at each of our cornerbacks and see what's in store at this position in 2010.

Let's start our assessment with a future Hall of Famer.

Champ Bailey

#24 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 6-0

Weight: 192

Born: Jun 22, 1976

College: Georgia

Champ Bailey has recorded a lot of stats in his day. At Charlton County High School in Folkston, Georgia, Champ Bailey was an outstanding football player. During his four years of high school, Champ rushed for 3,573 yards with 58 touchdowns, threw for 1,211 yards with 10 touchdowns, and 5,855 career total yards with 394 total points. Recorded 79.5 career tackles, eight interceptions and four fumble recoveries. That's quite a stat sheet. He was highly recruited across the nation, but decided to take his talents to the University of Georgia.

In college, he continued being a weapon all over the field. He played in all three phases of the game (offense, defense and special teams). During his final year at Georgia, as a junior, he recorded 52 tackles (4 for loss), 3 INTs, 7 passes defensed, 47 receptions for 744 yards (15.8 ypc), 5 TDs, 84 yards rushing on 16 carries, 12 kickoff returns for 261 yards and 4 punt returns for 49 yards. He averaged 103.5 all-purpose yards per game and logged 957 plays (547 defense, 301 offense and 109 special teams). It's also noteworthy that Champ Bailey once participated in a career-best 119 plays (62 on defense, 49 on offense and 8 on special teams) in a game against Auburn. When asked about the game, Champ said "I was just doing my job, whatever I could do to help the team. To me, it wasn't that big a thing."

That certainly sounds like something Champ Bailey would say, doesn't it?

After his junior year, Champ Bailey entered the NFL Draft and was drafted 7th overall by the Washington Redskins in the 1999 draft. While in Washington, he made his presence known and became one of the league's best defensive players. Although he was surrounded by a relatively inconsistent cast of characters, he still managed to record 177 tackles, 18 interceptions, 40 passes defensed and 2 forced fumbles in his 5 years as a Redskin.

He was traded to the Denver Broncos in exchange for Clinton Portis. Since becoming a Bronco, Champ has solidified the number 1 corner back position. Although he has suffered injuries to his calf, hamstring, shoulder, ankle, quadricep and groin, he was still able to amass 373 tackles, 28 interceptions, and 88 passes defensed in his 6 years as a Bronco. He was placed on 6 Pro Bowl rosters (if it weren't for his 2008 injury) during his 6 years as a Bronco and he was also chosen to be a part of the Denver Broncos 50th Anniversary team.

The biggest talk of the offseason has been Champ's contract. In 2004, he signed a 7 year deal worth $63 million dollars. That means his contract will expire in 2011. While Champ would like negotiations to begin right now, it doesn't appear that will happen. The Broncos haven't issued a statement, to this point, although it seems that the Broncos are going to wait until there are fewer variables at work in the CBA situation. Nobody knows if there will even be football next year, so it's understandable that a moratorium has been placed on extension talks. Although, the Broncos could hurt their chances to retain Champ if they wait until next year to arrange a deal. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in this situation. I, for one, certainly hope that Champ will be a Bronco until he retires.

What we do know, for a fact, is that Champ Bailey is going to be a Denver Bronco in 2010 and he is going to continue to play at an exceptional level. Given his recent history, the odds are pretty good that he'll make another Pro Bowl, as well.

Andre Goodman

#21 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 5-10

Weight: 184

Born: Aug 11, 1978

College: South Carolina

Andre Goodman has had quite a journey before becoming a Bronco. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina where he was successful as a high school wide receiver and defensive back. Oh yeah, and he ran a 10.5 second 100 meter dash on the track team (4.36 40 time). Speed has never been an issue for Andre. He was ranked the 20th best prospect in the state of South Carolina and was recruited by the South Carolina Gamecocks. 

In college, he didn't line up at receiver, but he was converted to free safety. Halfway through his junior year, he was converted to cornerback. In his senior year, he had 86 tackles, 4 interceptions and 20 pass deflections as a senior with the Gamecocks. In 2002, he was drafted in the third round by the Lions. In his first year, he broke his thumb. In his second year, he dislocated his shoulder. Then he had a thigh injury in his third year, signed with Miami as an unrestricted free agent and filled in for an injured Travis Daniels to finish out his fourth pro season. The following season (2007), he injured his left shoulder again and went in for arthroscopic surgery. It seems to have worked because in 2008, he enjoyed his first 16 game season while recording 33 tackles and 5 interceptions. 

The rest, they say, is history. Andre Goodman is going into his second season with the Denver Broncos. In 2009, he had his best season, to date, with 40 tackles and his second 5 INT season in a row. It seems that Goodman is getting better with age. If he continues to stay healthy, we can absolutely expect another solid season out of Renaldo Hill in 2010.

Alphonso Smith

#33 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 5-9

Weight: 190

Born: Oct 20, 1985

College: Wake Forest

Alphonso Smith owns a lot of records. As far as NCAA records go, he is number one on the list in both interceptions and interceptions for TDs. He is also 7th on the all time list in interception yards, and third on the list for interceptions per game. On those numbers, alone, he seems like a spectacular player. Unfortunately, he is linked with a draft day trade that really upset some Broncos fans. The Broncos traded a 1st round draft pick for a 2nd round draft pick so they could get an opportunity to take Smith. Let's not allow that trade to cloud our judgement of Alphonso Smith.

Alphonso Smith has instincts that served him well at the college level. In the pros, things are a little faster and his technique needs to be more refined. Before you get up in arms about that, keep in mind that most corners hear that after their rookie season. The corner back position is one of the most difficult transitions from college to the NFL. I don't think we need to give up on him, right now. He has had an excellent offseason, allegedly picking off a pass every day of the final minicamp. Champ Bailey said in June, "He's grown a lot. I think he understands what we expect from him." Smith said, "I'm just trying to take as many reps as I can to get better as a nickel player and a cornerback and to help the defense." I expect him to make his presence known in 2010 with much better production than last year.

Perrish Cox

#32 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 6-0

Weight: 195

Born: Jan 10, 1987

College: Oklahoma State

Perrish Cox grew up in Waco, Texas, and attended University High School. As a senior in high school, he recorded 27 tackles, 9 interceptions along with 47 receptions for 670 yards and 12 touchdowns. Scout.com listed him as a national top 100 player and Rivals.com listed him as the number 8 corner in the nation. Not too shabby.

He transitioned to Oklahoma State and, as a true freshman, became the first player since Barry Sanders to return the open a season with a kickoff return for a touchdown. During his 4 years at OSU, he recorded 130 tackles and 10 interceptions. He also had 60 punt returns for 694 yards and 2 touchdowns and 117 kick returns for 2804 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was named returner of the year in 2008 and currently holds the OSU and Big 12 (now the Big 10 after the realignment, but that's a whole other story) record for career kickoff return touchdowns with 4.

Cox was expected to go as high as the 1st round by most draft analysts and no lower than the 3rd round. Perrish Cox was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the 5th round (137th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft largely because of his unexpectedly slow 40-yard dash time (4.58 seconds). As of June 9th, Perrish Cox is signed and ready to go for training camp.

Some argued that the reason Perrish Cox plummeted to the 5th round was his suspension from the Cotton Bowl. Cox wrote on his facebook page that he was 30 minutes late and violated the team's curfew. Cox said, "(The suspension) hurt me in a great way. I was told I was supposed to go higher than I did. The Cotton Bowl was a mistake on my part. It's something I learned from and want to put in my past." Coach McDaniels discussed the pick by saying, "There was no hesitation on our part at this point (in the draft). He's admitted he's made some mistakes. I go back to... 'Is this a character issue or is this a guy who has made a few wrong decisions?' We think it is (the latter; we spent some time with Perrish at his pro day and at the combine."

I am really excited about Perrish Cox. He seems to be making a big impact during the offseason. I'm really excited by Josh McDaniels' quote on June 12th.

I think he goes about his business every day. He's out there working hard. He's here early and stays late. He's trying to find a role in the kicking game as well as competing at both sides at corner. He hasn't disappointed us in terms of what we thought we were getting.

I expect Perrish Cox to make this team. His versatility as both a corner and a punt/kick returner make him very appealing to Josh McDaniels. Also, his size certainly helps, as well. Currently, the Broncos only have two corners that are 6 foot tall, Champ Bailey and Perrish Cox. I'm really excited about Perrish Cox and I think he will be a solid backup corner, at least. If he develops into the return role, taking the place of Eddie Royal, that will be the cherry on top.

Nate Jones

#33 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 5-10

Weight: 185

Born: Jun 15, 1982

College: Rutgers

Nate Jones played running back and defensive back at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. As a senior, he was a first-team all-state selection, rushing for 2,474 yards and 36 touchdowns along with 6 interceptoins.

Nate Jones played college ball at Rutgers, where he was a four year letterman. He finished his career with 219 tackles, 5 interceptions, 18 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries. He also blocked three kicks and returned 82 kickoffs for 3 touchdowns.

He was then drafted in the seventh round by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2004 Draft. He played in all 16 games in his rookie year while recording 31 tackles and a sack. In 2005, he continued his role as a backup and notched 2 tackles on defense with 12 on special teams. In 2006, he was inactive for the first 12 games, but in the final four he recorded 8 tackles on defense and 3 on special teams. In 2007, he was inactive for one game and played as a backup in 15. He recorded 17 tackles, a sack and 2 forced fumbles on defense and 9 tackles, 6 kickoff returns for a 20.4 yard average on special teams.

After the 2007 season, Nate Jones became a free agent and signed a two-year deal with the Miami Dolphins. The obvious connection is Bill Parcells, who drafted Jones as the head coach of the Cowboys in 2004. In 2009, the Dolphins used Jones much more extensively than he was used as a Cowboy. He was lined up in nickel packages and often covered the slot receiver. He recorded a career-high 45 tackles. From reports I've read, he did a great job of playing nickel corner, last year, but the reason he was cut is likely because of how Wes Welker shredded his coverage twice last year to the tune of 19 receptions for 251 yards. Let's face it, though... not many people in the NFL are going to be able to cover Wes Welker. Also, if you assume he made the tackle on most of those Welker receptions, you could say that Welker was almost half of his receptions allowed and that was only in two games. That has to count for a moral victory, at least.

In Denver, Nate Jones has a really good chance to make the 2010 Broncos Roster and start as a nickel corner, especially if our young guys (Alphonso Smith and Perrish Cox) struggle. I don't anticipate that happening, but I think his experience with the position will be enough to keep him around. The Broncos have been in need of a guy to cover the And fortunately for him, he won't have to face Wes Welker... unless we see the Patriots in the Playoffs. Right?

Tony Carter

#25 / Cornerback / Denver Broncos

Height: 5-9

Weight: 175

Born: May 24, 1986

College: Florida State

Tony Carter grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and was ranked by Rivals.com as the nation's 2nd best corner as a senior in high school. As a junior, he made the state finals in the 110 meter hurdles. He was one of the fastest football players in the state of Florida with a 4.30 40-yard dash time. As a senior, he had 43 tackles, 9 interceptions on defense and 2 blocked kicks on special teams. He also scored 5 touchdowns while splitting time on offense as a quarterback and wide receiver. Tony decided to attend Florida State over Tennessee and North Carolina.

While at Florida State, Tony Carter started in all 50 career games while recording 139 tackles, 9 interceptions and 26 pass breakups. He was the first player in FSU history to return a blocked extra point and blocked field goal for scores in the same game. Going into the 2009 draft, Carter was just looking to be given a chance. His size really hindered his draft stock, but the broncos brought him aboard as an unrestricted college free agent.

He spent the first 14 weeks of the 1009 season on the practice squad and was called up to play against Oakland. Last year, Alphonso Smith, Jack Williams, Ty Law, Josh Barrett and Tony Carter were all used in the nickel spot. Of those names, only Alphonso Smith, Josh Barrett (safety) and Tony Carter remain. That has to speak for something. Obviously, Josh McDaniels thinks that Tony Carter has more to bring to the table than Jack Williams and Ty Law, at least. 

He will be given another shot at earning his roster spot in Training Camp 2010. He has a good chance of making the team, as long as he continues to show Coach McDaniels that he is taking positive steps and making steady progress towards becoming a solid NFL player.

Syd'Quan Thompson was the Broncos 7th round pick (225 overall). As a high school senior, he was rated the number 11 corner in the nation. He recorded 70 tackles and 2 interceptions on defense and also rushed for 1,136 yards and 13 touchdowns on offense before deciding to become a California Golden Bear. While at college, he started all 52 games after being redshirted in 2005.

In 2009, he was on the watch list for the Lott Trophy, which is awarded to the nation's top defensive player with strong character. Leading up to the 2009 season, The NFL Draft Scout wrote, "His straight-line speed, agility, reliable open-field tackling and natural return skills would be earning significantly more attention from the national media if he played in the Big Ten or SEC. He finished his career as Cal's all-time leader in pass breakups with 36, amassed 257 tackles, 7 INTs returned for 204 yards, 43 passes defensed and 2 sacks.

If he wants to make the team, he'll have to really step up in training camp and show he can be a reliable backup.

Cassius Vaughn grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and was the number 10 ranked player coming out of high school. At Ole Miss, he played in all 50 games. In his senior year, he tied for 7th in the SEC in passes defended with 13. He notched 2 interceptions and ranked fifth on his team with 56 (44 solo) and 3.5 tackles for loss.

Cassius Vaughn is a 2009 undrafted rookie for the Broncos and he'll have his work cut out for him if he wants to make this team in the fall. He is a long shot.

Outlook

There is no change in our number 1 and 2 corner backs from last year. Champ Bailey and Andre Goodman should both make the team and be outstanding starters, once again. 2010 should be another season where the Broncos are stout against the pass. Champ and Goodman are an excellent combination.

Behind that, things could look a little bit different. I expect 5 or 6 corners to make the 53 man roster. Both Alphonso Smith and Perrish Cox should make the team. I'm excited about Smith and Cox in 2010, though. Word from OTAs was that they were putting on quite a show. I don't think they'll hide under a rock in training camp and get cut from this team. On the contrary, I think we'll see them quite a bit in the regular season making plays and earning some NFL tenure.

The real training camp competition is going to come for spots 5 and 6. We'll have Nate Jones, Tony Carter, Syd'Quan Thompson, and Cassius Vaughn. Keeping 5 is a conservative number for corners, but 6 could be kept if McDaniels feels there is really good depth at the position. At this point, I think Nate Jones has a grasp of the 5th roster spot, based on his previous history on special teams with the Cowboys and Dolphins. Tony Carter and Syd'Quan Thompson are in a similar situation from the standpoint that they are both young guys trying to unseat a veteran, Nate Jones. Whether or not they can do it remains to be seen. If one of them really stands out and shows excellent skills, the Broncos would likely keep 6 corners to accommodate for this. Keep in mind that the top of the depth chart is aging and both have a history of injury, so the Broncos depth at corner needs to be a priority. Knock on wood that everyone stays healthy, though.

Overall, the 2010 Bronco corner backs should be an exciting bunch to watch. Now that you've read more about them, what do you think about the corner back position?

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UFC 116 is a mere two days away and you need to know where to put your money. Today, I highlight the main event between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. Check back tomorrow morning for a rundown of the other four pay-per-view fights.

I'd also like to announce that Bloody Elbow now has an affiliate deal with BetUS. By signing up to BetUS through the link, you're providing us with much needed support for the site.

Odds courtesy of Best Fight Odds:

It should be disclosed for those not in the know, that I am not a Shane Carwin fan (quite the understatement). The following analysis has been done with the the utmost attempt at objectivity, but it should be clear that I do not care for certain boring, self-righteous heavyweights.

There's a handful of unknowns about each guy coming into this fight, so let's get the known variables out of the way.

Both guys are very big and strong. There's no reliable data with regards to their height, but I expect Lesnar has at least an inch on him. The UFC listed Lesnar at an 81" reach at UFC 100 and Shane at 80" at UFC 111. Both men have to make the cut to 265, though Lesnar's camp reports that he'll be right around 265 for weigh-ins.

Lesnar and Carwin both have tremendous power in their strikes, though Carwin has demonstrated more devastating power in his career.

The rest after the jump. Be forewarned: long and rambly!

Lesnar, on the other hand, has demonstrated his wrestling prowess in every fight. He took down Frank Mir at will in both of their bouts and dominated Heath Herring at UFC 87. Conservatively, he held his own with Randy Couture at UFC 91, but we'll come back to that in a bit.

In each of their last two fights, Lesnar and Carwin have exhibited very little hesitation to finish the fight if the opportunity presents itself.

Even though he has fewer fights in his career, Lesnar's time in the cage allows us to define him a little better in a couple areas. He's proven he can go past the first round effectively in all three of his UFC wins. The Herring fight especially showed that he can maintain dominance well past the first five minutes.

The Herring and second Mir fights also showcased Lesnar's ability to follow a gameplan. At UFC 87, Lesnar's camp did not want to risk another loss at the hands of being overzealous, and Brock patiently and methodical worked Herring for fifteen minutes. Last July, Lesnar displayed that patience again, as he beat the fight out of Frank Mir through a round and a half of action.

I believe Brock is also a much better athlete than Shane Carwin. I present the following as evidence, though I wouldn't seriously use this as part of your handicapping. According to this Sports Illustrated report on Shane's draft status in 1998, Carwin ran the 40 yard dash in 4.93 seconds, benched 225 pounds 29 times, has a vertical leap of 30.5", and broad jumped 8'10". According to this link (and unfortunately the PW Torch source link is dead), Lesnar ran the 40 in 4.65 seconds, benched 225 pounds 30 times, has a 35" vertical, and a broad jump of 10 feet. Again, this isn't the most reliable of data, but that's a pretty clear edge for Brock, especially when we consider that Shane is thirteen or so years from those numbers.

I think that pretty well covers what we can say definitively about either man. So where are the question marks?

Let's start with the big one. Brock Lesnar hasn't fought in a year. He made it through some portion of his training camp for his original fight with Carwin last year, but he spent the last months of 2009 recovering from diverticulitis. Lesnar allegedly loss close to fifty pounds before putting the weight back on and resuming training. He has come out and said that he's revamped his diet, which explains why his camp has stated he won't be cutting much, if any weight for this fight.

Much has been made of the effects of injuries and ring rust on a fighter the past couple of months, but it's still safe to be cautious about using the term as a blanket statement. For instance, unlike a serious knee injury, Brock's illness hasn't affected how he trains. Instead, he's just had to wait until the illness faded enough to resume his traditional workouts. The issue for Brock becomes how much the two months out of training and the year span without a fight will play a part in his development as a fighter. There's very little we can do to quantify this. While the year layoff may affect how sharp he is, you can also argue that he's still young enough in his development that he's still able to pick stuff up in the gym while someone with as much experience as a Mirko Cro Cop may not benefit from.

There's also the recent revelation from Lesnar's camp leaking that he'll be fighting southpaw for this fight. This could be a ploy to get into Shane's head. If it is legitimate, whatever he loses in his striking by switching from orthodox, he'll gain in his wrestling by having his power foot forward. I'm willing to call this a wash.

As for Carwin, he's never been past the four minute mark at any point in his career. While there are certainly "questions" about his gas tank, I think those questions often come with a hint of criticism. We have no idea how Shane will perform past round one (if necessary), nor do we know how he'll respond to what shapes up to be a grueling wrestling battle with Lesnar. Even if inside information dictated that Shane's demonstrated fantastic cardio in camp, that still doesn't convince me how he'll handle X minutes in the biggest fight of his life. For handicapping purposes, however, it's safe to assume Carwin has average cardio for the elite fighters in the division. By that, I assume that if the first round is the grueling affair it might be, he will slow down in later rounds, but will not be completely fatigued.

And what about his wrestling? We saw him take down Neil Wain. But that's Neil Wain. He's British. Carwin did handle Frank Mir well in the clinch at UFC 111, but that's the extent of Shane Carwin Wrestling for MMA that we've seen. How does he handle a shot? Will he shoot at all on Lesnar? Questions, questions.

There's an interesting tale about the betting lines for this fight. When Zuffa announced the first bout, Lesnar opened around -180 and shot up near -300 before having to pull out. This time, Lesnar opened around -200 and has been bet down to as low as -130 as of the time of writing. I think there's two things at work here. The first being Lesnar's illness and the conjecture surrounding his new diet and weight. The other is the "what have you done for me lately" factor. Carwin entered the UFC 106 bout coming off an impressive knockout of Gabe Gonzaga, but his performance still left a lot to be desired in his first step up in competition. Gonzaga rocked Carwin with right hands and was able to take him down with a single leg. An impressive recovery for Carwin led to the knockout, but it was not a one-side performance by any means.

His fight with Mir at UFC 111, however, sent the hype train into full effect. Mir mounted very little offense in what was a very slow bout up until the finish. After reeling Mir with an hook and a series of uppercuts, Carwin finished the fight with dominating ground and pound, while looking every bit the beast that he has been made out to be.

And that's where I feel like people are falling into a trap betting Carwin, especially as the line on him has fallen in the past month. Objectively (again, to the best of my ability), I don't see Carwin holding a single advantage over Lesnar outside of power. And there, the level of power that each man possesses makes the point nearly moot. If either guy lands solid on the chin, there's a good chance the lights are going out.

With the observable data, however, what other advantages can we give Carwin? The wrestling pedigree suggests that Brock will fare better there. By all accounts (observed and quantified), Lesnar is a better athlete by a significant though not large degree. Lesnar seems to me that he has at least as much skill on the feet as Carwin as well. Carwin comes from a great camp, but Brock has bought himself a fantastic unit and has shown repeatedly that he can handle following a very specific gameplan, so I don't see an advantage for Carwin there either.

