Player  Position  College

Saalim Hakim,  WR  Palomar JC

Kyle Hall,   P  No College

Alonzo Lawrence,  DB  Mississippi Gulf JC

As a result of such timely notification, the players are eligible for selection in the 2012 Draft that begins April 26.

Current NCAA rules provide that a player who is ineligible to participate as a college freshman due to a rule known as Proposition 16 is eligible to play only three seasons of college football. If, however, such player graduates prior to the beginning of his fifth academic year, he automatically becomes eligible to participate in a fourth season of college football as a graduate student.

• Clubs are advised that any player who entered college in 2008 with only three seasons of football eligibility subject to Proposition 16 and who has participated in three college seasons is eligible for selection in the 2012 Draft, provided that the player does not participate in spring football practice or other team-related activities at his school in 2012.  If such player is graduated, becomes eligible to participate in another college football season, and returns to college to play football in 2012, pursuant to the terms of Article 6, Section 6 of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, a selecting club will retain its exclusive rights to him “through the date of the Draft that follows the last season in which the player was eligible to participate in college football, and thereafter the player shall be treated and the Club shall have such exclusive rights as if he were drafted in such Draft by such Club (or assignee Club).”
• If such a player is not drafted, he becomes eligible to be signed as a free agent and remains eligible to be signed as a free agent unless he returns to college to play football in the fall of 2012, in which case he will become eligible for selection in the 2013 Draft.
• A Prop 16 player who participates in spring football practice or other team-related activities at his school is not eligible for selection in the 2012 Draft.  If he subsequently becomes eligible for selection prior to the 2012 regular season, he may apply for a supplemental draft.

Jonathan Massaquoi, DE, Troy is eligible for selection in the 2012 Draft. Although Massaquoi did not exhaust his eligibility through participation, he graduated from Troy in December 2011 and is eligible for the 2012 Draft pursuant to Article XII, Section 12.1(H) of the Constitution and Bylaws.

Andy Dalton 2011

Ourlads’ Guide to the NFL Draft is the only source that gives the number for the quarterback’s velocity at the NFL Combine. Velocity is measured by a radar gun in miles per hour.

YEAR: 2011

Colin Kaepernick, Nevada 59

Ryan Mallett, Arkansas 58

Patrick Devlin, Delaware 56

Andy Dalton, TCU 56

Cam Newton, Auburn 56

Scott Tolzien, Wisconsin 55

Nathan Enderle, Idaho 54

Jake Locker, Washington 54

TJ Yates, North Carolina 52

Christian Ponder, Florida St  51

Ricky Stanzi, Iowa 50

Tyrod Taylor, Va Tech 50

Greg McElroy, Alabama Did not throw

Blaine Gabbert, Missouri Did not throw

John Skelton 2010

YEAR: 2010

Levi Brown, Troy 56

Colt McCoy, Texas 56  (Did not throw at Combine. Throw was recorded at a private workout with a Radar Gun & Computer Chip in Ball.

Max Hall, BYU 52

Tim Hiller, Western Michigan 52

Michael Kafka, Northwestern 52

Zac Robinson, Oklahoma St. 52

Jevan Snead, Mississippi 52

Sean Canfield, Oregon St. 51

Jarrett Brown, West Virginia 50

John Skelton, Fordham 50

Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan 49

Tony Pike, Cincinnati 49

Armanti Edwards, Appalachian St. 46.5

Sam Bradford, Oklahoma Did not throw

Jimmy Clausen,Notre Dame Did not throw

Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee Did not throw

Tim Tebow, Florida Did not throw

Josh Freeman 2009

YEAR: 2009

John Wilson Parker, Alabama 58

Mike Reilly, Central Washington 58

Drew Willy, Buffalo 58

Mark Sanchez, Southern Cal 57

Josh Freeman, Kansas State 57

Chase Daniels, Missouri 57

Nate Davis, Ball State 56

Curtis Painter, Purdue 56

Rhett Bomar, Sam Houston State 55

Tom Brandstetter, Fresno State 53

Cullen Harper, Clemson 53

Stephen McGee, Texas A & M 53

Graham Harrell, Texas Tech 52

Pat White, West Virginia 52

Matt Stafford, Georgia Did not throw

Joe Flacco 2008

YEAR 2008:

Paul Smith, Tulsa 57

Joe Flacco, Delaware 55

Kevin O’Connell, San Diego St 55

Brian Brohm, Louisville 53

Chad Henne, Michigan 53

Erik Ainge, Tennessee 52

John David Booty, Southern Cal 51

Matt Flynn, LSU 50

Josh Johnson, San Diego 49

Colt Brennan, Hawaii 44

Dennis Dixon, Oregon Did not throw

Matt Ryan, Boston College Did not throw

Andre Woodson, Kentucky Did not throw

Robert Griffin III

Matt Kalil

Andrew Luck

Player’s name, position, estimated height & weight, school, and pre-combine draft round (E-early, M-middle, L-late, FA-free agent, PFA-priority free agent)Official list from NFL will be posted when released.

Andrew Luck, QB, 6040, 238, Stanford, 1E
Matt Kalil, OT, 6070, 300, Southern Cal, 1E
Robert Griffin III, QB, 6015, 220, Baylor, 1E
Justin Blackmon, WR, 6020, 210, Oklahoma State, 1E
Morris Claiborne, CB, 5110, 185, LSU, 1E
Riley Reiff, OT, 6060, 305, Iowa, 1E
Trent Richardson, RB, 5110, 225, Alabama, 1M
David DeCastro, OG, 6050, 315, Stanford 1M
Jonathan Martin, OT, 6050, 305, Stanford, 1M
Dre Kirkpatrick, CB, 6020, 195, Alabama, 1M
Alshon Jeffery, WR, 6040, 240, South Carolina, 1M
Luke Kuechly, LB, 6020, 237, Boston College, 1M
Nick Perry, DE, 6040, 250, Southern Cal, 1M
Whitney Mercilus, DE, 6040, 265, Illinois, 1M
Fletcher Cox, DT, 6050, 295, Mississippi State, 1M/L
Jerel Worthy, DT, 6030, 315, Michigan State, 1M/L
Michael Brockers, DT, 6050, 300, LSU, 1M/L
Donta Hightower, LB, 6040, 260, Alabama, 1L
Peter Konz, C, 6040, 315, Wisconsin, 1L
Lamar Miller, RB, 5090, 210, Miami, 1L/2
Chris Polk, RB, 5110, 222, Washington, 1L/2
Dontari Poe, DT, 6050, 335, Memphis, 1/2
Brandon Washington, OG, 6040, 320, Miami, 1/2
Mohamed Sanu, WR, 6020, 218, Rutgers, 2
Chandler Jones, DE, 6040, 265, Syracuse, 2
Dwayne Allen, TE, 6030, 255, Clemson, 2
David Wilson, RB, 5100, 205, Virginia Tech, 2
Vontaze Burfict, LB, 6030, 255, Arizona State, 2/3
Orson Charles, TE, 6030, 240, Georgia, 2/3
Stephon Gilmore, CB, 6000, 195, South Carolina, 2/3
Rueben Randle, WR, 6030, 210, LSU, 2/3
Jonathan Massaquoi, DE, 6020, 250, Troy, 2/3
Cliff Harris, CB, 5100, 165, Oregon, 2/3
Jayron Hosley, CB, 5090, 175, Virginia Tech, 2/3
Brock Osweiler, QB, 6080, 220, Arizona State, 2/3
LaMichael James, RB, 5090, 185, Oregon, 2/3
Marcus Forston, DT, 6020, 305, Miami, 2/3
Donte Paige-Moss, DE, 6030, 250, North Carolina, 2/3
Bernard Pierce, RB, 6000, 220, Temple, 3/4
Ronnell Lewis, OB, 6020, 245, Oklahoma, 3/4
Eric Page, WR, 5090, 180, Toledo, 3/4
Bobbie Massie, OT, 6060, 325, Mississippi, 3/4
Terrell Manning, LB, 6020, 235, North Carolina State, 3/4
Josh Robinson, CB, 5090, 195, Central Florida, 3/4
Ronnie Hillman, RB, 5090, 185, San Diego State, 3/4
Tommy Streeter, WR, 6040, 215, Miami, 3/4
Robert Turbin, RB, 5090, 220, Utah State, 3/4
Chris Givens, WR, 6000, 195, Wake Forest, 3/4
Stephen Hill, WR, 6040, 210, Georgia Tech, 3/4
Edwin Baker, RB, 5090, 210, Michigan State, 7/PFA
Darrell Scott, RB, 6010, 230, South Florida, 7/PFA
Max Holloway, DE, 6020, 250, Boston College, 7/PFA
Oliver Vernon, DE, 6030, 265, Miami, FA
Mike Ball, RB, 5100, 215, Nevada, FA
Jewel Hampton, RB, 5090, 210, Southern Illinois, FA
Bryce Brown, RB, 5110, 220, Kansas State, FA
Alvester Alexander, RB, 5100, 205, Wyoming, FA
Darron Thomas, QB, 6030, 215, Oregon, ungraded
Phillip Thomas, FS, 5110, 200, Syracuse, ungraded
Dorian Graham, WR, 5090, 185, Syracuse, ungraded
Damaris Johnson,WR/RS,5062,175,Tulsa,ungraded