There is one area, in retrospect, that Shane might be able to exploit. A lot has been made about Randy Couture's "takedown" on Brock at UFC 91. I think that's a lot of noise. Randy did do something, however, that I think is worth looking at by controlling Lesnar in stretches along the fence. As noted, Carwin used the clinch against the fence to much success against Frank Mir, and that's an area of the fight I will not be comfortable with if it arises on Saturday night.

So, how does the fight play out? I think a lot will determine on the first round. If Brock controls the first round, I imagine we'll see Carwin on his back for most of it. I think Lesnar drains a lot of energy out of him. And in that case, it becomes very hard for Shane to KO Brock in later rounds and, hence, very hard for Shane to win the fight. If Shane can negate Lesnar's wrestling or win that battle himself, he opens himself up for a very big night. Now, if both camps play a cautious first round, the above transfers over to the second round. In essence, whoever grabs a hold of the advantage first sets themselves up very nicely.

I think given what we know, though, that Lesnar will be able to control this fight. Much has been made about Carwin being Brock's (literally) biggest test. But that same statement can be made for Shane Carwin as well. We really don't know much about Shane's overall game outside of his insane punching power. Therefore, I like a unit play on Lesnar at the current line, though I personally have just under three units at -145.

There's a case to be made until waiting until fight night if you want to hop on Lesnar with me. Most casual bettors make their plays the day before or the day of the fight. As arguably the most hated man in MMA and with Shane's spectacular performance at UFC 111, there's a chance that more money comes in on Carwin as we approach the fight. The optimal play might be to take whatever you're thinking of betting on Lesnar, put a percentage of it down now, and throw the rest down if the line moves favorably.

After writing this opus, I've psyched myself up beyond belief for Saturday. Even as a Lesnar-backer and Shane-hater, the idea of Carwin landing a powerful right hand to put down Lesnar titillates my mind. Hopefully, we don't have to witness that. Good luck.

Michael Bowman signed with the Crimson Tide on 9/13/08. The Georgia native grew up in the Rossville community, not far from the Tennessee state line, less than 20 miles from Chattanooga.

His High School head coach, Mark Mariakis took over the Ridgeland High School program in 2004, when Michael was in the ninth grade. It took a while for the coach to have his desired effect on the team.

But from 2007-2009, Mariakis and his Ridgeland Panthers accumulated a record of 23-11 which allowed for three consecutive playoff appearances. This was a first for the Panther program. Michael Bowman contributed to that success by hard work, and dedication to his Panther team.

During his senior year in 2008, Bowman became one of the top receivers in the state of Georgia, hauling in 37 catches for 1075 yards, and 14 touchdowns. That is an average of 29 yards per catch, and a score every 2.6 touches.

Bowman has a nose for the end zone, and knows how to get there in a hurry. He completed the 40 yard dash in 4.5 seconds. Like many of the greats, his speed is not diminished in pads. In fact, he actually seems quicker.

He was ranked 58th on the Mobile-Register Super Southeast 120, listed on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Super Southern 100, SuperPrep Magazine All-American, and a Rivals.com 250 player. In 2008, he was listed as the No. 20 WR by Rivals, and No. 14 by Scout.com.

Bowman was a four star recruit in both publications, and was listed in Tom Lemming's Prep Football All-American. He has execptional speed, quickness, route running ability, and great hands.

Michael Bowman chose Alabama over Ole Miss, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon, and Oklahoma State. At 6'4" and 206 lb, he is built like Julio Jones and was recruited to become a dual threat, let me re-phrase that, the dual threat on the Alabama offense. 

Thus far, things have developed a little slower that Bowman had hoped, but the story is just beginning for this phenomenal athlete. He is right on pace according to the Alabama coaching staff, and his impact will be crucial for the success of the offense in 2010. 

While he played in four games in 2009, playing time was limited and sporadic. He ended with only one catch for seven yards. But, the same could be said for many receivers listed on the offense last season.

Jones and Maze had the biggest impact, without question. Their efforts accounted for 1119 yard of the 2631 yard total for the season. Darius Hanks accounted for 272 yards while Mike McCoy contributed 149 yards to the total.

Tight ends contributed 417 yards to the passing offense, the majority logged by Colin Peek (313 yards). Wide outs Earl Alexander and Brandon Gibson each had less than a hundred yards on the season.

The Alabama offense looks to be more explosive in the upcoming season, both in rushing and passing. If the offense matures as expected, it will be a record setting year in terms of offensive production for this Alabama team.

Bowman was held out of the A-Day game due to an abdominal muscle strain, a similar injury that sidelined Terry Grant in the latter part of the 2009 season. Grant later decided to hang up his cleats in 2010. That is not a consideration for Michael Bowman.

Bowman is determined to have the desired impact on the Alabama offense in this upcoming season for which he was recruited. He has impressed his coaching staff in practice despite not being 100 percent, and he intends to make things happen during his sophomore year.

Look for No. 88 to compete for the starting job this fall. But starting the game isn't the only goal for any of these receivers. Being an integral part of the offense is more important, regardless of when you are inserted into the game.

Along with Jones, Maze, Hanks, Alexander, Kevin Norwood, Brandon Gibson and Kenny Bell, each of these men know that they are more successful as a unit than as an individual.

Each receiver will have their role to play on any given down. Being prepared to make the play when your number is called will be what defines this core group of excellent receivers in 2010.

Whether it be a down field block, decoy route, running a route over the middle or a post pattern 30 yards down field, "doing your job" will be the priority for every one of these gifted, and skilled receivers.

Michael Bowman will be one of those men. Mark my words.

The FICO credit bureau is like the grade-based ability score in that it only considers what is in your credit file. How in the world can it advertise to represent a sufficient measure of your creditworthiness to predict the probability that you will default on a loan?? It does not cover the 5 C's of Credit - no information is considered relative to borrower income, savings, timeliness of cash payments on utilities and phone and rent, and so on.

Are we to actually believe that the FICO score is a fair, or reasonable, way to price risk? I assert that reliance on the incomplete and inaccurate FICO score, and other factors that were each incomplete within themselves, had a lot to do with the granting of riskier loan products to riskier borrowers, and also the inflated ratings on MBS and their derivatives - make no mistake!

Just cheering myself up.

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I'm not going to talk about the game last night. It was far too frustrating, and I seriously doubt my ability to be even somewhat rational about it. So I just won't even try. 

I also won't talk about how frustrating it was to see, after believing my team smart enough to have finally kicked him to the curb, Aaron Miles back in a Cardinal uniform. I won't talk about how much it pissed me off to see the ovation, either. Nope. Just not going to talk about anything that happened last night. 

The draft is less than a week away, mock drafts are all over the place, and I've covered about as many players as I'm going to cover this year. Of course, it doesn't matter; I'm sure the Cards will find some way to draft a player I haven't written about. Two years ago I wrote a post about players who were essentially just bats, and I covered Justin Smoak, Yonder Alonso, and Eric Hosmer. There was one other player under consideration for the post; a kid out of Arizona State named Brett Wallace. In the end, I decided to go with the other three, and of course Wallace ended up the Cards' pick. Last year I covered a ton of pitchers, of virtually all shapes, sizes, and demographic, but skipped over Shelby Miller because I didn't feel there was any chance he would fall to the Cardinals. There's no way he'll still be sitting there at 19, my thinking went, so it's okay I missed him. Shelby is now the Cards' top prospect. 

So who will it be this year? I have no idea. I scan the lists of players I've covered, and I'm sure the Cardinals should at least be able to find someone amongst all my draft reports they like. And yet somehow I'm utterly convinced they'll draft someone I didn't see coming. 

Anyway, I've got one more batch of random players I find interesting for one reason or another. These aren't first-round guys, they're just players whose names I'll be watching for as teams start calling out their futures on draft day. 

Ross Wilson, 2B, University of Alabama

The brother of former Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson, Ross Wilson is a very athletic middle infielder with plus speed and actions in the field. He had an outstanding freshman season at Alabama, and then played even better as a sophomore, posting a 1.023 OPS while playing plus defense, and looked as if he would be a premium draft pick in 2010. He showed averagish power and an ability to get on base at a high rate to go along with solid glovework. 

Unfortunately for Wilson, he hasn't performed at all up to those standards this season, as his OPS has fallen over 250 points. He still receives high marks for his speed and athleticism, though, and while his plate approach has taken a step back this year, it hasn't fallen completely apart. In spite of his middling numbers, Wilson still brings a lot of very good physical tools to the party, and could make an excellent pickup for a team willing to work with him to try and rediscover the potential he showed his first two seasons in college. I really like Wilson a lot, and would love to see the Cards take a flyer on him somewhere in the middle rounds. 

Josh Spence, LHP, Arizona State

Spence is a college senior, which could make him an attractive pick somewhere along the line if a team is trying to save a little, for instance if a team had a couple extra early picks. (hint, hint) He hasn't pitched at all this season because of a nerve problem in his elbow, but was drafted in the third round by the Angels last year. 

Spence has very little in the way of stuff, but he's consistently put up excellent numbers throughout his college career. (He was a juco transfer player.) He works his offspeed pitches well, and changes his arm angle around a little here and there to make it tough on hitters. In other words, he's every bit the classic crafty lefthander, and somehow those guys seem to always find a job. 

Spence's ceiling isn't much to talk about, but he lacks leverage in the draft and probably could move quickly through a minor league system if he's healthy. A team taking him will be looking for affordability and depth; in other words, he's not really my type of draft pick. Still, if he comes in to pro ball and can even turn himself into a LOOGY at the major league level, that's a savings right there as you don't have to pick a guy up off the free agent market. 

I read somewhere Spence could also take a medical redshirt and play another season, but I don't know enough about the rules of college athletics to know whether that's feasible or not. Maybe one of you is more acquainted with the NCAA procedures and could help me out. 

Mark Canha, 1B, UC Berkeley

We've seen in the past the Cardinals like to draft defensively limited players with big bats in the middle rounds (think Mark Hamilton), and Canha falls squarely into that category. He's a big, strong thumper from the right side of the plate who controls the plate well and punishes mistakes. Canha had a huge sophomore campaign, with a 1.084 OPS in 53 games. His numbers this year aren't as good; his OBP has barely changed (.450 to .446), but his slugging percentage has fallen over 100 points. It's possible it's just a case of him not getting as much to hit, but I don't know one way or the other, as I don't have any game video of him. 

Actually, I should probably compare Canha to Allen Craig instead of Mark Hamilton, as Canha did start part of this year in right field, and there's some thought he could play an outfield corner at the next level. He has average speed, and a strong throwing arm that would fit nicely in right. Regardless of what position a team might envision him playing, you're drafting Canha for his bat, and that bat is legit. He's got big-time power, though he's probably just an average pure hitter. If recent history is any indicator, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see the Cards at least take a good long look at Canha in the ~4th round or so. 

Mitchell Shifflett, OF, Cosby High School (Virginia)

Mitchell Shifflett is fast. No, wait. Let me restate that. Mitchell Shifflett is fast. There. Now the word fast looks sort of fast. (I wish I could add little contrails to it, but I don't seem to have a font like that on my computer.) And really, even fast looking fast may not be enough to describe how fast Mitchell Shifflett is. 

Mitchell Shifflett has been clocked running a 6.11 in the 60 yard dash. That's really, really fast. He gets from the right side of the plate down to first base in just about four seconds, which is still fast, but not quite as off-the-charts fast as his raw speed times. I'm not sure if that's something he could improve upon or not. 

Beyond being fast, Shifflett has plenty of potential in other areas, as well. He's an outstanding defender, thanks in large part to his ability to simply run the ball down, and has a decent throwing arm. It isn't the strongest, but he's fairly accurate and does a good job of throwing where he needs to, not always a given for a high school player. 

At the plate, he shows good contact ability and decent plate discipline, especially for a player coming out of high school. He doesn't show much in the way of power, but he has plenty of room to grow and it's possible he could develop some down the road. Even if he doesn't, he could very well end up a useful hitter in that Brett Butler/ Juan Pierre mold; a speedster at the top of the lineup who can get on base and use his legs to get creative. Add that to his ability to go get the ball in the outfield, and he could be a very solid player for someone down the road. Obviously, he has too many holes in his game to go high in the draft, but as a bit of a project guy, Shifflett offers pretty remarkable athleticism. 

Plus, he's fast. 

Shoot. I've got to go, guys. Something came up. I had a couple more players I wanted to cover, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get to them. Sorry to cut this off so suddenly, but I've got to do it. 

The Baron's Playlist for the 2nd of June, 2010 

"Come See About Me" - The Afghan Whigs

"They All Laughed" - The Spinto Band

"Already Died" - Eagles of Death Metal

"Light of the Morning" - Band of Skulls

"Radio Orlando" - Harlem Shakes

"Blood on Our Hands" - Death From Above 1979

"Everlasting Arm" - Mercury Rev

Pardon my ignorance.

You can still be a "knowledgeable" baseball fan without knowing everything. Just ask me and I will tell you....that I don't know it all.

Some things are done for a purpose, just like breathing for example. In some other things, their points of origin are not so easily decided.

Like road rage for example. It can turn an otherwise mild-mannered man into a junk yard dog in a heartbeat.

If you don't believe me, the next time you are out, cut somebody off in a lane, or take their parking spot from them.

Baseball has some funny quirks if you stop and think about it. I will run a few by you and show you what I am talking about.

What are those chalk lines beside first and third base? I was told they are coaches boxes, but they are never occupied. Why is that?

Speaking of the chalk lines, how about the one that goes about half way and parallel to the first base line? C'mon tell me, what is it for?

Why are bases 90 feet apart? Why not 100? 90 is a pretty strange number to decide upon, don't you agree? How about 75? That would at least make a 100-yard dash for an inside the park home run, not 120.

Any reason why first base is not third base and vice versa? In other words why run counter-clockwise? This isn't the Daytona 500 after all.

Why is a foul pole called a foul pole? Wouldn't fair pole be more like it? I mean, seriously, if the ball hits the pole on a fly it is a home run, right? Just askin'.

What is the difference between a pop-out and a fly-out? You know, "He popped out to the catcher....he hit a fly-out to the third baseman". How high does it have to go before it flies instead of pops?

What about the strip of dirt from the batting circle to the pitching mound? You know, like in Detroit, and many other old parks from days of yore?

It seems they were a bit wider to me, but what is the deal with them? Shouldn't the catcher have to walk inside the path to talk to the pitcher?

How come a guy on the Disabled List still wears his uniform in the dugout? Does he not have street clothes packed or what?

What's the deal? Football players don't dress, neither do basketball guys (cagers, I like that word).

Why do baseball managers wear uniforms? Football head coaches, and basketball head coaches don't. Football guys look cool with their "logo" shirts and khaki pants.

And the basketball coaches, they wear suits. Look at Rick Patino, the man is most
dapper. You couldn't tell him from a Fortune 500 CEO in a lineup (as long as they were wearing their suits).

Where do the broken, splintered bats go to?  Just askin'.

How about all those balls that the pitcher didn't like or the umpire thought was missing a stitch? Do they go to one of the farm teams of the home squad or what? Don't tell me they throw them away.

Speaking of the balls, does the umpire academy have a course called Ball Inspection 101? What the hell are they looking for in a new ball? Don't they know they were quality-control-inspected by an underpaid, overworked widow in Taiwan?

Why does Jay Bruce walk out of the batting circle after every pitch? Just askin'.

Where is the line that represents "too far out" to be considered for the infield fly rule? Ever wonder about that? I have seen it called at least 10 yards into the outfield grass, I know it has been further.

I have also seen it called on a ball that ended foul. If he dropped it would it still be an out or just a high strike?

How do they get the grass to look so cool on the new diamonds? Almost looks like they brought in the old guys that makes crop circles. The different patterns with light and darker grass, so cool, tell me so I can do it on my little yard.

Would you be able to switch your shortstop and pitcher to face a particular batter, without pulling your pitcher from the game?

Allow me to clarify. Mike Leake played SS as well as pitched in college. Let's say Ronny Cedeno owns him. When he comes up could Leake play shortstop and Paul Janish pitch to him then return? Think about it?

Umpires are not really blind, people just say that. But did an umpire really say to a catcher about a Nolan Ryan fastball, "It sounded high to me"?

That's all for now, answer any of these if you can, and I will submit for your perusal at another time.

More photos » Dave Einsel - AP

What will Gary Guyton's role be with the Patriots in 2010?

Browse more photos »

With training camp about two months away (and in the midst of OTA's and mini-camps), I thought that it would be good to begin to look into the major competitions surrounding the Patriots at training camp this year.  Today, we start with what should be one of the top competitions with the inside linebacker position.

Overview

Heading into training camp, inside linebacker looks to be one of the top competitions.  While 3rd year inside linebacker Jerod Mayo looks like a sure thing to hold down a spot at one inside linebacker position, it remains to be seen which position he will take (strong or weak), and who will be playing besides him.  The top competitors for the last starting spot are Gary Guyton, Tyrone McKenzie, and rookie Brandon Spikes.  Eric Alexander and Thomas Williams round out the position.

Projected Depth Chart

1. Jerod Mayo, #51 (WILB)

2. Brandon Spikes, #55 (SILB)

3. Gary Guyton, #59

4. Tyrone McKenzie, #44

Projected Cuts: Eric Alexander, #52; Thomas Williams, #48

Jerod Mayo, #51

Barring injury, Jerod Mayo will be holding down one of the two starting inside linebacker spots for the Patriots.  His rookie season, Mayo played the weak side, where he fit naturally.  Without having to stack and shed as much, Mayo roamed free, and used his athleticism to his advantage, on his way to Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.  Following Tedy Bruschi's retirement, Jerod Mayo was asked to slide over to the strong side, with Gary Guyton moving to the weak side.  While Guyton played well at his WILB position, Jerod Mayo had a tougher time fitting in as a strong inside linebacker due both to his skillset, and his injuries.  The best case scenario for Mayo would be to have one of the young guns (Spikes or McKenzie) step up and seize the strong inside linebacker position.  Chance to Start: 100% | Chance to Make Roster: 100%

Gary Guyton, #59

As a rookie in 2008, Gary Guyton played as a reserve inside linebacker, often coming in on passing downs and dropping into coverage.  In 2009, Gary Guyton became a full-time starter and was second on the team with 85 total tackles while playing and starting all sixteen games.  Guyton's downfall may be his position.  While he is a solid starter, he isn't a Jerod Mayo, and is also most comfortable on the weak side (doesn't have the brute strength to be effective on the strong side).  For Guyton to win a starting spot in 2010, he must really outshine Brandon Spikes and Tyrone McKenzie, while proving he shouldn't be taken off the field.  At a minimum, Guyton should still be a factor in pass coverage as well as 4-3 situations, and he will see his fair share of snaps in 2010.  Chance to Start: 15% | Chance to Make Roster: 99%

Rest of the group after the jump!

Tyrone McKenzie, #44

We all know the story with McKenzie: talented, hard working third round pick who had an unfortunate knee injury in rookie mini-camp last season causing him to "miss" the entire 2009 season.  The reason I put "miss" in quotations is because McKenzie, who coach Belichick lauded as being one of the most mature and hard working characters he's ever met in the pre-draft process, likely didn't take much time off due to the injury.  Knowing McKenzie's work ethic, it should be pretty obvious that he spent a lot of time in the weight room, film room, and with his playbook.  I would expect McKenzie, who should be fully recovered by now, to be ready both mentally and physically.  He is also reportedly up to 248 pounds.  He certainly has the bulk to play the strong side, have you seen the size of that man's neck?  While he isn't the fastest players, he also offers more speed than Brandon Spikes, and is able to do a little bit of everything. Chance to Start: 41% | Chance to Make Roster: 97%

Brandon Spikes, #55

Brandon Spikes was a second round pick of the Patriots just last month.  With his unique combination of size, strength, instincts, and smarts, he could very well play his way into a starting role with the Patriots in 2010.  Spikes is your prototypical thumper who can play strong inside linebacker.  While it may be hard to keep him in on passing situations because of his slow straight line speed (5.0 40 yard dash), he has good side to side movement.  Heck, he has got to be faster than guys like Junior Seau (at the end of his career) and Ted Johnson were.  Spikes has a good chance to start because he really complements Jerod Mayo well, and would allow Mayo to play on the weak side.  He's just got to prove he won't be a liability in coverage. Chance to Start: 43% | Chance to Make Roster: 100%

Eric Alexander, #52

Eric Alexander is a good special teams player, but he's never really been a factor as an every down inside linebacker.  Barring something drastic, he won't be starting for the Patriots in 2010.  He'll also have to battle for his roster spot with the likes of Thomas Williams and Marques Murrell for special teams.  If players like Guyton and McKenzie prove capable on the special teams level, Alexander could have a hard time holding onto a spot in 2010. Chance to Start: 1.5% | Chance to Make Roster: 25%

Thomas Williams, #48

The former USC product was selected in the fifth round out of USC by the Jaguars in the 2008 NFL Draft.  The Patriots added him to their practice squad in November, where he spent the rest of the regular season before being promoted to the 53 before the Patriots' playoff game against the Ravens.  Williams is a longer shot to make the roster, and will have to prove his worth through his play on special teams. Chance to Start: 0.5% | Chance to Make Roster: 3%

FINAL VERDICT: Due to Jerod Mayo's play on the weak side, I give the starting nod to Brandon Spikes who will be a natural fit as a SILB.  I think Tyrone McKenzie could play that role as well, but I gave it to Spikes just because of his instincts and his higher ceiling.  Gary Guyton will still have an integral rotation in the Patriots linebacker corps, just not as a starter.  I think McKenzie will see some time, but will also be a big part of special teams, which just may cost Eric Alexander his roster spot.

Behind the Steel Curtain was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with former Steelers great and current ESPN NFL analyst, Merril Hoge. One of our regulars, Andrew Friedman (5020) recently ran into Hoge and told him about the site and our community. Hoge, who has a book coming out in early September, agreed to speak to us about his project and the Steelers, past and present.

Before continuing on, a brief word about Hoge's book, titled 'Find A Way: Thee Words That Changed My Life'. Firstly, you can read about the book on Hoge's website. Note as well that if you pre-order the book, you're automatically entered to win a trip for two to ESPN to hang out in the ESPN NFL studios with Hoge. Based on our conversation with him today, I can say that this will be a nice treat for somebody. Hoge was very friendly, personable, and seemingly a great guy to hang out and talk football with. $1 of every purchase will also go to Caring Place or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can pre-order the book here.

Before we get to it, a few words from Andrew.

-Michael Bean-

During my travels I have had the pleasure of meeting Merril Hoge several times. Hoge is a staple on the motivational speaking circuit with several major corporations. He is quite good at it. His folksy nature and down to earth style have made him a mainstay at ESPN as an NFL analyst. He's quite good at that too. As a Running Back for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1987-1993, Hoge personified the image of the Pittsburgh Steelers as a rugged and hard hitting overachiever. He was hard working and dedicated and delivered for the Steeler Nation in the clutch. His back to back 100 yard performances in the 1989 playoffs was a legendary chapter in Steelers lore. Of all the Steelers teams that didn't win the Super Bowl, that underdog 1989 team on an apparent run for the ages was always my favorite.

Merril Hoge of today is still the dedicated hard working guy he was with the Steelers. He is also humble, respectful of the Steeler Nation and has an inspirational story. Hoge is also an author who wanted to reach out to the Steeler Nation and share his story. He took the time to speak to Michael Bean and I recently to discuss his pending book "Find A Way" his inspiring journey through life and some inside scoop on his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hope everyone enjoys. - Andrew Friedman (5020)-

**************

On his new book due out in early Septemeber:

"The title of it is 'Find A Way' and the title came from an experience I had when I was 12 years old. I was putting up a goal on a wall that was all made of cork, and the goal was I am going to play in the NFL. The goal was just above my bed. So as I was standing on my bed and I pinned that goal up, it was just kind of a moment of truth where I was just trying to think about everything that had been said to me. If there's one thing about little kids, they're free. They're free of worries, statistics and odds. I never heard anything good though. I used to hear things like 'oh Merril, do you know how hard that is?' Or 'Merril, nobody from PP Idaho can go to the NFL.' Or 'the odds are against you, don't put all your eggs in that basket.'"

"And really as I thought about it, I thought technically they're all true but you know, I thought, I'm going to have to find a way to beat the odds. And I thought well that's it. So I jumped down, I had one 8X10 card left so I wrote 'Find A Way'. That I put at the top and all my goals fell under it. Now what it did on that day, which I didn't realize until later in life, is that those words helped me channel the energy into making that goal happen. And it not only helped me make that goal happen, a few years later I also botched my hand in a farming accident. A few years after that my mom passed away suddenly. My career ended traumatically with head trauma. Five years after that I was diagnosed with cancer. And my 'find a way' philosophy has implemented all of those areas of my life"

"And with that said, with every one of those experiences, there's been somebody or a series of people that have been significant in helping me do that. So I didn't do it by myself - I've had so many people along the way help me find my way. But I have been given the responsibility of choosing what energy I'm going to give and in what direction. And my own daughter, when I was diagnosed with cancer, when I went to tell them - I'm going to tell you, I was thinking about how many months I had to live and that I was going to die shortly. And she's the one who said to me 'Dad, you're going to have to find a way.' Now, she only said it to me because I had been saying it to her in trying to help her as a parent, trying to teach her things and help her get engaged. She's the one who really inspired me to change my energy and my approach."

"So that's what the book is about. I'm hoping when a person closes it, they realize the magic and the potential that they have within them, and that they reevaluate where their energy is going. Hopefully the book can trigger somebody to redirect and go in the right way, to overcome or deal with something they have, or achieve a goal that they've set for themself."

On when he decided he needed to share his story by writing a book and how long it took him to complete the writing:

"Well it took a little over 7 years, and the thought was actually presented to me when I was sitting on my chemotherapy chair on my last treatment. A good friend of mine came for that last treatment and we documented the day video-wise. We hired a video crew and they were filming the day and he was just asking me questions. And I was sharing with him that story about Corey [his daughter] that I just shared with you. And he was like 'when did you come up with that?' Then I told him the story which I told you at the start, and he was like 'Merril, what are you doing? You have to write a book about that!'

"At that point, I was just hanging on, I was just trying to survive - my last treatment was brutal. And it wasn't until a little later that I started to think about it and it was really through his probing and his inspiration. But when I really started to go 'gosh, you know what? So many people have helped me find my way. If this would help somebody find their way, if it would help them, then I'm going to do it"

"So I started the process of finding somebody to help me write it, a publisher, and then finally concluding it. It took a little over 7 years getting that process done."

Of his myriad accomplishments, where does completing the book rank in terms of bringing him satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment:

"You know, that's an interesting question, because I didn't set out for this to be personal. And I don't know if I had any objective behind it other than to write and put it to together and hopefully help others with it. But as it has started to evolve, it's actually been pretty powerful. I've already given a bunch of interviews on T.V. and radio, and I've already had people on my website who have responded about how they have listened to the message and have been like 'what am I doing?!' And they change their attitude, and they have all these stories. In fact, at my golf tournament, a lady is going to come and she's going to share her story which I'm going to put on my website, about how her company was really in dismay, all they thought about was what happened, that's where all their energy was. And after she heard me on the radio she came in and said, 'enough of that, we're taking our energy and we're going to make this happen, we're not going to worry about what's happened.' And she told about how that changed it. They started to get these clients and these accounts. So when you hear that, that's what I did it for - to hear those kinds of stories."

On if there's a story from the book that he wouldn't mind sharing with Steeler Nation:

"Well I think one of the most powerful things that ever happened to me in my life was when I was about 15, and this was a few years later after I had put up 'Find A Way' up on my wall, I was in the process of finding a way. I though, I ought to find out what those guys in the NFL did to get there? What did they do to get there? What do they do now that makes them so great? Ironically, at the time my favorite player was Walton Payton. And he was actually putting out this VHS about his training, his charities, kind of his personal life. And I had to have it, I wanted to find out, because in it there was going to be a golden gem, there was going to be something that tells me about what makes him special, or what he does to make him so great or help him do what he does. I actually found one at the time before one would think. It was part of the interview process he was being asked, what makes him better than everybody else. And I remember he paused a second and he said 'well, that's easy. I want it more than they do. Every day of the week. That means Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You just see Sunday.'"

(Hoge's childhood idol, 'Sweetness', dives over the pile against Hoge's Steelers in '87)

"I was like oh my gosh. He didn't talk about being bigger, faster, stronger - which is all part of it, you've got to do those things. But he talked about how he practiced, how he prepared, how he trained, and how that translates to how he played. I was like, I can do that! So I applied it. I practiced harder than anybody, I trained harder than anybody, I played harder than anybody. And just to confirm that that's not lip service, 15 years later I'm playing for the Chicago Bears, the same trainers and equipment staff was there that was there when Peyton was. So one of the things I enjoyed doing before practice when I was getting taped, is I would ask Fred Cato, the trainer at the time, for a story about Walter. I had learned more about Peyton, who he was, the player he was, the character he was, the person he was. Well one day I get on the table and a teammate of mine next to me says 'oh baby, I've got a story. My turn, I'll tell you a story."

"He was drafted the same year that I was, but he was drafted by the Bears. He said I couldn't wait to meet Peyton and the first thing I wanted was I wanted to train with him. He said he had seen all those dirt hills he had ran and said he wanted to be a part of that, do that, etc."

"So he asked Sweetness of he could train with him and Walter was like yeah, sure. So they set a day and a time that they were going to go train. He said 'I was there early and I couldn't wait.' And Walter pulls up in his red Ferrari, and he's got his sweatbands, his headband on, his wristbands on and he looked sweet. He goes 'we warmed up and then we walked over to that dirt hill. It's about 80 yards up and about a 60% grade, I mean the bad boy's almost straight up. He said we shot up that hill and when I got to the top, he said, I tell you, I could literally see my heart move in my ribcage I was breathing so hard. And then he said reality kicked in and he said, man, this ain't no joke! But our rest period was when he walked down, and so because he was having a hard time breathing, he couldn't even talk. So about halfway down he finally got the breath to talk, and he reached over and reached over to Peyton and said, 'how many of these are we going to run?' And he said Walter looked over at him and he looked like he had done nothing but walk up that hill and said, 'we're going to do ten.' And he said that's not the number I was hoping for. So he said they walked back to the bottom of the hill, they turn around and start to back up the hill. He goes, 'I get half way up, I stop, I walk down, I go to my car and I go home. But then what he said next confirms everything that he said on that table. He said, 'I'm going to tell you this. Bottom line is that dude just wants it more than I do.'"

"Walter Payton was 5'10", 205 pounds; Maurice Douglas was 5'10", 205 pounds. Maurice Douglas played defensive back - and he was a good one, don't get me wrong - but Walter Payton was the best. Ever.It just goes to show that his mindset wasn't like that. He just chose and said, it ain't going to be like that. And he was honest with that. But it does show you that when you choose that way of attacking things, it does make a significant impact on your life."

(Hoge grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. Population: ~50,000)

On his experience playing for Coach Chuck Noll:

"You know what? I can honestly say that for those five years that I sat there and was engaged with him, if there's ever a time in one's life where you say, okay, this right here is going to be a part of history. You're going to reflect on these moments forever, every day that I sat down and listened to him guide us, especially on Mondays or Tuesdays when we would hold our team meetings, to be able to sit and watch his leadership and learn from it has been invaluable to me. I'm a youth coach now, and every lesson I learned and everything I started to learn as a young man - I was 21 and I wish I had known when I was about 10 or 11 - I'll be able to give to these kids. But he's the greatest teacher and the greatest leader that I have ever been around"

On how he thinks Noll is every bit deserving of being mentioned in the same class as Vince Lombardi:

"I think Vince Lombardi is really talked about as being a great teacher, being a great motivator. You can say Chuck Noll and Vince Lombardi in the same breath, and there would be no disrespect to either man. Either man would be complimented by being mentioned with the other."

On what Noll said to his 89 team after they had lost the first two games by a combined score of 92-10:

You know what? He gave one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard. He went over and said, we've got to revisit it, how we got beat 92-10. He revisited the things that were going on in the media about us. And if I remember right, he kind of wrote some things up on the board, showed us some clips. Then he stood in front of us, paused for a second and said, 'I believe in you.'

"And I tell you what, even today when I say that I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I was like 'man, if he still believes in us, we just got whipped 92-10. They think this guy can't coach a lick. They've got 'Chuck Must Go' signs everywhere. They're hanging him from the rafters. This guy's got more pressure than us and he believes in us. But  then he goes, this is what I have to have you do, and then he mapped out the changes we were going to make in how we were going to play, collectively and individually. When we followed the instructions, we were going to turn it around.  And we did. And it was...listen, I never won a Super Bowl, but I can tell you that year was like a Super Bowl season in my career."

On the Steelers shocking win over the Houston Oilers in the opening round of the 1989 playoffs:

"Oh man, I will tell you this. I remember one of our veterans Keith Willis, he was talking about 'how this was about to change boys. This playoff experience is a different game.' And it was my first experience being in the playoffs. Man, just the energy on that field. And actually it's the one thing that I've been able to do -  which really does speak to competition, and it almost speaks to really what my book is about - when you walk inside the lines in those pressure cooker moments, you're either in that huddle thinking about 'oh my gosh, I don't want to fumble, or I don't want to be the guy making the mistake', or you're in that huddle going 'baby, give me the ball so I can make all the plays, and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.' I've always had that attitude and in that game, there were a lot of things at stake in that game because Jerry Glanville was still the head coach. And Jerry Glanville, he supposedly had a team that was going to win it all. They had beaten us twice n the regular season and they weren't respecting us all that much. And actually, we knew if we won that game, there was a 100% chance that Jerry Glanville was going to get fired, which ended up happening. There was just so much riding on that game more than just winning it. We knew there was jobs at stake. If Chuck loses that one, we knew if we lost that one on the road too, people would be like oh, you guys got lucky. We had to win one of them on the road. We had to. And we played as well as we could as a team, and at the most critical moment of the game we played our best."

On the play made by Rod Woodson in overtime that put the Steelers in position to knock off Houston:

"When you think about the great plays in Steelers history, I think that's one of them. I think our punter snubbed a punt, they had great field position and that just saved us. That gave us the opportunity to win that game because if I remember, they had scored on their last two possessions to put them ahead. And then we scored to tie it up, so we hadn't stopped them the last few series. SO for him to do that...we knew this, when we walked out on that field, we knew the Houston Oilers weren't coming back on that field; we were going to finish that bad boy."

On the Divisional Round thriller against the Broncos at Mile High the following week:

"That game was actually the most magical of them all because even during the course of the game, we were doing things that they just couldn't stop. And then there were things that they knew we were going to do that they still couldn't stop. I've always said that the only stat that matters in football is turnovers, and that's all that matters. That's what cost us that game. I want to say we had three in that game, and if we have zero, we probably beat them by 17."

On what it was like in the huddle before that final drive and why Dermontti Dawson wasn't in the game for it (the Steelers, in case you forgot, turned the ball over late in the game to Elway's Broncos following an inopportune botched snap between backup center Chuck Lanza)

"Oh yeah, he was concussed, he leaves. Chuck Lanza comes out there. There's a couple things - that was the only game I played where literally I had butterflies the entire game. There's a feeling and emotion that you have right before competition, it existed the whole game. They were dialing up my number a lot, and everything was so critical. Everything was always a 3rd down or some critical moment in the game.  And those are the things you live for, to have those opportunities. But those last few minutes, I'm telling you, we were almost in the exact same scenario against Houston the week before, and I remember it being so loud. I was like, it cannot get louder. No way. And I'm telling you could see the ground was shaking in the stadium that day, And it was louder than when we were in Houston. In the huddle, all you could do was read lips, and since you'd done it for so long, if you heard a word or two, you knew what you were doing. But I've never had that experience before - to feel almost like a minor earthquake. I mean, that place was just erupting. And we have so much time and two timeouts, and we've got the best kicker in football...first of all, we ain't got to score a touchdown. We've got all day long to do that.  And then we get a bad snap from a guy who hadn't played very long and we never see the ball again."

(Chuck Noll leading the Steelers onto the field at Denver)

On just how tough that loss was to swallow:

"Sickening. Very sickening actually."

On the play in that game John Jackson

"Well you know, John Jackson brings that up a lot. And I'm like, see, this is what I do for a living now - I go in and watch and study tape and bring out things people miss and give them insights that they wouldn't know otherwise. If you notice, I had to side-step Steve Atwater. Then I had a linebacker grab my jersey and nearly pull me down on the ground, all while John Jackson is form running a 100-yard dash when he could have blocked somebody. People are like how did you let a tackle out run you? And I'm like well because I got the rest of the team hanging on me because he won't block anybody. So I go, the next time John wants to race me, I'm happy to do it, but I'm not going to have five guys draped on my back. It will be a different story there."

On when Noll announced his retirement plans and the transition to Coach Cowher in '92:

"You know, that change was pretty significant. Noll had been there not only the five years I had been there, my first five years, but what 22, 23 years, whatever it was? It was significant. And there was really a few weeks there, or few days, I forget how long, but there was just a lot of uncertainty at that time. And then when they hired Bill Cowher, I remember a lot of people were like I wouldn't want to be that guy. And in retrospect now, it was, yeah I would want to be that guy. He inherited a bunch of men that knew how to play football. We were young too. We were young and we didn't really have to be trained about how to play, we just needed a guy who's going to be able to understand our strengths and coach to those. Which he did. Like our offense for example. We were a physical, running team. And we had a tight end that could block. We were not a real vertical passing team. That's the kind of coordinator he got, Ron Erhardt. We catered to our strengths, we changed the game."

On how the Steelers personnel in the early 90s prompted the defensive coaching staff to tinker with implementing a zone blitz scheme:

"The zone blitz developed because of our defense and the coaching staff we had - Bill, Dom Capers, Dick LeBeau, and Marvin Lewis. We didn't have any dominant pass rushers, so that's how we came up with the zone blitz pressure. That's how the thought process started. We thought, we don't have a dominant guy, how can we bring pressure but not create vulnerability. We got Kevin Greene in free agency, you know what, it wasn't what we needed, he wasn't a dominant guy. But he was versatile enough that theyjust came up with the zone pressure, that's when they did it."

On playing for the Rooney family:

"I don't know if I've got the vocabulary to explain that family. Art, the Chief, Dan, they reek of class, they're fair, they're giving, they're genuine, they're stern and the reputation they have established, that organization, to be that consistent all these years, at the end of the day it speaks to the top, it speaks to how the Rooney's carry themselves, and the things they have done. It was an amazing experience."

On Big Ben being out of second chances, and what he admires about fans of the six-time SB champion Steelers:

"Ben has no more room for error, I believe he knows that, and I think Steeler Nation is clear that they understand. That's the thing about Steelers fans...I've tried to explain it, this may be the best example, it may be a bad way to kind of explain it, but they don't just know football, they believe in the game and what it can make you as a person. And part of that is how you carry yourself, the conduct that they expect, and how they want to be represented. They're not fans that are like, 'oh, we don't care what you do, whatever you need to do, we just want to win.' They're not the freakin' Black Hole, they're not the Raiders. They understand the depths of this game like no other fans. I've always said...I'm actually going back to Pittsburgh right now. Honestly, you'd think I'd won four Super Bowls there the way they treat me. I'm always like, how is that? I think I've finally got a grasp of it a little bit. This is all they ask, and don't get me wrong, they want to win, but if you lay it all out there on every game, they'll accept whatever results they get. Most times you do that you're going to win, but they accept that. And they know it. You can't fool 'em, you can't go out there and play half speed sometimes, then full-speed at others. They'll figure you out in a heartbeat. They know. And I've always respected that about the fans. And honestly, and this goes all the way back to what the Chief started, they expect you to give back. I don't want to say expect, that's the wrong. They give you so much that how can you not give back? And when you don't they're like, 'whaaaat?' I get that. Mr. Rooney was like that, the Chief was like that, Art's like that, Chuck Noll was like that."

On if he thinks that Ben's suspension will prompt the Steelers to run the ball, and if he thinks Bruce Arians will limit the playbook significantly for either Dixon, Leftwich or Batch:

"Well, they lost that element a long time ago. Listen, Rashard Mendenhall may be the most physical runner in the game, he's just got to get enough touches to do it. So I don't think there's any question. I think they're going to do it no matter what, even if Ben is in there. Charlie Batch has been in that system as long I believe as Ben, and Dixon in his third year, there's some things he hasn't seen and hasn't done, and they might limit him a little bit, but not as if he was a rookie. So, they may shave a little bit of it off, but they shouldn't have to shave much."

On if he thinks the Steelers can reclaim the top spot in the AFC North this year or if he thinks either Cincinnati or Baltimore will win the division:

"Oh no this division to me, those three teams are about as even as they come. I think they have as good a shot as the Bengals or the Ravens."

On his post-football career as an NFL analyst for ESPN, and on what similarities there perhaps are between the way he approaches his work today and the way he prepared as a football great:

"Everything I learned in between the white lines I've applied to this field, and any other field I'd get into. I have had to be as prepares as you could possibly be in order to be successful. And that requires a lot of diligent work, and a lot of dirty work. You know, watching tape for 10, 11 hours a day for four or five days is technically not that fun after awhile. Because it's hard. But it's the only way to find out the truth, and then bring that to the viewers. It's the only way. With that process, I've learned that just pays off. You do all of that, you apply it, fans start to resonate with that. But I've enjoyed it too. I sure don't feel like I used to on Mondays anymore. That's one thing that's different."

On the possibility of him getting into coaching someday beyond the Youth League that he's currently involved with:

"I'd never say no to that because it's something I've always felt was in my blood. And I just enjoy teaching. Chuck was just such an impact, that listen, if I could impact somebody like he has in my life, oh man, jeez. Just think about that if everybody impacted someone else for the greater good of a human's life, just think about what that would do for this world. So I have thought about that, a lot of different aspects."

***********

Many thanks again to Mr. Hoge and be sure to check out his book project on his website, www.merrilhoge.com

More photos » Elaine Thompson - AP

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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It's my nature to immediately dislike a guy from USC, as I haven't been impressed with too many guys from there in the NFL, and I went to school in South Bend.  However, I'm starting to warm to non-skill position players from Trojan land, and I think the Colts did all right with CB Kevin Thomas.

Forget the fact that nobody talked about him before the draft.  I went back and watched some game highlights, and looked at some numbers, and I think he'll fit the Colts new scheme on defense, which may include more man-to-man than we're used to seeing from the Colts (according to Coach Caldwell).  Here's some numbers:

He played mostly Nickel as a Junior, and (from looking at highlights) seemed to play Left CB last season, as the starter.  He had over 4 tackles / game, which seems high for a CB, but it makes sense.  Teams were able to move the ball throwing it against USC last year, and a good chunk of it was to TEs.  Thomas wasn't covering them, but helped on the tackle (23 were assists).  The high number also tells you that when the WR does make the catch, Thomas can bring him down.  No CB will be able to defend every pass, so they absolutely need to be able to tackle.  I think Thomas can do that.