Pos. Name Team Draft Round

QB Andy Dalton Cincinnati 2
QB Cam Newton Carolina 1
RB DeMarco Murray Dallas 3
RB Daniel Thomas Miami 2
RB Mark Ingram New Orleans 1
WR AJ Green Cincinnati 1
WR Torrey Smith Baltimore 2
WR Doug Baldwin Seattle FA
WR Denarius Moore Oakland 5
WR Greg Little Cleveland 2
WR Julio Jones Atlanta 1
TE Kyle Rudolph Minnesota 2
TE Colin Cochart Cincinnati FA
TE Lance Kendricks St. Louis 2
OL Tyron Smith Dallas 1
OL Mike Pouncey Miami 1
OL Nate Solder New England 1
OL Stefen Wisniewski Oakland 2
OL Jason Kelce Philadelphia 6
OL Orlando Franklin Denver 2b
OL Byron Bell Carolina FA
OL Jason Pinkston Cleveland 5b
OL Anthony Castonzo Indianapolis 1
RS Patrick Peterson Arizona 1
RS Randall Cobb Green Bay 2
RS Kealoha Pilares Carolina 5
K Dan Bailey Dallas FA

Offensive Rookie-of-the-Year – 3-way tie between Cam Newton, QB, Carolina, Andy Dalton, QB, Cincinnati, and AJ Green, WR, Cincinnati

DEFENSE

Pos. Name Team Draft Round

DL Marcell Dareus Buffalo 1
DL Von Miller Denver 1
DL Phil Taylor Cleveland 1
DL JJ Watt Houston 1
DL Jurrell Casey Tennessee 3
DL Jabaal Sheard Cleveland 2a
DL Adrian Clayborn Tampa Bay 1
DL Aldon Smith San Francisco 1
DL Muhammad Wilkerson NY Jets 1
MLB Mason Foster Tampa Bay 3
MLB Jacquian Williams NY Giants 6c
OLB Akeem Ayers Tennessee 2
OLB Ryan Kerrigan Washington 1
OLB Brooks Reed Houston 2a
OLB Sam Acho Arizona 4
DC Patrick Peterson Arizona 1
DC Richard Sherman Seattle 5a
DC Chris Culliver San Francisco 3
DC Chris Harris Denver FA
SS Quinton Carter Denver 4a
FS Joe Lefeged Indianapolis FA
RS Patrick Peterson Arizona 1
RS Randall Cobb Green Bay 2
PT Brett Hartmann Houston FA

Defensive Rookie-of-the-Year – 4-way tie between Von Miller, DL, Denver, Ryan Kerrigan, OLB, Washington, Patrick Peterson, DC, Arizona, and Aldon Smith, DL, San Francisco

The following article is a reprint by Guy Martino that was posted on his blog: http://guydamartino.wordpress.com/

College football is full of players who hope to one day strike at gold and make it to the NFL. Hitting the big leagues, and making millions of dollars in salary is what these gridiron bound college students strive for. But for now, they are chess pieces in a business that is much larger than any individual or school.

Who better to give input on this situation than an NFL talent scout? Dan Shonka, general manager of national scouting organization Ourlads, joins me for a discussion of the current state of college football.

Guy Martino: Thanks again for taking the time to do this. Can you give some background info really quick about your experience in college football, onto your work in the NFL?

Dan Shonka: Sure Guy, I coached for several years at major colleges. The University of Kansas, Purdue University, Rice, and Iowa State University. Then I was the head football coach at a Division II school called New Mexico Highlands. Then also I was a head football coach in junior college in Independence, Kansas so I have experience at the major college and small college and junior college level.