The lack of INTs is a little worrisome, but the extremely high number of pass deflections makes up for it.  It's hard to tell whether he'd have more INTs if he was in better position, but the fact that, even if he was out of position, he came back and at least broke the play up, is a good sign.  Here's some highlights, mostly pass break-ups.  It looks like he's in good position, and not trying to catch the ball.

See how Thomas did against various WRs last season after the jump...

These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as they aren't exact by any means.  These are stats from the teams' best WR, even though Thomas may not have been covering him the entire game.  TDs in Red are the ones Thomas was not responsible for.

Overall these are pretty good, and I believe shows improvement over the course of the season.  Golden Tate beat him for 1 of his 2 TDs:  A skinny post from about the 15 yard line.  It was clearly zone coverage, and Taylor Mays was late getting there to help, and Tate scored.  Sure there's some fault to Thomas for giving him that much room, but it looked like he had outside coverage, and Tate went inside.

One of the other TDs, to ASU's Chris McGaha, it looked like he got caught looking at the QB, when the QB was looking to the other side of the field.  I understand in college QBs don't do that as often in the NFL, but he better not get caught doing that again, as it is inexcusable.  I'm sure Pete Carroll pointed this out to him.

I also didn't include the bowl game against BC, because he played the whole game, and had just one pass deflection and no tackles.  It seems they just avoided him at all costs, which is (usually) a sign of a good CB.  Teams don't throw at Revis or Asamugha.  I'll take this as a good sign.

He looks like a good fit for the Colts, picked around where some thought he would be, after his workouts:

Thomas' Combine performance also showed scouts he has NFL-caliber athleticism (4.41-second 40-yard dash, 19 bench reps at 225 pounds, excellent shuttle times). If team doctors write off the injuries he had early in his USC career, there's no reason to think Thomas can't be a top 100 pick.

He went 94 overall.  I hope he turns out like the last CB the Colts drafted that nobody had heard of.  Here's to the real death of the 3rd round curse.

On Friday, April 16, the San Francisco 49ers sent a fifth round draft pick (the 145th overall in the upcoming draft) to the Miami Dolphins for former Ohio State Buckeye stand-out Ted Ginn Jr.

This marked the first major move for the team since the departure of former GM Scott McCloughan and naming of Trent Baalke as de facto GM. But where does this move leave the 49ers as they approach the draft later this week?

Ginn was taken ninth overall by the Miami Dolphins in the 2007 draft after a strong college career with Ohio State. He posted one of the fastest 40 yard dash times in the history of the NFL combine: just 4.28 seconds.

Ginn’s capabilities as an NFL receiver were questioned by many, and in his young career thus far, those concerns have proved to be quite valid. His return capabilities, however, have been more promising.

In three seasons with the Dolphins, Ginn amassed 92 kick returns longer than 20 yards, and seven longer than 40 yards. He averaged 23.0 yards per kick return, 8.7 per punt return and scored three touchdowns overall. In Week Eight against the Jets last season, he became the only player in NFL history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns of 100 yards or longer in the same game.

The 49ers were in need of help in the return game, with Arnaz Battle gone to Pittsburgh and Allen Rossum gone since the signing of Michael Crabtree. Ted Ginn Jr. provides an instant jolt of explosive potential to 49ers return game, with perhaps even a greater upside than Rossum gave the 49ers special teams when he signed from Pittsburgh in 2008.

Ginn’s potential as an offensive weapon is still in question as his professional career at WR has been marked by unimpressive route-running capabilities and critical dropped passes. His physical stature essentially precludes him from being a top-two receiver, but with proper coaching and development, he could still potentially contribute in a spread offense from the slot.

His speed and play-making ability will likely entice the 49ers to at least test the waters of using him in such a role, much as they did with Allen Rossum during his tenure with the team.

It is unclear how this move will truly affect the draft posture of the 49ers, mostly because nobody is really sure what that posture was to begin with.

I personally was never sold on the idea that the 49ers were or should have been strongly targeting C.J. Spiller, but this move would seem to suggest that even if Spiller falls to No. 13 (highly unlikely in my mind), he will no longer be high on the 49ers board.

A fifth round pick seems like quite a bargain for a player with the potential upside (unproven as it may be) of Ginn. Later-round selections (even in a draft with as much depth as this year’s) are always a gamble, and investing a fifth round pick in a player who has at least some proven ability is a good option if it is available.

The Ginn trade certainly will not increase the chances that the 49ers target Jordan Shipley in the draft, but it should not completely rule it out either. Shipley seems to have much higher upside as a pure receiver (still an area of need at the depth level in San Francisco), and imagine the type of fireworks with Shipley and Ginn on the same return team.

This trade may also raise Toby Gerhart on the 49ers draft board, as the argument that a C.J. Spiller or Javid Best could contribute in the return game is no longer as big a factor. Gerhart possesses an incredible blend of speed and power which reminds me of Tom Rathman. With Tom Rathman back on the 49ers coaching staff as RB coach, I would be extremely intrigued to watch Gerhart develop on the 49ers.

Keep the Faith!

When the San Francisco Giants break home ground on the 2010 season, there will be several compelling reasons to scale the walls at 24 Willie Mays Plaza.

The home opener is always a momentous occasion for any franchise, and Friday at AT&T Park will be no different. Granted, the bigger parties will be over the weekend when two Bay Area favorites get the spotlight.

On Saturday, the baby face of the franchise, Tim Lincecum, gets his hardware for a second consecutive National League Cy Young Award. Ho-hum, show me something new Timmy...

On Sunday, San Francisco will celebrate the 2000 squad that won the NL West pennant, christening the yard more affectionately known as Pac Bell (which is sort of sad if you think about it) in the process.

Rumor has it that Jeff Kent and Barry Lamar Bonds will darken the stadium's door. Neither was absolutely beloved by the faithful due to rather prickly demeanors, but both were adored within the foul lines.

Of course, you cannot say the all-timers adored each other.

Their 2002 dugout scuffle has become infamous, yet its imprint can't be considered outsized. The large fuss over a tiny "brawl" becomes appropriate when you consider the incident represented a larger and often contentious (from most accounts) relationship between two future residents of Cooperstown.

Time heals and mellows, so there's about a 95 percent chance the two will make or have made nice and will honor the spirit of the moment.

But that five percent wild card adds a dash of mystery to an already spectacle-filled weekend.

Regardless, the first game on the home slate still will be a party. Especially because of the second-most prominent storyline: The 2010 Giants are coming off a three-game sweep of the Astros in Houston.

A broom-job is no minor miracle in the big leagues, but one on the road against any caliber of competition is reason to shake off the rust on your fanaticism. As is the first substantial test of the year.

Based on the earliest of early returns, the degree of difficulty attached to the Atlanta Braves signifies a considerably more intimidating challenge than that of the 'Stros.

All the more so because, on paper, the starting pitching for the three-game series favors the Bravos. Even with the Freak taking his second turn of 2010 in the finale.

That means Jonathan Sanchez must pitch through the adrenaline of San Francisco's maiden voyage by the Bay, Todd Wellemeyer will have to make good on his spring promise, and/or the offense needs to keep raking like it did in Minute Maid Park.

This latter point bears further emphasis because, even if the arms continue to dazzle, it's safe to assume Los Gigantes will need as many or more runs than they scored in Houston. The Senior Circuit's tribe has a wee bit more thump that the Astros.

Chipper Jones looks better, Brian McCann is a stud, Martin Prado might burst into flame at any moment, Troy Glaus has begun to stir, Yunel Escobar is dangerous, and even Melky Cabrera/Nate McLouth can hurt you.

As can that new kid, what's his name again? I think it's Justin something...

The San Francisco crowd will have the distinction of being the first to welcome Jason Heyward to the hostile world of road baseball in the bigs. He's become a household name in the span of one month, and not even a month that sees real baseball.

That's pretty incredible.

March is exhibition territory, but launching big flies that do property damage will get the hype-ball rolling in most situations. So will doing it for your hometown organization&mdash;the 20-year-old phenom was born in Jersey, but grew up near Hotlanta and played high school ball down there.

The Disney flourish to Heyward's major league tale came when he yanked a Carlos Zambrano offering DEEP into right field for a home run in his first at-bat in The Show. I had the good fortune of tuning in right as Big Z let go of the pitch, so I saw lift-off.

It was a beautiful thing to every baseball fan except those wearing Chicago Cubs gear. Probably a few them, too.

However, I was more impressed by his first AB against the Cubbies on Thursday.

Over 100 pros have hit taters in their first trip to the plate, and more pitchers have done it than Hall of Famers (and one of those is in Canton, not Cooperstown). Crazy things happen in baseball, so running into one during your first trip to the batter's box is cute, but it's hardly the mark of excellence.

On the other hand, a nine-pitch at-bat in which the youngster fouled off three bullets and took a fourth for a ball after two empty swings? Now we're talkin'.

Sure, Randy Wells induced a weak fielder's choice with the ninth pitch of the confrontation. Nevertheless, I'd call that a draw since Wells was dealing all afternoon.

As John Smoltz remarked during the MLB Network telecast, Heyward still has some blatant vulnerabilities such as being overaggressive. Like many green superstars-to-be, the top prospect in all of baseball tends to attack early and often.

Against Chicago's lethal-but-erratic closer Carlos Marmol, the approach earned Jason a three-pitch whiff without the courtesy of a single offering in the strike zone.

Additionally, the left-handed-hitting right fielder is 0-for-3 against southpaws with two strikeouts. That's an absurdly small sample size from which to draw even a hint of a conclusion, but it bears mentioning with Sanchez starting the first of three.

With Lincecum penciled in for Sunday afternoon and a bullpen stocked with live arms (Jeremy Affeldt and Dan Runzler are both lefties), the San Francisco Giants should be equipped to baptize Jason Heyward by fire.

And, if not, at least there's only water beyond right field.

**www.pva.org**

The 2010 NFL Draft is later this month, and there is already plenty of speculation about which QB will go first, and which DT is a better choice, and which teams will trade up for a higher draft pick. The stakes for the teams are huge, as a failed draft pick will not only waste millions of dollars in salary but will also come with a high opportunity cost. So there is a strong incentive to get the decision right, and to have a decision-making system that leads to the right personnel pick.

And yet, that hasn't happened. Instead, NFL teams remain tethered to useless metrics. Just look at the NFL scouting combine, which is a big job fair for prospective NFL players. (The combine includes everything from the 40 yard dash to a batter of psychological tests.) In recent years, the combine has become a major press event, and teams regularly cite combine results when justifying draft picks. But this is a mistake, as the combine is a big waste of time:

Combine measures examined in this study include 10-, 20-, and 40-yard dashes, bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, 20- and 60-yard shuttles, three-cone drill, and the Wonderlic Personnel Test. Performance criteria include 10 variables: draft order; 3 years each of salary received and games played; and position-specific data. Using correlation analysis, we find no consistent statistical relationship between combine tests and professional football performance, with the notable exception of sprint tests for running backs. From a practical standpoint, the results of the study should encourage NFL team personnel to reevaluate the usefulness of the combine's physical tests and exercises as predictors of player performance. This study should encourage team personnel to consider the weighting and importance of various combine measures and the potential benefits of overhauling the combine process, with the goal of creating a more valid system for predicting player success.

In How We Decide, I devote a few pages to critiquing the Wonderlic, which is an intelligence test given to players at the combine. While Wonderlic scores are seen as important for prospective QB's, there is scant evidence that the test predicts QB success. The underlying reason, I think, is that the kind of logical, abstract intelligence measured by the Wonderlic has little to do with the kind of decisions made on the football field; knowing pre-algebra doesn't help you find the open man.

The larger lesson of the NFL draft is that it illustrates the astonishing difficulty of predicting success. Think about all the advantages that NFL teams have: years of detailed performance data from college and high school games; quantitative results from the combine; the ability to conduct personal interviews; thorough medical reports and drug tests; press coverage, etc. In other words, they know more about the people they're drafting than just about any other employers on the planet. Nevertheless, they still can't consistently predict which 350 pound offensive linemen will be able to block, and which QB's will be able to endure the rigors of a blitzing defense, and which wide receivers will stay motivated even when they don't get the ball. If these teams can't get it right, with all this data and expertise, then how the hell can the rest of us? If we can't even evaluate a narrow and specific athletic skill, then how can we ever expect to retain the best teachers, or pick the best politicians, or fund the best scientists, or hire the best executives?

But wait - it gets worse. Not only have NFL teams failed to find relevant and reliable variables for predicting future player performance, but they frequently pretend as though they know exactly what they're doing. Instead of embracing their ignorance, most NFL teams default into overconfidence, which is why they regularly trade up draft picks. (The teams are so convinced that they've the identified the perfect player that they are willing to pay much higher salary and relinquish future draft picks.) Cade Massey and Richard Thaler have a new paper that looks at the "return on value" from early draft picks. They conclude that, on average, the first pick in the draft is the least valuable in the entire first round. Here's Thaler explaining this research:

If the market for draft picks were "efficient," meaning that the prices reflected intrinsic value, the resulting value for a team that trades up for a higher pick should be equal to the value of the picks it gives up. The price of moving up is steep: to move from the 11th pick to the 5th pick, for example, a team would have to forfeit its second-round pick as well. To be worth it, the player taken just six picks earlier would have to be a whole lot better -- because both of the players given up could have become stars, too.

How confident should a team be that this early pick is better? Suppose we rank all the players at a given position -- running back, linebacker, etc. -- in the order they were picked in the draft, then compare any two in consecutive order on the list. What do you think is the chance that the player picked higher will turn out to be better -- as judged, say, by number of games started in his first five years in the league?

If teams knew nothing, the answer would be 50 percent, as it would be for flipping a coin. If they had perfect knowledge, the answer would be 100 percent. Go ahead, make your guess.

The answer is 52 percent -- an outcome that is barely better than that of a coin flip.

What this research makes clear is that powerful incentives don't automatically lead to better decisions or effective models. (Not that we needed the NFL as proof - just look at Wall Street.) Even when our biases are penalized - and the sin of overconfidence has cost NFL teams a lot of money - we still cling to them. The powers of market forces are no substitute for a little self-awareness.

In my opininon, with the likes of Peyton Manning and Chris Johnson in the NFL, it's just outside Aaron Rodgers' grasp to win the MVP title next season.

But, there's little question that Rodgers plays at an MVP level.

I've waited forever to see the 26&mdash;year&mdash;old Rodgers throw four touchdowns in a single game and it finally happened in a playoff game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Though the game came to great disappointment to Packer fans, we must see the extremely bright future to come with Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers had the most successful two&mdash;year run as a starter in recent memory, better than Philip Rivers' or Steve Young's.

I mention these two, because they also had the chance to sit on the bench for a few years, studying and practicing for their chance to be the starting quarterback.

So how will the Green Bay Packers new&mdash;found star do next year? Let's first take a closer look at his receiver core.

WR Greg Jennings is 26&mdash;years old, which is the prime age for players in the NFL. While Jennings had 1,292 yards in 2008, in my opinion, we have yet to see the best of Greg Jennings.

TE Jermichael Finley is not only a rising Packer star, but he is among the best tight ends in the league. Finley is 6'&mdash;5" tall, giving him the edge over just about any cornerback.

Despite the fact that Finley only played 12 games last season (I'm not including the Clevenland game, since he was knocked out in the first quarter), he still was able to catch 55 passes for 676 yards.

Finley even said himself that he could only trust his knee 85 percent, since he didn't want to risk injuring it again. So in theory, if Jermichael is healthy all season long and now has two years of experience under his belt, he could be a 1,000&mdash;yard target next season.

I think the NFL experts have said it best, as he is a matchup nightmare that causes some serious headaches for most defenses in the league. They simply don't have an answer for Jermichael Finley.

Then you have James Jones, Jordy Nelson and Spencer Havner, who have all shown their flashes of brilliance. With each passing year, the trio is each getting more experienced and becoming more reliable targets.

Havner is unfortunately sidelined this offseason with an injury, but I'm sure we'll see him  healthy by the start of next season.

The only possible problem in the reciever core is Donald Driver. The veteran receiver is now 35&mdash;years old and may have shown the very first signs of his age catching up to hiim last season.

With that said, I still believe that Driver has at least one more 1,000&mdash;yard season left in him. And even if he ages very quickly, by next year's draft we can very easily replace him.

All in all, the bottom line is that a fan base probably couldn't ask for a more complete passing attack.

In my opinion, the Packers offensive line is the only poor part of the team's offense. The Packers re&mdash;signed starting offensive tackles, Mark Tauscher and Chad Clifton, but they are both a little injury&mdash;prone and getting old.

But fear not, Packer faithful. In my opinion it appears that offensive lineman, T.J. Lang, looks like he has a promising future at right tackle.

Not to mention, the Packers will surely draft a future left tackle in the upcoming draft. So with all the new, young players coupled with older, but very experienced, players, I am confident that this year's offensive line unit can create the protection that Rodgers surely craves.

With that said, let me make my predictions for the upcoming season.

As for Aaron Rodgers' pass touchdown total, I think it could range anywhere from 35 to 45 TDs. I think Rodgers has the receiving core and the arm to make it happen this year.

However, last season I strongly felt that Rodgers would throw for as many as 36 touchdowns, but he came up a little short. So this year, I am a little hesitant to say that he'll definitely throw for 45 touchdowns.

As for passing yards, I expect to see Rodgers pass for roughly 4,800 yards. Last season, the Packers were one of the league leaders in the yards&mdash;after&mdash; catch category and with practically all of Rodger's receiving targets returning, I expect Rodgers to benefit from this once again.

This year, I really think that Aaron Rodgers needs to let go of the ball sooner and trust his receivers more. If he's protected when he needs it most, he'll go deep all day long and his passing yard totals will surely get a boost.

As for interceptions, I'll predict a figure as low as just five. I don't think anyone in the league hates throwing picks, more than Rodgers does. Everytime he makes one, win or lose, it seems like it is the first thing he talks about at the post&mdash;game conferences.

He only had seven last season and in fact, had the the lowest interception ratio of anyone quarterback in the league.

As for Rodgers' rushing touchdowns, I'll go with six and in regards to his passer rating, I am predicting it will be 110.0. 

While I cannot base that prediction off of anything, I can confidently say that at least in my opinion, Aaron Rodgers is a very consistent performer, year&mdash;in and year&mdash;out.

As for his sack total, I'll go with 30. Rodgers hasn't shown that he will keep his promise of always letting go of the ball sooner than needed. His offensive line will be a lot better, but will still be a work in progress.

Still, that sack figure will be a heck of a whole lot better than last season's embarrassing 50 sack performance.

Aaron Rodgers is a promising quarterback who, in my opinion, is no doubt going to lead the Packers to multiple Super Bowls. He is argueably the best young quarterback in the league and he will have three 1,000&mdash;yard receivers next season and an improved offensive line.

He needs a second running back, but that'll have to wait untill 2011. Right now we have bigger needs than a running back.

I can't wait to see him lead this very potent passing attack next season, as I'm sure my fellow Packer fans are, too.

“Sauntering, in the best sense, is when you’re walking the ground like it’s holy, and that’s how I wanted to view Philadelphia, and I do,” says local poet CA Conrad. “It’s not perfect. I’ve seen so many people kill themselves … die of murders.”

Twenty-four years ago, Conrad fled what he calls the “white-trash asphyxiation” of rural central Pennsylvania into the gritty bosom of Philadelphia to live out his calling. The gay poet says that after years of enduring homophobic taunting in his hometown he came to the city because, “I loved poetry and I didn’t know where else to go.”

Conrad’s an intense guy. For the last quarter century, he’s been relentlessly mining corners of every experience to find the words he wrestles into elegantly bizarre knots of award-winning poetry.

Now, along with friend and frequent collaborator poet Frank Sherlock, Conrad has delivered a dark and sometimes bizarre love letter to Philadelphia. The City Real & Imagined , released last month by Factory School, is in some ways a fractured epistolary ode to Philadelphia, a city that Conrad loves deeply and, all these years later, still sees as his salvation.

Relying on an artistic relationship that’s been strong since they decided to exchange poems through the mail in 1995, Conrad and Sherlock were inspired to discover Philadelphia new again. For each day, 12 in all, that they worked on the manuscript, they’d meet at LOVE Park, touch Robert Indiana’s Love statue, then amble in a new direction, reading graffiti, listening to street sounds and the people who live there, exploring corners and bodegas and bars. “It’s not some Pollyanna thing,” says Conrad.

In the book, he quotes a drag queen on the corner of 13th & Spruce (“$100!? Do you know how many dicks I’ve got to suck to make $100!?), talks to a homeless man sleeping on the Ben Franklin Parkway and chronicles the “painfully ordinary” people drinking pints at the Black Sheep bar.

But there's also:

I'm trying to locate

LOVE with no

conditions where

even an instant

winter has a

great fire

ready for us

An unapologetically queer poet activist with trademark dark nail polish, long witch-y hair and gentle blue eyes, 44-year-old Conrad radiates Buddha-like reverence and lust for life. He remembers getting mad at friends who committed suicide. “Our time is so short already,” he says.

Conrad says he only sleeps four hours a night, because he feels like it’s a waste of time; he might miss something new. He was recently asked who his audience is in an interview about The City Real & Imagined, he answered: “Everyone who desires to stay as awake as possible for as long as possible.”

Conrad, who has been surrounded by death his whole life, has made a living out of staying wide awake.

When Conrad first arrived in Philly, his boyfriend introduced him to a long-shuttered place called The Bacchanal, near Juniper and South streets.

“I spent all my time at the Bacchanal,” he says. “It was a magical place … It changed my life.”

The hole-in-the-wall gay bar was a hive for artists like poets Gil Ott and Lamont Steptoe. Conrad says he met philosophers, sculptors, novelists and musicians there; it was an alcohol-soaked baptism into Philly’s underground arts.

He threw himself into the local poetry scene. Philadelphia fixture Ketan Ben Caeser handed Conrad the reins to the North Star Bar Poetry Series, which he ran through the late ’80s into the early ’90s.

Getting published was a totally different animal back then. Before the Internet, you had to be in a scene to know about the “right” publications, and you had to know the publications to get into the scene. Being restless and out and about all the time, “I started to meet poets from all over the world. It was before the Internet so you had to rely on friends showing you zines like Zipperfucked, or Blank Gun Silencer, or South 666 Bitch. But you would send work and correspond. It was great.”

Throughout the ’90s, Conrad was co-publisher and co-editor of Insight To Riot Press along with Jim Cory and Janet Mason. “We had a lot of fun, and covers were stupendous because we were fortunate enough to have John Ignarri doing the art and design work for them,” says Conrad.

“There was a lot of drama back in the ’80s that just seemed so incredibly stupid. There was a lot of wonderful poets, but it’s a much better scene now. I think this is the best time that I’ve ever seen for poetry in Philadelphia,” he says, acknowledging the New Philadelphia Poets, the Chapter & Verse series run by Ryan Eckes at Chapterhouse Cafe in South Philly and, of course, sometimes collaborator Frank Sherlock.

“There is no other poet I can begin to imagine writing The City Real & Imagined with other than Frank Sherlock, who is one of the best living poets,” says Conrad.

Last month’s party to celebrate the publication of The City Real & Imagined at the Institute of Contemporary Art in West Philly had a huge turnout for a poetry event, which typically draws smaller crowds of familiar faces. But it seems more people are paying attention to poetry coming out of Philadelphia in general lately, and Conrad’s steady dedication is also finally paying off.

To wit, Seattle-based publisher Wave Books&mdash;which published Philly poet Dorothea Lasky’s Awe in 2007&mdash;is about to print an expanded edition Conrad’s dark opus The Book of Frank (Chax Press, 2009) that will include new poems and an introduction by acclaimed “rock star of modern poetry” Eileen Myles. Myles has written: “I’ve grown to love CA Conrad&mdash;the man, the work, and all he attempts and represents&mdash;because he always argues (from the inside of his poems) for a poetry of radical inclusivity while keeping a very queer shoulder to the wheel.”

“Meeting Eileen Myles in the early ’90s was the big thrill, and continues to be,” says Conrad. “She’s without a doubt the most generous elder poet I’ve ever met, hands down, and she changed my life, and continues to change my life.”

With four books published in the last four years, the radical’s work is bleeding into in the mainstream poetry world. He recently traveled to the West Coast to give readings and even has a poem getting published in The Nation soon.

“It’s taken a long time,” he says. “I’m 44 years old. Most people just give up before then.”

The whole reason he began writing in the first place was because, like so many writers, Conrad was ostracized, made to feel like a freak. As a kid, he spent most of his spare time sitting alone in a car at the mouth of the turnpike selling cut flowers for his mother, who couldn’t get a job because of her shoplifting record.

“It’s a terrible thing to do to a kid,” he says. “You’re all alone on the highway, nothing’s around, and you’re forced to be isolated.”

He’s talked about sleeping in front of his sister’s closet door with a rifle while she huddled inside as his drunk stepfather slurred, “C’mere, show me your pretty little pussy.”

To beat back the loneliness and steer his fate out of those country woods that he calls “fascist,” 8-year-old Conrad began keeping a journal. By the time he was a teenager, he was doing drugs with the Amish boys while they were on rumspringa.

Had he not run away to become a poet, Conrad muses that he would have likely wound up building coffins in the local casket factory like the rest of his family, assuming he survived being queer. But while acknowledging that the city saved him, Conrad shakes his head when recalling an earlier time when it wasn’t much friendlier to gays than his rural hometown was&mdash;especially in the 1980s.

“When I was a teenager, I had this drag-queen friend. He hung himself and we found him,” says Conrad. “The police were so horrible back then. They saw Eddie hanging in his wedding dress and they shouted, ‘We’ve got a fruit on a loop up here!’”

He’s seen a lot of sadness and death up close: suicides, murders, gay-bashing and the first wave of AIDS. “It was really hard when I moved here because everybody was dying in the neighborhoods,” says Conrad. Still, his poetry relies on him choosing to see the world fresh, to celebrate the good while calling bullshit on the rest.

Conrad’s first big break came with Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), an in-your-face collection of blunt prose. Soft Skull describes the book as: “CA Conrad’s poems vibrate with the flamboyant desire that manifests itself in queer culture, where the right to act on basic desires can become a battleground, and everyday acts of love and devotion must be enacted as a political form of defiance.”

His next two books were published last year. Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009) is a series of vignettes, dialogue blurbs, quotes and homemade magic squares that explore Conrad’s fascination with Elvis Presley as America’s thorny-crowned cultural king. Then came The Book of Frank , a collection of skinny, jagged semi-autobiographical stanzas that chronicle the surreal and tragic life of a kid named Frank.

(People sometimes assume The Book of Frank is about Frank Sherlock because they are so close, but it is not at all. “I always say I wouldn’t wish that on him,” says Conrad. “It’s kind of an evil book, such terrible things happen to him.”)

For example, Frank is the only child in his house that’s not a fetus in a jar. (“You are too big for a jar my child/ you will betray me the rest of your life,” clucks his mother.)

Clearly, Conrad’s work isn’t for the faint of heart. His words run unapologetically dark, examining broken desires of people reduced to husks by abuse; the ongoing tragedies of poverty and war; of being queer out loud in a world where there are still plenty of people who will hate you for it. Conrad says he certainly receives his fair share of hate mail. “It’s always funny because I get hate mail especially from straight people who are cruel and think they’ll hurt me … they just have no idea how much ridicule I’ve already survived,” he says with a shrug, graying hair loose and wild, pale blue eyes shining. “I’m like, you’re going to have to come up with something better than that.”

The most recent wave was after the publication of Advanced Elvis Course . “Soft Skull didn’t mention any of the queer content [in the press release], and it’s a pretty queer book,” explains Conrad. He spent months fending off an Internet mob of angry homophobic Elvis superfans. “People saw [the poems] and went insane,” remembers Conrad. “I’m a disgusting pig, I should kill myself … how dare you talk about Elvis this way.”

Tired of responding to each angry email, Conrad eventually thought of a response that would infuriate the mob even more: he wrote out his interpretation of the lyrics to “Jailhouse Rock” (“I mean there’s no female pronouns, it’s all male prisoners”) and posted them on a Web page. He started just sending the link in response. “It’s just my way of saying I don’t really care what you think,” he says, with a wave of his hand.

When he’d get into a weird spot promoting the book on Southern radio stations, where the audience probably had no idea about the queer content either, Conrad would diffuse the situation by reading poems in a thundering Southern Baptist preacher voice. “They love that,” he says.

“I like to talk about how Elvis is for everybody,” says Conrad. He dedicated the book to the “White Trash Coven of New Brunswick” and the “Magic Elvis Club of Kenya,” who he says blasts the songs of the dead king during tribal healing ceremonies.

Conrad remains a student at heart, always seeking to learn something new.

When exploring the city or recording his dreams each morning aren’t enough to boil his creative juices, Conrad develops exercises he calls (soma)tics, elaborate writing prompts designed to throw what we think we know of the world off-kilter. Conrad says they’re conceptual art projects.

“My impetus is to create. The thing is everybody’s so busy. Whenever I do workshops I always have someone who says, ‘Gosh my life is so busy,’ raising kids or whatever, and they’re like, ‘I needed this kind of thing’ because they’re in a routine … The worst thing that routine does is drive the creative magic out of us to some degree. And [(soma)tics] is sort of reclaiming it,” he says.

“It’s not like it’s gone forever, so the idea is to do something completely bizarre and different in the world that you know, and to really look at the world in a way that’s completely different.”

At one point, Conrad focused on one color for an entire week, strictly eating foods and wearing clothes of that color. Some exercises are wackier than others, but they’re all steeped in symbolism and are thoughtfully planned out.

As he develops the exercises&mdash;he’s been creating them for years&mdash;he posts them on his blog so friends and readers can try them out.

Of course, people think he’s crazy. Like the time he was stopped while checking out the trees planted in the Cherry Hill Mall parking lot. He was just plain intrigued, so he grabbed a magnifying glass and his ever-present notebook, took the bus and started examining the tree bark.

“I saw all these little bugs climbing around,” he says. “The maintenance guy comes roaring up in a truck and he’s like, ‘What are you doing out here? I was told to come see what you’re doing.’ So I told him. ‘That’s nuts,’ he said. ‘Get out of here!’

“I wasn’t bothering anybody. Twenty minutes later a security guard came up and said, ‘He thinks you’re smoking crack out here.’ I explained what I was doing. She said, ‘Well that’s weird,’ then she said: ‘We’re watching you.’”

Conrad says he doesn’t really care who’s watching, he just wants to keep looking for lessons. “Everything is an opportunity to create,” he says.

“I take notes on the experience and constantly edit to find the poem in it. You learn things you’re not expecting to learn,” he says. What can you possibly learn in the mall parking lot?

“Some people prefer trees dead, as baseball bats or violins. How an orchestra is an orchestra of the singing dead because it’s made of trees,” he says, thoughtfully before adding: “But it’s also a beautiful thing that there’s music coming out this dead tree.”

Eighth in a nine-part series.

The following is PFW draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki’s exclusive ranking of the top 10 defensive backs (cornerbacks and safeties) in the 2010 NFL draft, with an in-depth scouting report detailing each prospect’s positives, negatives, summary and projected draft spot. These reports have been excerpted from PFW's 2010 Draft Preview, scheduled for a March 30 release.

1. FS-CB Eric Berry
Tennessee junior
Ht: 5-11 5/8 | Wt: 211 | Sp: 4.46 | Arm: 33 1/4 | Hand: 9 5/8

Notes: Father, James, was a running back and captain for the Vols (1978-81). Eric was a Parade All-American, Georgia's Gatorade Player of the Year and the consensus No. 1 cornerback prospect in the nation. Four-year high school safety-quarterback who also starred in track, winning the state 200-meter championship as a sophomore. In '07, became the first freshman defensive player to open the season atop the depth chart during the Phillip Fulmer era (1992-2008). Made an immediate impact, starting all 14 games at strong safety and amassing 86 tackles, four pass breakups and five interceptions (including a 96-yard touchdown against Florida) with two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Was SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a Jim Thorpe Award finalist in '08 after tying for the national interceptions lead. Started all 12 games at SS, logging 72-6-7 (two returned for scores) with 8 1/2 tackles for loss and three sacks. Also rushed seven times for 37 yards (5.3-yard average), caught a pass for three yards and returned two kickoffs for 32 yards (16.0). Played most of the season with a torn left labrum that limited his versatility and required offseason arthroscopic surgery. Won the Thorpe Award in '09 &mdash; playing in defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin's system in '09, was deployed closer to the line of scrimmage and tallied 87-7-2 with a forced fumble in 13 starts. Three-year team captain. Finished his career just nine yards short of the NCAA record for INT return yards. Opted to forgo his senior season in part because both parents lost jobs and his father recently had heart surgery.

Positives: Looks the part with very long arms and an athletic build. Leaves his fingerprints on games &mdash; active playmaker. Very instinctive, athletic and physical. Forceful, striking tackler &mdash; hits like a ton of bricks and will propel his body like a projectile to deliver a blow. Has natural twitch and burst &mdash; has feet like a cornerback to shadow receivers in man coverage. Is rangy and has exceptional ball skills, hands and production &mdash; has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Outstanding awareness &mdash; processes quickly and jumps routes. Intense and extremely competitive. Tough and will play hurt. Carries a swagger and played big in big games. Versatile &mdash; could line up as a nickel corner. Performed well at the Combine &mdash; clocked the second-fastest 40-yard dash among safeties, bench-pressed 225 pounds 19 times, vertical-jumped 43 inches and broad-jumped 10 feet, 10 inches.

Negatives: Is a bit high-cut. Leads with his shoulders, seeking blow-up shots instead of wrapping up, and can do a better job of breaking down, coming to balance in space and securing tackles. Long-term durability could be an issue given his aggressive playing style. Double-caught the ball and slipped in drills at the Combine.

Summary: One of the more gifted safeties to emerge from the college ranks in the last decade, Berry is an impact, ballhawking secondary leader with a special combination of athletic ability and instincts. Plays with a physical, old-school mentality but has superb coverage capabilities desired in the new generation of safeties. Can roam center field, bang in the box or line up in the slot and handle man and zone coverage. Bulked up prior to the Combine without detracting from his speed or agility, and outstanding workout solidified his standing as the top defensive back in the draft. 

NFL projection: Top-10 pick.

2. FS-CB Earl Thomas
Texas Sophomore
Ht: 5-10 1/4 | Wt: 208 | Sp: 4.46 | Arm: 31 1/4 | Hand: 9 3/8

Notes: Also lettered in basketball, baseball and track and field as a prep, in addition to playing DB, RB, WR and returning kicks on the football field. Redshirted in 2007. Started all 13 games at free safety in 2008, logging 72 tackles, 17 pass breakups (school freshman record) and two interceptions, with three tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and a blocked kick. A Thorpe Award finalist in '09, started all 13 games and tallied 77-16-8 (two touchdowns) with five tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Also returned three punts for 54 yards (18.0-yard average). Chose not to perform shuttles or three-cone drill at Combine.

Positives: Makes plays &mdash; has outstanding instincts and an advanced understanding of the game. Moves like a cornerback &mdash; very athletic, fluid and agile. Is quick-footed and loose-hipped to transition smoothly out of breaks with very little wasted movement. Plants, drives and accelerates to the ball. Great range and ball skills &mdash; outstanding production on the ball. Surprising strength &mdash; bench-pressed 225 pounds 21 times at the Combine. Exceptional route recognition &mdash; will peel off his man and jump underneath routes (see Oklahoma State). Good balance and body control to break down and secure tackles in space. Is anticipatory and shows a sense of timing &mdash; syncs up hits and can separate receivers from the ball. Runs the alley and takes good pursuit angles. Confident and competitive. Versatile &mdash; can fit at corner. Huge upside.

Negatives: Thin-framed and slightly built &mdash; lacks girth and needs to bulk up. Can stand to improve functional playing strength &mdash; catches some contact and bounces off tackles (see BCS championship vs. Alabama). Gambles at times trying to undercut routes (see '08 Texas Tech game &mdash; game-winning Michael Crabtree catch). Long-term durability could be an issue.

Summary: A young cover safety with the type of range and ball skills coveted in a pass-first league, Thomas showed up at the Combine approximately 10 pounds heavier than his playing weight without detracting from his speed and agility. Has a rare blend of instincts, savvy, athletic ability and playmaking ability. Is still growing into his body but has an advanced understanding of the game, offers versatility to play corner and has a world of upside.

NFL projection: Top-20 pick.

3. FS Taylor Mays
USC senior
Ht: 6-3 1/8 | Wt: 230 | Sp: 4.36 | Arm: 34 | Hand: 10 1/4

Notes: Father, Stafford, was a defensive lineman for the St. Louis Cardinals (1980-86) and Minnesota Vikings (1987-88). Taylor was a Parade All-American and Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Washington in 2005. Also ran track as a prep, winning back-to-back state championships in the 100 and 200 meters. As a true freshman in '06, started 12-of-13 games at free safety, recording 62 tackles, three pass breakups and three interceptions. Started all 13 games in '07 and logged 65-6-1 with a forced fumble. Had arthroscopic ankle surgery prior to '08 spring practice. In the fall, started all 13 games and tallied 53-9-0 with two tackles for loss. Sustained a bruised chest and was coughing up blood following a hit during the Oregon State contest. Was the Trojans' leading tackler in '09 after posting 96-3-1 in 12 starts at FS. Sprained his right knee against Ohio State and sat out a loss to Washington. Team captain wore No. 29 in 2006 before switching to No. 2 in '07. Chose not to perform shuttles at the Combine.

Positives: Looks like he was chiseled out of granite to break the mold. Has the frame of a linebacker with a rocked-up physique and very little body fat &mdash; treats his body like a temple. Has a large wingspan. Rare height-weight-speed ratio, freakish athletic ability and off-the-charts measurables &mdash; eclipsed every cornerback at the Combine in the 40-yard dash, bench-pressed 225 pounds 24 times and posted a 41-inch vertical leap. Imposing physical presence with an intimidation factor &mdash; knocked multiple players out of games with devastating hits. Has a knack for timing up hits &mdash; can separate receivers from the ball. Carries a swagger.

Negatives: Average instincts and anticipation. Does not play to timed speed and is too often a step late getting over the top. Takes poor angles. Is tight in the hips and does not transition smoothly or change direction easily. Struggles to come to balance in space. Is not a face-up tackler, misses too many tackles and allows more yards after contact than he should. Suspect downfield ball skills with his back to the ball &mdash; runs to the man and does not show awareness or play the ball in the air, and looked rigid and awkward trying to adjust to it in the air at the Combine. Marginal career production on the ball &mdash; only had five career interceptions despite starting all four years.

Summary: Throw out the stopwatch and eye-popping 40-time at the Combine &mdash; the tape of Mays playing to his speed does not exist. Can start readily in NFL like he did in college and get away with his lack of instincts in the pros because of his rare recovery speed, but lack of instincts, intelligence and toughness will always leave teams wanting more. Enamors with his measurables but disappoints with his play, and will need more than straight-line speed and a flash hit to become more than a serviceable starter in the pros. Will be overdrafted and underperform.

NFL projection: First-round pick.

4. CB Joe Haden
Florida junior
Ht: 5-10 3/4 | Wt: 193 | Sp: 4.58 | Arm: 32 3/4 | Hand: 9 1/2

Notes: Father, Joe, is a personal trainer and former body builder and track star; younger brother, Josh, is the starting running back at Boston College; brother, Jordan, will be a freshman for the Gators this fall. Joe was nicknamed "Rock Star" by teammates. Played primarily quarterback in high school and set the Maryland public school record with 7,371 career passing yards. Recruited as an athlete, Haden spent his first spring at receiver but was moved because the Gators were thin at cornerback. In '07, became the first true freshman in UF history to start the season opener at CB, starting all 12 games played at the boundary corner and recording 63 tackles, 12 pass breakups and an interception with 31⁄2 tackles for loss. Sprained his right ankle against Florida Atlantic and did not play against Florida State. Endured the October death of his girlfriend, who died in a motorcycle accident with scout team QB Michael Guilford. Changed his jersey number from 12 to 5 in '08 before starting all 14 games and logging 87-12-3 with half a sack, a forced fumble and a blocked field-goal attempt. Sprained his left ankle in the second quarter vs. Alabama. Was a Thorpe Award finalist in '09 when he started all 14 games and racked up 68-10-4 with five tackles for loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles. According to coaches, Haden was the team's best-conditioned athlete, maintaining less than three percent body fat. Bench-pressed 225 pounds 18 times at the Combine.

Positives: Has a chiseled, tight-skinned physique. Plays faster than he times and has natural man-cover skills &mdash; can mirror receivers downfield. Quick-footed and agile with natural twitch &mdash; very good short-area burst and acceleration. Pops out of breaks and drives on the ball. Outstanding ball skills and body control &mdash; competes in the air and plays the ball like a receiver. Aggressive and physical supporting the run. Exceptional stamina &mdash; best-conditioned athlete in a program full of athletes. Supremely confident and competitive &mdash; plays with a swagger. Shows consistent effort and intensity.

Negatives: Average timed speed. Still relatively raw &mdash; route recognition and coverage technique are works in progress. Shows hesitation deciphering combination routes and too easily can be sucked up by underneath action &mdash; jumps routes prematurely and leaves voids in coverage behind him. Needs to become a more consistent tackler &mdash; struggles to break down and secure ballcarriers in space.

Summary: Good-sized, physical, confident corner who stepped into an elite program and made an impact from Day One, going toe-to-toe with talented receivers and matching up very favorably. Should be able to compete for a job readily in the pros. Needs refinement and raised eyebrows with pedestrian 40-times at the Combine. Must still prove he is not the oversold product of a talented secondary, and spring workouts will go a long way toward determining his draft value.

NFL projection: First-round pick.

5. CB-RS Patrick Robinson
Florida State senior
Ht: 5-11 1/4 | Wt: 190 | Sp: 4.51 | Arm: 30 1/2 | Hand: 8 1/4

Notes: Cornerback-receiver who also starred in track as a prep, placing in the Florida state track-and-field championships in the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Backed up at field corner in '06, playing 12 games and recording 11 tackles without a pass breakup or interception. Returned a blocked PAT for two points against Duke. Started 5-of-12 games played in '07 at the boundary corner position, managing 28-6-6 with a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Was suspended for the Music City Bowl and the first three games of the '08 season for his involvement in an academic cheating scandal. On the season, started 8-of-9 games played at the boundary corner and logged 26-4-1 with two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Hurt his lower back against Colorado and did not play against Miami. Started all 12 games played at right corner in '09, tallying 52-11-0 with three tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. Also returned 11 kickoffs for 218 yards (19.8-yard average). Sprained his left ankle against Boston College and sat out against Georgia Tech.

Positives: Very good size with well-defined musculature. Very good long speed to keep pace deep. Exceptional athletic ability with fluid movement skills and natural twitch. Has pure man-coverage ability with loose hips to mirror receivers. Quick-footed to plant and drive on the ball and shows burst to recover. Has a 39-inch vertical jump. Strong-handed to jam receivers and disrupt routes. Able to break down and tackle in space.

Negatives: Questionable mental and physical toughness. Suspect man-off cover skills. Zone instincts and awareness are lacking. Undisciplined &mdash; gets lax with his technique, and mental lapses are too prevalent. Is too often on his own agenda in coverage. Could have a difficult time earning the trust of coaches. Is a selective tackler and is not quick to support the run. Suspect ball skills and very marginal production &mdash; one interception the last two seasons.

Summary: A supremely athletic, gifted corner with the speed and agility to function on an island, Robinson ran slower than expected at the Combine but is considered the most explosive athlete to come out of FSU since Antonio Cromartie. Skill set could interest teams such as the Raiders, Jets and Packers, but lack of discipline and minimal on-the-ball production are reasons for pause. 

NFL projection: Top-40 pick. 

6. CB-KR Devin McCourty
Rutgers senior
Ht: 5-10 3/4 | Wt: 196 | Sp: 4.42 | Arm: 32 | Hand: 9

Notes: Twin brother, Jason, was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the sixth round in 2009 and immediately made an impact on special teams. Devin also played basketball as a prep. Redshirted in 2005. Appeared in all 13 games in '06, recording 38 tackles (including a team-high 14 on special teams), three pass breakups and two interceptions with 1 1/2 tackles for loss and a sack. Started all 13 games in '07, tallying 63-7-2 with 1 1/2 tackles for loss, one-half sack, a forced fumble and three blocked kicks. Started all 13 contests in '08 and logged 57-7-1 with 1 1/2 tackles for loss and a blocked kick. Was the team's defensive MVP in '09 when he started all 13 games and produced 80-10-1 with 7 1/2 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and three blocked kicks. Also returned 14 kickoffs for 356 yards (25.4-yard average), including a 98-yard score against Connecticut, and two punts for 21 yards (10.5). Left the bowl game against South Florida with an eye injury. Team captain.

Positives: Looks the part with nice length and sinewy musculature. Excellent speed and fluidity of movement. Loose-hipped with good burst, acceleration and long speed to stride with receivers down the field. Performed well in the short shuttle (4.07) and three-cone drill (6.70). Smart and aware &mdash; good route recognition. Outstanding special-teams production and determination &mdash; has seven career blocked kicks and stood out as a gunner and "jammer." Will stick his nose in run support. Has NFL bloodlines. Vocal on-field leader. Durable and consistent. Good character.

Negatives: Has a thin frame and small ankles. Is not overly physical and can learn to use his hands better to re-route receivers at the line. Loses sight of the ball at times. Drag-down tackler. Average ball skills and marginal hands &mdash; picked off just five passes in four years. Did not make an abundance of defensive splash plays.

Summary: Lean, athletic, quick-footed cornerback with legit speed, movement skills and explosion to match up at the next level. Ordinary ball skills limit his ceiling, but should be able to contribute readily as a core special-teams player and nickel defender. Low-risk selection with starter potential.

NFL projection: Top-40 pick.

7. FS Nate Allen
South Florida senior
Ht: 6-0 1/2 | Wt: 207 | Sp: 4.5e | Arm: 31 | Hand: 9 3/8

Notes: High school quarterback who also lettered in basketball and track. As a true freshman in 2006, saw limited action in nine games and was credited with two tackles, zero pass breakups and zero interceptions. Missed four games due to a quadriceps injury. Started all 12 games at free safety in '07, recording 84-8-4 with two tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Recovered a fumble on a kickoff against Louisville, returning it three yards for a touchdown and returned an interception 37 yards for a score against Pittsburgh. In '08, started all 13 games at FS and logged 53-0-1 with two tackles for loss and a sack. Started all 13 games at FS in '09 and recorded 85-4-4 with a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Also returned a blocked field-goal attempt 75 yards for a score against Charleston Southern. Team captain. Did not work out at the Combine while nursing a pulled left quad.

Positives: Looks the part with a ripped physique. Outstanding athlete. Good top-end speed. Has quick feet and moves fluidly. Good body control. Reads and reacts quickly and anticipates plays unfolding. Outstanding range. Good ball skills &mdash; has burst and acceleration to get over the top and competes with receivers for the ball in the air. Very good man-coverage skills &mdash; pedals smoothly, flips his hips and runs with receivers. Smart &mdash; good zone awareness and route recognition. Can tackle in space. Works hard and has been durable.

Negatives: Needs to get stronger and does not intimidate physically. Not a physical or blow-up tackler. Inconsistent supporting the run &mdash; arrives late too often. Does not play with a sense of urgency. Average production on the ball.

Summary: Chiseled, rangy, finesse center fielder with fluid movement skills, desirable explosion and cover skills. May fit better as a cornerback than safety in the pros given his lack of physicality.

NFL projection: Top-50 pick.

8. CB-PR Kyle Wilson
Boise State senior
Ht: 5-10 | Wt: 194 | Sp: 4.43 | Arm: 30 1/2 | Hand: 9 1/8

Notes: Also competed in track as a prep. On the football field, starred as a receiver, safety and return man, winning three consecutive New Jersey state championships (MVP in two title games). Redshirted in 2005, then was suspended for the first three games in '06 (violation of team rules). Played in 10 games, starting the final four, and recorded 37 tackles, five pass breakups and an interception with one-half tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Started all 13 games in '07 and notched 41-8-2 with two tackles for loss, a sack and a blocked PAT. Also returned five punts for 70 yards (14.0-yard average). In '08, started all 13 games and tallied 35-10-5 with three tackles for loss. Returned punts 33-470 (14.2), including three touchdowns (most in the nation). Started all 13 games played in '09 when he totaled 43-4-3 (27-yard TD against San Jose State, 71-yard TD against Idaho) with 4 1/2 tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble. Was held out of the UC Davis contest to rest a strained shoulder injury. Team captain who led summer practices in the absence of coaches. Wore jersey No. 22 as a freshman. Did not work out at the Combine (right hamstring).

Positives: Very strong for his size &mdash; bench-pressed 225 pounds 25 times at the Combine. Very good top-end speed. Instinctive. Has natural cover skills to shadow and mirror receivers. Quick-twitch mover with great feet. Pops out of breaks and shows recovery quickness. Aggressive in run support. Good hands. Times up blitzes. Tough and competitive &mdash; plays with a chip on his shoulder. Has experience as a gunner and shows short-area burst and agility to make tacklers miss as a punt returner. Durable three-year starter. Good work ethic.

Negatives: Not overly physical &mdash; needs to increase functional football strength. Shows some tightness in his hips. Clutches and grabs too much. Needs to do a better job getting off blocks. Does not attack throws in the air &mdash; ball skills are not great. Does not have extensive experience matching up with NFL-caliber receivers.

Summary: Quick, fast, competitive, playmaking corner who will have to prove himself on a more consistent basis against bigger, faster receivers but could develop into a No. 2 corner with versatility to play the slot in nickel packages and also return punts.

NFL projection: Top-50 pick.

9. CB-FS Jerome Murphy
South Florida senior
Ht: 6-0 1/4 | Wt: 196 | Sp: 4.54 | Arm: 32 1/4 | Hand: 9

Notes: Also played basketball and ran track, in addition to playing defensive back and receiver, as a prep in New Jersey. Redshirted in 2005 with a broken leg. Despite breaking his left hand in mid-September '06, appeared in all 13 games and recorded 20 tackles, zero pass breakups and zero interceptions with a tackle for loss. Played in all 13 games in '07 (started as the nickel back against West Virginia) and tallied 38-5-2 with two tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a blocked kick while waiting his turn behind Cowboys '08 first-rounder Mike Jenkins. Also returned 23 kickoffs for 560 yards (24.3-yard average). Manned the field cornerback position in '08, started 11-of-13 games and logged 67-5-2 with 3 1⁄2 tackles for loss and half a sack. Did not start against Louisville, or in the St. Petersburg Bowl vs. Memphis when he was suspended for the first half (violation of team rules). In '09, started all 13 games &mdash; 10 at right corner, two (Western Kentucky, Charleston Southern) at strong safety and one (season opener vs. Wofford) at nickel &mdash; and totaled 77-8-4 with half a tackle for loss and two forced fumbles. Returned two kickoffs for 30 yards (15.0). Was benched in the second half against Pittsburgh and Louisville (committed three penalties and dropped a pair of potential interceptions). Maintains less than four percent body fat.

Positives: Excellent body length, quick feet and loose hips. Pedals smoothly, accelerates and has long speed to run vertically with speedy receivers. Good quick-twitch reactions &mdash; broad-jumped 10 feet, 7 inches and registered one of the fastest short shuttles at the Combine (4.05 seconds). Can play press or off-man. Very, very tough and more than willing to initiate contact. Outstanding in run support &mdash; fills quickly, sets the edge and chops down ballcarriers. Physical tackler. Competes and plays hard. Has special-teams experience.

Negatives: Has not been a model of consistency &mdash; benched during senior season. Too undisciplined &mdash; gambles too much and loses. Inconsistent downfield ball skills. Struggled matching up with Pittsburgh sophomore WR Jonathan Baldwin. Immature. Character needs to be evaluated. Has a quick temper and could require a patient positional coach.

Summary: A big, physical, competitive, multidimensional press corner, Murphy has natural cover skills and does not hesitate to assert himself in the run game. Is rough around the edges but competes, hits like a safety and has what it takes to compete with NFL receivers. Skill set allows for scheme versatility.

NFL projection: Second- to third-round pick.

10. CB-FS Chris Cook
Virginia senior
Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 212 | Sp: 4.49 | Arm: 32 1/2 | Hand: 9 1/4

Notes: Cousin, Vic Hall, played cornerback for the Cavaliers (2006-09). Played five games as a true freshman in '05, recording six tackles, two pass breakups and an interception (30-yard touchdown against Maryland) before suffering a season-ending broken right leg in his first start (at CB) against Boston College. Played in all 12 games in '06, starting the last 11 at CB, and tallied 58-5-1 with four tackles for loss and a forced fumble. In '07, started 7-of-9 games played and notched 39-6-1 with a tackle for loss (also returned a fumble 44 yards for a score against Miami). Sprained his left knee against Middle Tennessee and missed two games, then was ineligible for the Gator Bowl and suspended for '08 due to academics. Returned to start all 12 games in '09, logging 40-6-4 (including a 58-yard TD against BC) with a tackle for loss. Added five kickoff returns for 101 yards (20.2-yard average). Team captain.

Positives: Has excellent size and length with long arms. Surprising athletic ability and ease of movement &mdash; good timed speed and nice hip swivel for his size. Good short-area burst &mdash; broad-jumped 11 feet at the Combine. Confident.

Negatives: Average instincts. Lacks elite top-end speed to run vertically with burners. Lacks ideal foot quickness to mirror receivers in man coverage. Tends to rise in his pedal and does not pop out of breaks &mdash; allows too much separation. Playing temperament is too passive and is not physical &mdash; has been steamrolled by bigger backs. Does not have great hands or ball skills. Bench-pressed 225 pounds only seven times at the Combine.

Summary: Lanky, long-levered corner who fared well at the Senior Bowl and showed some explosion in drills at the Combine. Has safety size but is not aggressive or physical, so best chance in the pros will come at cornerback. His rare size in a league where receivers keep getting bigger will drive up his value.

NFL projection: Second- to third-round pick.

Tuesday: Top five special-teams prospects

To read all of Nolan Nawrocki's scouting reports on 395 players, as well as player rankings, team needs and much more, you can now pre-order your copy of the 2010 Draft Preview online at PFWstore.com, or you can purchase your copy of the book at newsstands and bookstores across the country when it goes on sale March 30.

For the most authoritative NFL draft news and free-agency analysis, visit ProFootballWeekly.com.

Hello again everyone! Last time I previewed Coach Greg Hudson, and how I believe that he will have our linebackers playing to their potential. Today I am talking about Coach Eddie Gran, our new Associate Head Coach of Running Backs and Special Teams.

He is replacing Dexter Carter, who was not retained by Coach Fisher&mdash;which probably surprised a lot of fans, including this one. I guess many people believe that our rb's were improving under Coach Carter.  

According to Bud Elliott of TomahawkNation.com, Coach Carter was relieved of his duties at mid-season when reportedly the rb's missed 70 percent of the proper holes made by the o-line. That and FSU needing a special-teams coach signaled the end of Coach Carter's tenure at Florida State. 

A little history on Coach Gran. Gran was a wide receiver for Cal Lutheran from 1984-1987, and graduated with a Business Administration degree.

He began his coaching career at his alma mater, followed by a year stint at SE Missouri State. He then did graduate assistantships at Miami and ECU from 1989-1991 before returning to a full time capacity at Cincinnati and Idaho State from 1992-1994.

Coach then got his big break from an old Miami counterpart named Tommy Tuberville, former defensive coordinator of the U and Texas A&M. Tuberville had just been hired as the head coach of Ole Miss in 1995, and hired Gran to coach his running backs.

Gran proved to be adept at coaching running backs, as he coached John Avery to a first-round draft selection, along with Deuce McAllister&mdash;while helping Ole Miss recover from severe NCAA sanctions, and making them relevant again in football. When Tuberville left Ole Miss to coach the Auburn Tigers in 1999, Gran followed suit.

Coach Gran's success only increased during his lengthy tenure with the Tigers. Like Avery and McAllister before him, Gran coached Rudi Johnson, Brandon Jacobs, Cadillac Williams, and Ronnie Brown to NFL draft selection with Brown and Williams going in the first round.

Coach Gran's backfields have also proven to be productive, as they have led the SEC in rushing five times, and have had several 1,000 yard rushers. He added the special teams to his duties and was successful there as well.

In 2006, Auburn's kicker John Vaughn was named the SEC Special Teams player of the year, and Auburn led the SEC in kickoff coverage, field goal and PAT percentage, and punting.

When Tuberville resigned from Auburn in 2008, Gran was then hired on by the up and coming Lane Kiffin to serve in the same role as he was in at Auburn.

During his brief stay with the Vols, his recruiting prowess was highlighted, as he was the primary factor in stealing the nation's top RB away from Miami in Bryce Brown, and helped bring in other blue chips for Tennessee in their fantastic 2009 class.

Oh, and under Gran's guidance Montario Hardesty ran for 1,345 on the season, and was second in the SEC in rushing only behind Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. 

Gran's resume is arguably as or more impressive than both Stoops' and Hudson's resumes, and both defensive coaches had pretty impressive resumes to begin with. 

Coach Fisher's hiring of Gran fulfilled a lot of needs for the coaching staff, as well as gave Fisher another impressive notch in his head coaching belt. Gran is a veteran in the business and his advice will benefit Coach Fisher.

When the news broke that we had hired Eddie Gran, I read his impressive resume and realized Florida State was so lucky to steal him away from Tennessee. I believe the running backs will realize their full potential under Coach Gran, and we will have our first 1,000 yard rusher in a long time to go with our already impressive passing offense.

I also believe our special teams units will benefit greatly from Gran's guidance. Dustin Hopkins showed us last season he had a big leg, but a lot of times he missed the simplest of kicks. That will change under Coach Gran, as I believe he can develop Hopkins into the next Sebastian Janikowski or Graham Gano.

I also believe he will help take Shawn Powell to the next level as a punter, and I won't be surprised if Powell is a finalist for the Ray Guy award next year. Expect our return units to be dangerous next year with Greg Reid returning and Lamarcus Joyner coming on.

Finally, he will help FSU greatly in the area of recruiting. Our classes have been good and even great over the years, but I believe Coach Gran will help us win recruiting battles over the SEC schools, as well as stealing the South Florida talent away from Miami and UF.

Jimbo Fisher hit the grandslam with Eddie Gran now on our staff, and I can't wait to see Eddie play a huge role in FSU returning to national prominence.

The next coach to be previewed is Dameyune Craig, the former standout QB from Auburn.

Until next time, and Fear the Spear!!!

&mdash;Matt Champion

Recently Edelman Digital launched a brand new web site, which features rich insights from across the organization as well as interviews with different people inside and outside the firm. Definitely check it out. One of the cool things we're running are interviews. 

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Sixth in a nine-part series.

The following is PFW draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki’s exclusive ranking of the top 10 defensive linemen in the 2010 NFL draft, with an in-depth scouting report detailing each prospect’s positives, negatives, summary and projected draft spot. These reports have been excerpted from PFW's 2010 Draft Preview, scheduled for a March 30 release.

1. 3T-5T Gerald McCoy
Oklahoma junior
Ht: 6-4 1/8 | Wt: 295 | Sp: 5.06 | Arm: 33 3/4 | Hand: 10 1/4

Notes: Has a daughter. Parade All-American and Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year in 2005. Registered 165 tackles and 40 sacks his last two high school seasons. Redshirted in 2006 and endured the sudden passing of his mother in July of 2007. Missed a week of practice in August '07 because of a mild sprain of the AC joint in his right shoulder. Started all 13 games in which he played at the three-technique, posting 19 tackles, 6 1/2 tackles for loss and two sacks with one forced fumble. Did not play against Utah State after breaking the fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand against Miami (Fla.). Was forced out of the Iowa State contest with a right ankle injury. In '08, notched 30-11-6 1/2 with two batted passes and one interception in 14 games (all starts) for the national runners-up. Sustained a toe injury against Baylor, but did not miss a start. Started all 13 games in '09, tallying 34-15 1/2-6 with two batted passes and a forced fumble. Was the first sophomore elected team captain in school history.

Positives: Excellent size, body length and power. Has outstanding instincts - diagnoses quickly and locates the ball. Shocks blockers with his punch and torques blockers off the ground. Uses his hands violently to lock out and rip off blocks. Plays with leverage and is quick to disengage. Outstanding balance. Motor is always revving - plays with a sense of urgency, pursues hard and ranges hard to make plays. Wears down offensive lines with his tenacity. Features a strong club and arm-over. Versatile and has lined up inside and outside. Is battle-tested on the biggest of stages (see 2008 BCS title game against Florida) and has risen to the challenge against better competition. Very highly respected team leader with a special makeup - outstanding character, intangibles and work ethic. When he speaks, everyone listens.

Negatives: Not overly stout to hold up against double-teams. At times gets washed down the line (although he played in a defense that featured a lot of slanting and stunting and, at times, put him in position to be pushed and run out). Could play with more consistent leverage. Bench-pressed 225 pounds only 23 times at the Combine.

Summary: An extremely disruptive, powerful inside penetrator who will make a mark living behind the line of scrimmage in NFL backfields, McCoy is a relentless pass rusher and will keep opposing quarterbacks on edge because of how hard he plays every snap and the consistent pressure he produces. Very mature and grounded with a strong on-field leadership presence to rally a defense. Has very little downside and will only continue to get better. Has a Pro Bowl-caliber makeup and is the type of player that is worth considering with the top pick in any given year. A special talent.

NFL projection: Top-five pick.

2. NT-DLE Ndamukong Suh
Nebraska senior
Ht: 6-3 7/8 | Wt: 307 | Sp: 5.09 | Arm: 33 1/2 | Hand: 10 1/4

Notes: Full name is pronounced "En-DOM-ah-ken Soo." Mother is Jamaican and father is from Cameroon. Parade All-American who also lettered in basketball and track as a prep in Oregon, winning a shot put championship as a senior. Tore the meniscus in his left knee playing basketball as a senior, but did not have surgery and did not tell the Nebraska staff about the injury. Appeared in the first two games as a true freshman in '05, but lacked strength in the knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery in September (received a medical hardship). Returned to play all 14 games at nose tackle in '06, recording 19 tackles, eight for loss and 3 1/2 sacks with one interception and one forced fumble. Started 11-of-12 contests on the nose in '07, registering 34-6-1 with two batted passes and one blocked PAT. Was suspended one quarter against Oklahoma State for an altercation during practice. Did not participate in '08 spring practice after having knee surgery. Started all 13 games in '08, registering 76-19-7 1/2 with three batted passes, two interceptions (both returned for touchdowns), a forced fumble and two blocked kicks. Became the first NU lineman to lead the team in tackles since 1973. Also was utilized as a short-yardage fullback, reeling in a two-yard TD catch against Kansas. Started all 14 games in '09, leading the nation in tackles, tackles for loss and sacks by a defensive lineman after racking up 85-20 1/2-12 with 10 passes batted down, one interception, one forced fumble and three blocked kicks. A Heisman Trophy finalist, Suh became the first defender to win the Associated Press Player of the Year award. Also captured the Outland, Lombardi, Bednarik and Nagurski awards. Team captain. Was cited in November for negligent driving - while driving his mother's SUV, he swerved to avoid an animal in the street and hit three parked cars. Admitted to drinking before the incident but his blood-alcohol content was .035, well below the legal limit.

Positives: Has excellent functional strength and powerful hands to ragdoll blockers. Can dig in and man two gaps and neutralize the double-team. Instinctively sniffs out screens and is quick to read hats, feel blocking pressure and react. Exceptional balance - sifts through clutter and maintains his feet. Can rip down ballcarriers one-handed while still occupying blockers and is a very strong, drive-through tackler. Shows agility to zone-drop and has good hand-eye coordination to bat balls and consistently disrupt a quarterback's vision. Outstanding production for an interior defensive lineman. Is versatile and plays all three downs. Came very prepared to the Combine and worked out very well, registering a 35 1/2-inch vertical jump and very good shuttle times.

Negatives: Is not a creative pass rusher - relies on his upper-body strength and effort to generate pressure and does not have a plan. Lacks elite flexibility and agility to work the edges. Too often vacates his gap and can play with more consistent leverage. Needs to learn how to unlock his hips more consistently. Weight has fluctuated and dipped close to 290 late in the season.

Summary: Played square to the line of scrimmage and did not attack his reads in Bo Pelini's defense, limiting his ability to get off the ball. Will never be a dominant inside rusher given his inability to unlock and use the power in his hips. Is extremely strong, athletic and versatile and showed the ability to dominate college football. Versatile and well-suited to thrive in any type of front. Has perennial Pro Bowl potential.

NFL projection: Top-five pick.

3. DLE-OLB Derrick Morgan
Georgia Tech junior
Ht: 6-3 | Wt: 266 | Sp: 4.78 | Arm: 34 1/2 | Hand: 9 3/4

Notes: High school defensive lineman-fullback. As a true freshman in 2007, saw limited action in 12 games, recording nine tackles, 1 1/2 tackles for loss and zero sacks with one pass batted down. Did not play against Duke (coach's decision). In '08, started all 13 games, producing 51-9 1/2-7 with three batted passes and a blocked field-goal attempt that preserved a victory over Gardner-Webb. Started all 14 games in '09, registering 55-18 1/2-12 1/2 with one pass batted down and two forced fumbles. Was used on offense for a handful of plays as a freshman and carried for two yards on a fake punt as a junior. Team captain. Did not bench-press at the Combine because of a right shoulder injury.

Positives: Has outstanding size and growth potential with very long arms. Good instincts - feels blocking pressure. Good base strength. Physical - stacks the point and constricts running lanes. Has a strong bull-rush move to overpower blockers. Motor runs non-stop with consistent energy and effort. Good hand technician. Works to come free and makes a lot of hustle plays - spins, counters, hustles and chases and does not give up in backside pursuit. Flushes a lot of production to his teammates. Strong, physical tackler. Outstanding football temperament - leaves everything on the field. Very versatile - has the size and bone structure to carry more weight and has the potential to play anywhere along the line in a "30" or "40" front. Outstanding production. Clocked among the fastest 10-yard times (1.60 seconds) of any defensive end at the Combine and performed very well in agility drills.

Negatives: Piled up sacks against average tackles and can be challenged by top competition. Not a creative pass rusher and lacks elite burst and acceleration off the edge. Does not have great lateral agility to shadow quicker backs in space. Is often a half-step late to arrive at the quarterback and lacks elite closing burst.

Summary: Is not flashy. More of an effort producer than a skill producer, but offers very intriguing versatility and is easily the safest defensive end in the draft because teams will be comforted knowing exactly what they are getting. Played above 280 pounds but weighed in at 266 at the Combine. Has unique potential to fit as an outside 'backer in a "30" front or bulk up and man the five-technique in a slanting, aggressive "30" front such as that of the Steelers, Ravens or Bills. Also could be a very effective left end in a "40" front; he even kicked inside in college and rushed from the inside at times. Has a motor that does not stop, and his best football is still ahead of him.

NFL projection: Top-15 pick. 

4. DRE-OLB Brandon Graham
Michigan senior
Ht: 6-1 3/8 | Wt: 268 | Sp: 4.74 | Arm: 32 1/4 | Hand: 9 7/8

Notes: Parade All-American who played offensive guard, linebacker and punter, in addition to competing in basketball and track and field. Missed three games his senior year (knee), but still managed to be named Michigan's Gatorade Player of the Year. As a true freshman in 2006, saw action as a backup lineman in 11 games and recorded three tackles, half a tackle for loss and half a sack. Started 5-of-13 games in '07, posting 25-9 1/2-8 1/2 with one batted pass and three forced fumbles. In '08, started all 11 games played, registering 46-20-10 with two forced fumbles. Did not play against Toledo (leg infection). Playing for his third defensive coordinator (Greg Robinson) in as many seasons in '09, was voted team MVP for the second year in a row (first defensive player in UM history to be voted team MVP twice). Started all 12 games at end in a 3-4 alignment and led the nation in tackles for loss (nearly 41 percent of his tackles were behind the line of scrimmage) by registering 64-26-10 1/2 with two passes batted down, two forced fumbles and two blocked kicks. Also returned a blocked punt two yards for a TD vs. Delaware State. Team captain punctuated his collegiate career with an MVP performance in the Senior Bowl. Arrived at UM weighing nearly 300 pounds, but shed approximately 30 pounds to get down to his playing weight. Pulled his left hamstring running the 40-yard dash at the Combine and did not perform shuttles.

Positives: Good upper-body strength. Natural bender with pure pass-rush ability. Rushes with power (strong bull rush), gets underneath blockers' pads and uses his hands very well to rip off blocks. Has a very quick first two steps. Consistently powers through contact and slip-sheds. Strong physical tackler. Good instincts - feels blocking pressure and has a knack for making plays in the backfield. Very good football temperament - intense, competitive and tenacious. Plays hard and gives consistent effort - motor always runs. Strong tackler. Very productive and opportunistic and stood out at the Senior Bowl. Matched up favorably against better competition. Bench-pressed 225 pounds 31 times at the Combine.

Negatives: Lacks ideal height and arm length - lets blockers into his frame and can be washed by larger offensive linemen. Lacks elite athletic ability, fluidity of movement and closing burst. Can be late off the ball. Is best when assignments are simplified and he can be turned loose to rush the passer. Can do a better job protecting his legs.

Summary: A short, square-cut, disruptive leverage-power rusher who played with his hand on the ground at Michigan but could project to a rush linebacker role in an aggressive, one-gapping "30" front such as that of the Ravens, Steelers or Chargers. Could fit equally well in a "40" front such as that of the Colts or Buccaneers. Will come off the board before more physically gifted players at his position due to his consistent motor, production and dependability.

NFL projection: Top-40 pick.

5. NT Dan Williams
Tennessee senior
Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 327 | Sp: 5.24 | Arm: 33 1/2 | Hand: 10 1/8

Notes: Redshirted in 2005, when he weighed nearly 360 pounds (reportedly has since sworn off fast food). Saw limited action in six games in '06 and was credited with two tackles, one for loss and one sack. In '07, started 10-of-14 games at right defensive tackle, totaling 40-6 1/2-2 with a blocked field goal. Started 9-of-12 contests in '08, tallying 48-8 1⁄2-1 1/2 with one pass batted down. Yielded a start to Walter Fisher against UAB. Sprained his right ankle against Alabama and did not start against South Carolina or Vanderbilt. Playing under then-defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin in '09, started all 13 games at right DT spot and produced 70-9-2 1/2, becoming just the fourth Vols interior D-lineman to record 60 or more tackles in a season.

Positives: Stoutly built with a thick trunk. Very strong to stack the point and anchor against the run. Good balance and body control. Is light on his feet and has good movement skills for a big man. Crosses the face of defenders - darts through reach blocks. Locates quickly - reads screen and chases the ball. Takes short, powerful strides and can push the pocket.

Negatives: Does not play with a load in his hands or play off blocks as quickly as he should - stays tied up. Is not quick off the snap and lacks closing burst to finish plays. Brings little value as an inside pass rusher. Questionable stamina - fatigues late in games. Conditioning needs to be monitored - weight has fluctuated throughout his career.

Summary: A thick-trunked, stout interior defender equipped to handle the dirty work, Williams is a movement nose tackle in the mold of Casey Hampton, although not quite as strong, powerful or agile. Can become a very effective two-down run stuffer in a four-man front if he learns to play with consistent leverage and becomes a better hands fighter.

NFL projection: First-round pick. 

6. 3T-DLE Jared Odrick
Penn State senior
Ht: 6-5 | Wt: 304 | Sp: 5.06 | Arm: 34 | Hand: 9 3/4

Notes: Parade All-American in high school. As a true freshman in 2006, played 10 games as a reserve defensive end and recorded four tackles and one for loss (a sack). In '07, started 7-of-8 games played, totaling 16-4-2 with one pass batted down and a blocked kick before his season ended prematurely because of two injuries. Broke two bones in his left hand against Wisconsin then dislocated his right ankle against Indiana. In '08, started 11-of-13 games, totaling 41-9 1/2-4 1/2 with three batted passes and one forced fumble. Did not start the season opener against Coastal Carolina (insufficient practice time after recovering from injury) or against Iowa. Was charged with disorderly conduct in March '09 after getting into a fight with three Penn State students and another man and allegedly punching one of them. Police believed alcohol was a factor in the incident. Was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in '09 after registering 43-11-7 with one pass batted down and one blocked kick in 13 starts.

Positives: Looks the part with a projectable frame and excellent body length to disrupt passing lanes. Outstanding athlete for a big man - good initial quickness and agility. Can torque his body, get skinny and knife through gaps. Loose-hipped with nice bend to twist and stunt. Creates extension and has a strong club-swim move. Drew constant double-teams and flushed a lot of production to teammates. Pursues hard - flattens down the line and ranges to the perimeter to make plays. Secure, wrap tackler. Outstanding work ethic. Tough and will play through injuries.

Negatives: Does not consistently play to his size. Not stout for a 300-pounder - lacks base strength to anchor and does not generate power from his lower half. Too often plays narrow-based. Is tall and gets washed when he lets his pads rise. Lunges and loses balance. Can do a better job working his hands and feet in unison. Lacks elite closing burst at the top of his rush. Could play more disciplined.

Summary: Big, versatile, athletic defensive tackle with flexibility and quickness to play the three-technique in a four-man front where he can slant, stunt and penetrate. Lack of base strength and inconsistent pad level could lessen interest from odd-front defenses seeking fenceposts, but will also warrant interest as a five-technique and overall versatility adds to his value.

NFL projection: Late first-round pick.

7. DRE-OLB Everson Griffen
USC junior
Ht: 6-3 3/8 | Wt: 273 | Sp: 4.66 | Arm: 32 5/8 | Hand: 10

Notes: Cousin, Keegan Herring, was a running back at Arizona State (2005-08). Griffen was a Parade All-American and the Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year as a defensive end-running back. In 2007, became the first USC true freshman to start a season opener on the defensive line since 1986. Played in all 13 games, starting two, and tallied 21 tackles and 5 1/2 for loss (all sacks) with two batted passes and two forced fumbles serving as a pass-rush specialist. In '08, played 13 games and managed 18-6-4 1/2. Started the first three games before losing his spot atop the depth chart at the "Elephant" position to Green Bay Packers '09 first-rounder Clay Matthews. Did not play against Washington State (illness) and dealt with a torn toenail in late October. Was suspended for the first practice in spring '09 (academics). Took a liking to new position coach Jethro Franklin, starting all 12 games played and posting 45-9 1/2-8 with one batted pass and one forced fumble despite dealing with nagging injuries. Sprained his left ankle against Oregon, did not play against Arizona State (turf toe) and sustained another ankle sprain against Boston College in the Emerald Bowl. 

Positives: Looks the part with a strong upper body and a frame to support added bulk. Runs like a linebacker. Has quick, strong hands and flashes some hand violence. Good upfield takeoff - has a long, explosive first step and takes choppy, powerful strides in tight quarters. Accelerates through the gap on loops and stunts. Ranges to make plays. Flashes a spin move. Forceful tackler.

Negatives: Inconsistent instincts and intensity - motor runs hot and cold. Too much of his production is against air or tight ends. Lacks elite bend off the corner. Needs to develop a more diverse pass-rush arsenal. Undisciplined - freelances too often and loses gap integrity. Lacks focus. Plays with an every-other-play mentality and disappears for stretches. Is not grounded and could get caught up in the trappings of success. Inconsistent practice habits. Has a sense of entitlement. Questionable mental and physical toughness. Interviewed poorly at the Combine.

Summary: Has first-round talent and has long been viewed as a star-in-waiting, but did not live up to the hype at USC. Teased evaluators with his quickness, power and explosion early in the season but was sidetracked by injuries and fell off in the second half of the season. Has an intriguing skill set with disruptive quickness and edge burst, but comes with a "buyer beware" label due to intermittent intensity, lack of discipline and questions about his mental makeup. Overall lack of toughness could push him to the second round and keep him from ever realizing his potential. 

NFL projection: Top-50 pick.

8. 3T-DLE Tyson Alualu
California senior
Ht: 6-2 3/8 | Wt: 295 | Sp: 4.92 | Arm: 33 | Hand: 10

Notes: Father is a pastor. Last name is pronounced "AH-loo AH-loo." Married with two children. Signed with Cal in 2005, but delayed enrollment until January '06 for the birth of his first child and marriage. In the fall, saw action in all 13 games (started at defensive tackle against Oregon State) and recorded 12 tackles without a tackle for loss or sack. Reportedly dropped from his freshman weight of 315 pounds to the 260s as a 4-3 defensive end in '07, a season in which he started all 13 games on the right side and produced 52-3 1/2-2 1/2 with one pass batted down, one interception and a blocked kick. Also returned a fumble four yards for a touchdown against Arizona. The Bears converted to a 3-4 scheme in '08 and Alualu played end, posting the most tackles by a Cal defensive lineman in 13 years. Started all 13 games, notching 62-11-6 with two batted passes and two forced fumbles despite a mid-October leg infection. Started all 13 games in '09 and registered 65-11 1/2-7 1/2 plus three passes batted and two forced fumbles. Team captain. Wore jersey No. 90 as a freshman.

Positives: Has quick, strong hands and plays strong. Fine two-gap ability - is naturally strong to stack the line and hold his ground at the point of attack. Strong tackler. Plays with a load in his hands. Can gain extension, lock out and control blockers. Comes off the ball low and plays with leverage. Good agility and balance - is light on his feet, moves well for a big man and is seldom on the ground. Quick and very active. Has a very good motor and pursues the ball. Has a feel for the game. Very versatile and has played every position on the line. Can zone drop and fall back into coverage. Very instinctive with outstanding football intelligence - quick to feel pressure, read hats and locate the ball. Solid character. Highly respected team leader. Stood out at the Senior Bowl. Registered a 35-inch vertical jump and better shuttle times than any defensive tackle at the Combine. Extremely tough and durable.

Negatives: Does not have ideal body length for a five-technique. Does not show elite lower-body explosion and quick-twitch movement. Needs to develop a wider array of counter moves to free himself up and can be hung up on the line of scrimmage too much. Bench-pressed 225 pounds only 21 times (although he plays stronger). Average outside pass rusher.

Summary: Strong, stoutly built, high-energy, athletic defender with the versatility to play anywhere in a "30" or "40" front and could be a terrific mismatch piece for a creative defensive mind. Was not used to penetrate inside much in college, but could be an explosive three-technique in the pros. Could become an outstanding pro if paired with the right coach and should be very attractive to the Jets, Ravens and Patriots.

NFL projection: Top-50 pick.

9. DLE-OLB Corey Wootton
Northwestern senior
Ht: 6-6 | Wt: 270 | Sp: 4.8e | Arm: 34 3/4 | Hand: 10 1/4

Notes: Played high school ball at New Jersey's famed Don Bosco Prep, where he won two state titles. Had a broken wrist his junior year. Saw limited action in three games at Northwestern before a neck injury shelved him for the 2005 season. Was granted a medical hardship. Started all 12 games at left end in '06, recording 51 tackles, nine for loss and 4 1/2 sacks with one pass batted down, two interceptions, one forced fumble and a blocked kick. Moved to right end in '07 and started 11-of-12 games, notching 39-7-1 with five passes batted down, one interception and a blocked kick. Sustained a hip flexor against Ohio State and did not start against Eastern Michigan (coach's decision). Started all 13 games at right end in '08, registering 42-16-10 with one batted pass, one interception and a forced fumble. Suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the Alamo Bowl and underwent surgery in mid-January '09. Sat out spring practice and was not 100 percent at the beginning of the season. Played in all 13 games (11 starts) in '09, producing 21-6-4 with one forced fumble and a blocked kick. Sprained his right ankle against Purdue and was limited for most of October, missing starts against Miami (Ohio) and Michigan State. Did not run at the Combine, as he was nursing a left quad injury.

Positives: Looks every bit the part - has an athletic build with the wingspan of a condor. Has a frame to support added bulk. Good anchor strength to defend the run - can stack and shed. Good movement skills and athletic ability. Good balance. Moved very well laterally with agility to flatten down the line and close on the ball prior to his knee injury. Smart, tough and hardworking. Solid character. Showed glimpses of his junior form (see momentum-changing strip-sack against Iowa).

Negatives: Ordinary first-step quickness and quick-twitch. Not a natural pass rusher - spins in place, lacks creativity and does not collapse the pocket. Not a great hand technician - does not free himself and gain ground at the top of his rush. Short-step, heel runner. Is too often caught flat-footed and does not play with a lot of foot energy or change direction fluidly. Bench-pressed 225 pounds only 20 times at the Combine. Durability needs to be evaluated.

Summary: Did not return to full strength as a senior when he clearly looked less explosive and his production dropped significantly but did show the toughness to battle through the injury. Planted tentatively and clearly could not cut. Evaluators will have to revisit Wootton's 2008 tape, but he compares to Giants DL Chris Canty when healthy and has the size, strength and arm length to fit as a 3-4 end or 4-3 base end with versatility to rush from the inside. Is light enough on his feet to even warrant a try as an outside linebacker in a traditional "30" front such as that of the Dolphins, Chiefs or Browns. Spring workouts will determine his draft value. Could turn out to be a tremendous value pick if he returns to junior form. Has starter potential.

NFL projection: Second- to third-round pick.

10. 3T Brian Price
UCLA junior
Ht: 6-1 1/8 | Wt: 303 | Sp: 5.14 | Arm: 32 1/4 | Hand: 9 1/2

Notes: Godfather, Brian Shaw, is a 15-year NBA veteran and current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach. Price, who grew up in the crime-infested Crenshaw district of Los Angeles where two of his brothers were murdered in a four-year span, was a highly recruited Parade All-American. As a true freshman in 2007, he missed fall camp and the first three games of the season while waiting for clearance from the NCAA. Upon returning to the field, started 5-of-10 games played and managed 14 tackles, seven for loss and one sack with one pass batted down and two forced fumbles. In '08, started all 12 games, registering 35-14-4 1/2 with one batted pass, one interception, a forced fumble and a blocked kick. Also was occasionally used as a blocking fullback. Started all 13 games in '09, totaling 48-23 1/2-7 with one pass batted down and two forced fumbles. Did not run shuttles at the Combine because of calf cramps.

Positives: Squarely built with a strong upper body (bench-pressed 225 pounds 34 times at the Combine). Quick-footed and very agile for his size. Explodes off the snap and re-establishes the line of scrimmage. Rips under blocks and powers through double-teams. Flashes great power in his hands to press, shed and control blockers. Strong bull rush with short powerful steps to cave the pocket. Heavy hitter - swallows ballcarriers. Also kicked outside in odd fronts. Has a chip on his shoulder, having overcome a lot of adversity in his life.

Negatives: Short, smooth-muscled body that limits his stamina - tires easily and taps out of too many plays. Selfish. Immature. Needs to improve core strength - is too top-heavy and lacks anchor strength to hold the point vs. double-teams. Has gut power and will never be a good pass rusher - sack production came in clumps against marginal offensive lines. Tends to play too tall and gets washed. Lacks pass-rush variety and does not use his hands well. Lets his feet stall and is not relentless in pursuit. Does not flatten, break down and change direction well and is best limited to a short area.

Summary: Compactly built penetrator who was very productive despite not playing at an optimum conditioning level and sitting out a significant number of snaps when winded. Shows big-time flashes when his battery is charged and has potential as a penetrating three-technique with enough power to slide over the nose in a slanting, one-gap scheme. A pit bull who will be best playing in gaps.  

NFL projection: Top-50 pick.

Sunday: Top 10 LB prospects

To read all of Nolan Nawrocki's scouting reports on 395 players, as well as player rankings, team needs and much more, you can now pre-order your copy of the 2010 Draft Preview online at PFWstore.com, or you can purchase your copy of the book at newsstands and bookstores across the country when it goes on sale March 30.

For the most authoritative NFL draft news and free-agency analysis, visit ProFootballWeekly.com.

Quarterbacks

We will start off by introducing the man who will probably end his career as the undisputed best signal-caller of all time&mdash;Peyton Manning.

Is it even a question? While Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers get much respect from me&mdash; I called Aaron Rodgers' greatness by the way&mdash; they haven't engineered a comeback against a great Patriots defense in the AFC Championship game and single-handedly crushed the dreams of many guys trying to give it one last shot before they hang it up.

I refused to read off stats for the "Who Dat" Nation and their recent obsession with Drew Brees and his abilities. PLEASE! You all thought it was stupid to sign a guy who may not be able to throw and I don't care if you are from N.O. NO ONE is a Saints fan.

Peyton Manning the greatest, no debate.

A player to look out for in the 2010 season who may be flying underneath the wire is Charlie Whitehurst. Also look out for Jake Delhomme, and definitely look out for Matt Schaub and his amazing attack.

Running Backs

Again undisputed&mdash;Chris Johnson leads the list of best in the league. I don't think he will come close to the same season he had this past year, but he will probably still slice through the majority of NFL defenses yet again.

I honestly thought when I saw him at the combine, he was guy who wouldn't be much more than a Reggie Bush type guy or a Darren Sproles type player a good receiving back and a nice back up. I think we all were taken by surprise to see his ability to make the NFL's best look like middle schoolers in a pick up game of backyard football.

A guy to pay attention to is Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens, the leader of the Ravens rushing attick. And with Michael Oher creating gaping holes, I think he will probably end up leading the AFC in yards, especially with the great outside blocks Anquan Boldin can create.

So in 2010, we should definitely see plenty of endzone celebrations from Rice and CJ 21.

Wide Receiver

Larry Fitzgerald lead the boards across every preseason WR ranking.

I was furious when I saw these rankings.

Andre Johnson was the best last year, and will remain the best this year. He possesses all the tools you could ever want in a WR. He is 6'3, 230 pounds, clocked a 4.41 in his combine 40 yard dash, blocks, is quiet, selfless never drops a pass, and is probably the only man who survived his trip to Revis Island.

While Larry Fitzgerald is a respectable playmaker and a team player, let's remember that before Anquan Boldin went out with a fractured cheek bone in the '08, '09 season, he was the primary play maker of choice for Kurt Warner. He led the league with five TDs through the first four games of the year, and it wasn't until the Jets knocked him out for three games his starlight was stolen by the Fitz, who reawakened the term, Moss'd!

A guy to look out for to have a big season is Steve Smith. With a new quarterback and a healed arm, he should be re-motivated to show us the flashiness. Two others I  also like are Chad Johnson, the wide receiver formerly known as Ochocinco, and Roddy White, the model of consistency who has gone three straight years with 1,000+ yards.

Tight End

The position of kings, if you ask me, should be led by no other than Mr. Cool himself, Jason Witten. It seems like no matter what drama the Cowboys were in the midst of, he was always lurking in the shadows and producing. Jason Witten is probably the least talented person in the NFL and somehow is an All Pro!

Enough man crushing over the Wit Master. A guy who I like more than Witten is Owen Daniels. He was on his way to winning the triple crown for TEs (leading in receptions, yards, and touchdowns). I refuse to even touch bases on any other guys, because Owen Daniels is going to work himself into the best tight end.

Imagine what kind of aerial assault the Texans will have with Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, and Owen Daniels.

Fullbacks

This doesn't need much attention&mdash;it's Leonard Weaver. And maybe the only other people who draw my attention for the upcoming season are Jacob Hester and Le'Ron McClain.

Offensive Tackles

How I miss the days of Walter Jones opening up holes for Shaun Alexander and watching the backside of Matt Hasselback. Nowadays the best left tackle is Ryan Clady&mdash; he made a shaky Kyle Orton look like Aaron Rodgers with the amount of time he gave him to find Brandon Marshall.

A guy I have high expectations for is Russell Okung. I have him going to the Kansas City Chiefs, because they desperately need protection for Matt Cassell if that offense is even going to think about having a competent passing game. However, he will be an immediate impact wherever he goes.

Offensive Guards

Ironically, we just talked about how dominant Walter Jones was. Back in the day when the wild west was ran by Hasselback and the Seahawks, and the man who was just to the right of him was Steve Hutchinson. Hutchinson has now moved from opening holes for Shaun Alexander to opening holes for Adrian Peterson.

Along with Alan Faneca, Hutchinson will probably go down in history as the best at making good backs, great backs. Harvey Dahl for the Atlanta Falcons has the reputation of being the nastiest guard in the NFL. He not only finds anyway and all ways to deliver a spine crushing pancake, he also will make it his purpose to grab your facemask, fall on top of you, or step on you WAY after the play is over.

With a healthy Michael Turner and Matt Ryan, Dahl may just earn himself a Pro Bowl appearance.

Centers

Nick Mangold is hands down the best center. From day one, he stepped into Jets camp and moved every nose guard they threw his way. Let's be honest&mdash;if you can pick up the blitzes in a Rex Ryan defense on a daily basis, then you deserve every accolade possible.

A center I am interested in seeing is Dominic Raiola. Since everything is actually getting better in Detroit&mdash;everything other than the economy&mdash;I want to see how things turn out now that he isn't a one-man show on the offensive line.

by J. Michael Estes - CollegeFootballGeek.com contributing writer

College fantasy football’s greatest draft day destination is going through a face-lift of epic proportions.  What should we make of the Red Raider offense as we head into spring ball?

What’s the scoop?

The Mike Leach era at Texas Tech has come to an end and with it, so has an average of 5,230 passing yards and 42 touchdown passes per season.  Neal Brown, previously the offensive coordinator at Troy University takes over the offense and will do his best to duplicate similar statistics, but how much success will he actually have in 2010?

What to expect in 2010.

According to Tommy Tuberville, the new head coach at Texas Tech and Brown, the offense will still be very similar except that “we will run it a little more”. 

That is fine and all, but how can we reasonably expect anybody’s offense to be similar to what Leach has been running in Lubbock the last ten years and specifically, how much is “a little more”? 

It is important to note that both Leach and Tony Franklin are followers of the Hal Mumme (BYU of the 1980’s) offense and that Brown was an understudy of Franklin.  When I compare the two offenses, here is what I see. 

Brown’s offense runs many of the fundamental patterns and reads the same as Leach historically has. For example, on any given play a wide receiver will have two routs he may run depending on whether he reads zone or man coverage. 

In order for this to work, the quarterback and the wide receiver need to make the same read and react accordingly. Also, the quarterback has the freedom to audible out of a perceived bad play call at anytime.

The differences are that Brown’s offense will utilize a true tight end,  the offensive line “splits” will play at a tighter interval to support the ground game, and they will likely add a quarterback draw audible for when middle linebackers slide over to cover a slot receiver. Expect quarterback carries to increase with players like Sheffield and Karam in the ballgame and not so much with Potts or Doege.

As for running the ball “a little” more, statistically, it shakes out like this. 

Leach offenses typically passed 68% of the time and rushed 32% of the time.  Brown’s offenses have passed 54% of the time and rushed 46% of the time.

Who’s back?

Running Backs:

These guys are up first because they are your best bet for fantasy production in 2010.
R Sr. Baron Batch, Baron is a complete football player who is expected the carry the load.
Sr. Aaron Crawford, Crawford had a big game against Oklahoma in 2007 but has since battled injuries.
R So. Harrison Jeffers, Supremely talented young player who is still trying to figure things out.
So. Eric Stephens, Promising young player similar in mold to Batch.
Signees:  Delans Griffin, Ben McRoy

Quarterbacks:

Sr. Stephen Sheffield, When he was in the game, he showed everyone with a functioning pair of eyes that he is “the man”.  If Sticks had attempted the additional 14 more passes needed to officially qualify, his efficiency rating of 177.6 would have towered over the rest of the NCAA FBS.
Sr. Taylor Potts, Potts looks like a hero in a non-contact jersey but doesn’t handle live game pressure very well.
R. So. Seth Doege,  Big armed smart kid that has had some knee issues in the past, but he seems to be okay now.
R. Fr. Jacob Karam, a natural born leader with a great skill set and a bright future.

Signee:  Scotty Young (2009 Gatorade POY in Texas, stash this name away)

Wide Receivers:

I’ll present these guys in the format of the pre-spring depth chart.  But expect some moves.
X Receiver-
1. Sr.  Lyle Leong &ndash; Watch this position in the spring and fall, there may be a move here.
2. R Fr. Eric Ward &ndash; Ward may be too good to not be a starter.
3. R Fr. E.J. Celestie
Z Receiver-
1. R So.  Alex Torres &ndash; If Torres continues the hard work, no one will take his starting position.
2. R Jr. Jacoby Franks
3. R Fr. Derrick Mays
Y Receiver-
1. Sr. Detron Lewis &ndash; Lewis and Zouzalik are co-starters for now, but Lewis is the more gifted player.
2. R So. Austin Zouzalik
3. R Fr. Aaron Fisher
H Receiver-
1. Jr. Tramain Swindall &ndash; Corn Dog has some ground to make up on Swindall.
2. R So. Cornelius Douglas
3. Jr. Adam James
Signees:  Shawn Corker, LaVauhgn Whigham (likely to move to defense)

If you fantasy draft was today (3/15/2010)….

Baron Batch is the first Red Raider that should be off of your draft board.  Batch would have had RB 1 fantasy numbers last year if he had not been limited in the first three games of the season.  Don’t let him get past the second round in any format this year, especially with the increased emphasis on the running game in 2010. 

Barring injury Stephen Sheffield will be a solid QB 1 for you this year although likely not an elite player.  If Barry Turner had not “sacked” Sticks by kick tripping him and therefore breaking his foot, he was on pace to finish 2009 on a tear not equaled by anyone except maybe Case Keenum.  Sheffield would make an excellent 3rd to 4th round pick in a 12 team all FBS league. 

As for the receivers, I can’t recommend any Red Raider pass catchers early in your draft this year.  There are simply too many hands and not enough footballs.  Detron Lewis , Alex Torres, and Lyle Leong are your best bets in the back half of your draft.  Maybe Torres gets a slight edge, but it is unlikely that anyone will become a “go-to” receiver in this offense.  If anyone does, don’t be surprised if that person is Eric Ward. This guy will be a star, it is just a matter of when.  Also, don’t be afraid of taking a last pick flier on Harrison Jeffers.  He is the most gifted offensive skill player on the team and would likely start for 100 other teams in the FBS. 

J. Michael Estes is a contributing writer for CollegeFootballGeek.com, your premier resource for college fantasy football information. Check us out.

The fact that Eric Mangini AND Mike Holmgren each attended Tim Tebow's pro day is a strong hint that Cleveland will be drafting a QB.

Panthers coach John Fox is a huge Delhomme supporter and Browns general manager Tom Heckert is an equally big supporter of Fox. Fox's contract is up after this season. Agent Bob Lamonte represents Heckert, Fox and Browns president Mike Holmgren.

Cleveland gave Delhomme a two-year deal, long enough to carry him over until the time when Fox will become free. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. ...

I think Purdue minus-4 is easily the best bet in the tourney and one of the best bets I've seen since I've been [wagering]. A team that was a threat to win the national title against a MAAC team which has played on the road at Butler, Georgia Tech and Northern Iowa and been blown out in all three. It has shown no ability to matchup with athletically superior teams. Purdue, meanwhile, was going to win the whole thing three weeks ago. They have had time to gather themselves since Hummel's injury and say, 'Let's go give this our best shot.' Purdue's best shot is better than anything Siena can dream of. I will have a big bet on this game.

A favorite quilt can bring its owner comfort, warmth and security. It can be an heirloom that is passed down to future generations, reminding a family of their history. I am a self-taught quilter who has been quilting for the last 15 years. As a member of the Quiltsy Team here on Etsy, I participated in quilting the giant quilts for Etsy's new office.

In this quilting installment for the Facts and Fancies series, I'll give you some insight into the different materials used in quilts and the varying styles and techniques of quilts.

Photo of KimsCraftyApple, more in her Flickr set

Before we start, Webster Mirriam’s dictionary defines a quilt as "a bed coverlet of two layers of cloth filled with padding (batting) held in place by ties or stitched designs." While this holds true for most, not all techniques considered quilting fit this definition, and I will introduce you to those, too.

A baby quilt by theloveliestbloom

Size: Measure It Out
It is important to know your sizes when buying a quilt for a bed. Before purchasing a quilt, you should take the mattress size of your bed and measure all around the bed for the amount of overhang you would prefer and add those measurements to the mattress size to get the quilt size you need. You can find the standard dimensions for mattresses here.

Photo by Leslie from curlycrafter

Fabric: Color, Pattern, and Combination

 "I am inspired by fabric; a new line of fabrics is like a flower garden in full bloom, choosing the right combination to make the perfect bouquet." &mdash; Carlene Westburg of quiltville

Most quilters like to use 100% cotton quilting fabrics. There are different grades of fabric in the manufacturing process. Normally, a mill will run tests on new designs to test for colors. This fabric is often sold to discount stores at a lesser price. Keep in mind that this test fabric often has a lower thread count and will shrink more and the colors may bleed and/or fade due to this. Most quilt shops sell the better grade with higher thread count. This fabric is more expensive, averaging about $9/yard in the U.S., but if taken care of properly, it can last for centuries and is well worth the investment.

Recycled materials are increasing in popularity with the push towards more environmentally friendly products, though upcycled quilts have been, for quite some time, a traditionally thrifty way to make do with fabric scraps.

MamakaMills' quilt made from repurposed men's shirts

Photo by Ashlawnfarms, who sells batting supplies

Batting: Know Your Quilt Inside Out
There are many types of batting available for the middle of a quilt. These varieties help define the form and the feel of a quilt. I'll lay out some of the pros and cons to consider for your particular needs.

Cotton is the most popular.  It is soft, washable, breathable, cool, comfortable and relatively affordable. It does shrink and will give you a puckered, vintage look when washed and dried in a machine.

Cotton/Polyester is loftier than cotton and shrinks less. It is also more stable than and has the breathability of cotton.

Polyester is lightweight and puffy. This is the batting to use if you like a sleek and modern look. It is the least expensive, non-allergenic and non-shrinking. The down-side is that it doesn’t breathe and has the most impact on our environment due to chemicals.

Wool is more expensive, and it is light and fluffy and naturally flame-retardant. Some of the negatives are allergies and moths. If it is not hand washed and laid flat to dry, it will felt.

Bamboo is the most recent addition to the batting industry. It is more expensive, but it has the breathability of cotton and is machine washable. It also has less impact on our environment because bamboo does not need chemicals to grow.

Photo by sarahsquiltsncrafts

An Investment of Time and Materials
Have you ever wondered why quilts are priced as they are and why their prices can vary widely? An obvious pricing variable would be the grade of materials used in a quilt, but let us consider the amount of materials needed and the hours of labor performed. A baby/toddler quilt uses approximately 4-5 yards of fabric for a 45”x60” quilt. A king-size quilt uses approximately 14-16 yards of fabric. Multiply that by the price per yard and add the cost of other supplies needed, such as batting and thread and you have a figure for supplies only. There is no standard for hours of labor in a quilt, as it varies greatly depending on the quilter. Some smaller quilts with very basic patterns may take 5 -10 hours to make, while more detailed and larger quilts can take hundreds of hours!

 

Photo by domoshar, more about this process on her Flickr

Styles and Techniques

There are so many types of quilts you can find on Etsy. Here are some of the techniques you'll see referred to as you browse Etsy's Quilt Category &mdash; don't hesitate to explore the experiments going on in today's quilting world as well as the time-honored traditions!

Handstitching photo by Lucy, more on her lovely blog Quilting with the Past

A hand quilted quilt is just as the name implies. No machine is used and the quilter stitches the three layers together, by hand, using a running stitch. A machine quilted quilt is quilted on a standard sewing machine or a commercial grade quilting machine, which can accommodate larger quilts with easier maneuverability and can be finished in less time. The other option is to tie the quilt. The quilter uses embroidery floss, yarn or another type of string to tack the three layers together in a grid using a knot.

Photo by Sue from andrusgardensart

A hand pieced quilt is a quilt top whose many pieces has been sewn together by hand, using a needle and thread. A hand pieced quilt may be hand or machine quilted.

An appliquéd quilt, such as this Tree quilt by  allthenumbers, uses the process of sewing one or more smaller pieces of fabric onto a larger background. This appliqué can be accomplished by hand or machine using various decorative stitches.

A crazy quilt is made of irregular scrap pieces or blocks of irregular scrap pieces, and these are often embellished with embroidery stitches and do not usually have a layer of batting. They may consist of different types of fabric, such as cotton, velvet, satin, etc. Check out this Cat crazy quilt by clubaloha.

A quilted fabric postcard can be mailed using one self-adhesive first class stamp. They have a top layer, a filling and a back, just like a quilt. The minimum card and letter size for US Postal Service mailings is 3 ½” x 5”. Most quilted fabric postcards measure 4” x 6”.

Sailboat Quilted Fabric Postcard by SewUpscale

A miniature quilt is a reduced or scaled down version of a full sized quilt. Generally, it is 1/12th the scale of the larger quilt. Here's an example in purple and pink by Pamelaquilts.

In an art quilt, the artist applies art principles &mdash; and sometimes art experience from other areas, like drawing, painting and photography. These often include different textures of fabric and stitching, as in bbusbyarts's Urchin II quilt, made with iridescent silk dupioni. The quilter often intends for you to hang the piece on your wall, as you would a painting or other decorative art.

A rag quilt is usually comprised of flannel or homespun material with raw edges of seam allowances that are exposed and then cut to form a soft fringe. roryunraveled, who made the twin rag quilts below, told me that "Rag quilts (the way I make them) are reversible &mdash; no official 'front' or 'back' like traditional quilts. Choose to display the clean, finished side folded at the end of your bed or snuggle with the comfy, raggy side while reading a book &mdash; whatever you're in the mood for at that moment. And babies just can't get enough of those frayed, fringy edges."


A patchwork quilt is made by sewing patches of different fabrics together, usually in a pattern or formation.

 Patchwork quilt by Quiltville

A cathedral windows quilt has this distinctive look you see in my pillow cover at right. This technique has no batting and rarely a backing, but has been considered a favorite type of quilt by many quilters. I love making cathedral window projects because of the origami-like technique, the stained glass window effect (especially when done with batiks), and the portablilty of the project &mdash; due to the large amount of hand sewing required.

There are other experiments to explore in the Quilts Category. thePATchworksshop quilted this piece from vintage fabrics, embellished it with the rusty star, and framed it for a rustic look.

Covering It All
Whether you are searching on Etsy for a quilt that reminds you of nights spent at Grandma’s house, as a child, or something a bit more modern and artistic, I hope that you have gained the knowledge you need to find the perfect quilt for you.

Here's one happy customer:

This photo shows Daniel "relaxing in his nice tidy room, with our lovely new Sky Parlour Quilt from skyparlourquilts! We chose fabrics that matched all our bedding, and they've tied together beautifully. Even the stitching is all hand-guided, in a matching heraldic pattern, PLUS it's in the prettiest graduated thread that is pink, orange and purple. Love!"

Tell us your quilt stories in the comments below!

  More From the Facts and Fancies Series | The Quilts Category on Etsy

“They are just dogs. I repeat: They are just dogs.” This description of pit bulls was repeated by Donald Cleary of the National Canine Research Council during a panel discussion held March 8 at Drexel Law School titled, “The Importance of Creating Safe & Humane Communities for All People & Animals.” But judging by PW ’s March 9 editorial, “Banishing Acts: It’s a Pitty; Maybe it’s time for Philly to consider outlawing pit bulls,” this message still needs repeating.

Despite significant increases in both human and dog populations, Philadelphia has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of reported dog bites, including those inflicted by pit bulls. In 1971, Philadelphia had nearly 8,500 reported dog bites, compared with about 1,100 in 2006, according to the National Canine Research Council.

And although more than one in four Philadelphians currently has a dog, the unfortunate incidents that took place last month represented Philadelphia’s first fatal dog attack in more than a quarter century. A tragedy indeed, but hardly comparable to the 300-plus homicides our city had in 2009 alone. Not even close to the number of Philadelphians killed by cars, falling construction debris, bad weather or even bad food.

And who are these pit bulls anyway? Simply put, there is no such breed. Rather, the term “pit bull” describes an ever-expanding group of dogs that includes American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers, Cane Corsos, Dogo Argentinos, bull terriers, bulldogs, boxers and bullmastiffs, as well as any mixed-breed dog presumed by a dog warden or a cop, on the basis of appearance, to be a “pit bull.”

That being said: We do have a problem. However, the problem is not the “pit bull” belonging to Jacob Lambert’s neighbors&mdash;the dog he described as “friendly and enthusiastic” and “sits when he is told and generally heeds his master.” The problem is the system.

Philadelphia has failed to address the real villains who threaten our public safety&mdash; not the dogs, but the negligent humans who are responsible for them. These are the people who obtain dogs for unsavory tasks (e.g., guarding, fighting); who chain them in backyards or basements; who do not spay or neuter (a symptom of irresponsible ownership and one of several factors overwhelmingly correlated with dog attacks); who deprive them of adequate food and vet care; or who fail to exert control over their animals (and their children).

 Why aren’t politicians enacting anti-tethering laws? Why isn’t City Council providing more public support for spay and neuter facilities? Why don’t judges sentence dogfighting ring leaders and animal abusers to the fullest extent? A large part the problem, quite frankly, is the media.

 Contrary to what they’ve led us to believe, pit bulls are not inherently vicious, unpredictable, ticking time bombs. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that America embraced pit bulls as “America’s dog.” Remember Petey, the famed pup from Little Rascals? How about Sergeant Stubby, our nation’s beloved World War I mascot who was honored by three U.S. presidents? When the news portrays a particular breed or type of dog as “dangerous,” there is an immediate increase in the number of sub-standard owners who obtain those dogs and subsequently keep them in environments that are ripe for disaster. We’ve all seen the guy with a Napoleon complex who paid $1,500 for a “Broad Street Bully” with big balls and cropped ears. I adopted one of these “time bombs” (he was rescued by humane law-enforcement officers from a fighting operation). Where is that dog now? He’s a certified therapy dog who visits nursing homes and elementary schools. And he’s neutered.

So should Philadelphia consider outlawing pit bulls? For one, it’d be legally impossible, thanks to a Pennsylvania statute that preempts any local ordinance attempting to prohibit or otherwise limit a specific breed of dog. Paying for it presents another challenge. Best Friends Animal Society estimates that the annual cost for Philadelphia to enact breed-discriminatory legislation, which would impact an estimated 26,330 pit bull-type dogs, would be a cool $2,275,020.

And what do the experts say? It’s unanimous: The American Veterinary Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Animal Control Association, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and almost all animal-welfare organizations oppose breed-specific regulation.

Finally, history holds too many examples of humans using certain traits (e.g., skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, country of origin) as the basis for categorizing the “differentness” of another group to justify the subjugation, abuse or annihilation of that population. This psychological ploy is now being used against pit bulls, and both the dogs and their human companions suffer the tragic effects. And regardless of one’s feelings toward pit bulls, please think carefully before granting government officials the power to enter a person’s home, seize his property and then kill that property&mdash; which is precisely what happens when cities outlaw pit bulls. ■