GM: What exactly if your role at Ourlads?

DS: I am the general manager and national scout of Ourlads NFL Scouting Services. We evaluate talent for the fans out there, and we do newsletters and guides for the NFL draft. Also we do a preview of the draft, and a review of the draft in newsletters. It’s all based on fan interest and things like their favorite teams. But we evaluate college football players for NFL fans and for different NFL teams that subscribe to our service.

GM: Are there any specific college teams or conferences in the past that you’ve noticed that produce more NFL prospects than others?

DS: Yes, I’ll tell you what, there’s a rule of thumb that USC produces a lot of pro football players. The University of Iowa, before this year, had 44 players on rosters before the cuts, but Iowa is in the top 20. Notre Dame has always been up there as well as Florida State and North Carolina. Teams like that have produced several college football players for the NFL.

GM: Any certain conferences that stand out?

DS: Yes, the Southeast Conference, with teams like LSU and Alabama. Every year it’s the SEC, the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and then the Pac 10 will come in there, so usually those top five conferences are generally year in and year out, producing the top prospects.

GM: Going along with the conference discussion, I am sure you are aware of the major realignment phase going on. What impact do you think that will have, if any, on the future NFL drafts?

DS: I don’t think it will affect the drafts any. I mean if you are a good football player whether you are at a Big Ten school, whether you are at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, whether you are at Northern Iowa, an NFL scout will go to that school and evaluate that talent. The conference alignment really will not make a big difference to a player one way or another whether he is getting evaluated.

GM: You mentioned the actual student athletes. Do you think these players, who are making millions of dollars for their schools, are being fairly compensated during their college careers?

DS: I think this, first of all they get a college education and I think that the Division I guys are fairly compensated, but also the University makes quite a bit of money off the guys. But if you open a cans of worms by giving a guy so much money every month for laundry or incidentals or what have you, the thing is it is not just for football. Every scholarship athlete, mens and womens, will want a piece of the pie and then that is what really gets into the problem. Because right now, football, and basketball in certain places, with the exception of those sports, they need money. Whether it is a baseball program or what have you, they are not self sufficient. So you can’t keep taking money out of the football pie to keep paying everybody, because pretty soon it’s going to start drying up.

GM: Some of these scholarship athletes have the opportunity to earn millions of dollars at the next level in the NFL. What is your stance on whether student athletes should be able to have agents, and how would having an agent help their draft status?

DS: I think that after their eligibility is up Guy, they should go ahead and get an agent. The agent actually only makes around 3 percent of the total package. On average, you almost have to go in the first three rounds to help pay for their offseason work prior to the time they are drafted. Most of these guys are in Arizona, Florida, New Orleans, Atlanta and it’s very expensive for an agent to put these guys up and work them out. You still go by what a guy does on tape, but also you can enhance your athletic ability for your 40-yard dash and things like that, and that is also a priority for the agents.

GM: Looking at the grand scheme of things in college football, what impact do you think large corporation and business opportunities have on these schools and athletes?

DS: The big thing is of course advertising and the paying for the rights for stadiums to put your name on them, the bowl games. They tack names on the big bowl games anymore. The Big Ten schools, for instance bring in money and share it equally with all of their 12 schools. There is no question about it that overall, corporate America, they like to be a part of our college football.

The following blog is a reprint by permission of the fifth in a series of five articles by Matt Waldman that was posted on his blog: http://mattwaldmanrsp.com/

I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combine 16 years as a NFL scout for National Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last week, Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. The scheduled 60 minutes became two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected.

In this final installment of our conversation, Shonka tells how he became an NFL Scout and shares some of his experiences in the field.

Waldman: When and how did you get your first job as an NFL Scout?

Shonka: I coached on a variety of levels (see link at top of page for Shonka’s bio), but the way I got the job was kind of funny. I was coaching at New Mexico Highlands when Billy Kuharich from the New Orleans Saints called me because I had worked for him with the Philadelphia Stars (USFL). He asked me if I wanted to scout for him.

I told him no because I wanted to continue coaching. But I continued to think about it. The next year I called National Football Scouting, which is the biggest combine for the NFL, and they wouldn’t even take my call! Somebody told me that they get like 50 phone calls a week from people wanting to scout.

Then out of the blue, my father in-law was very ill and my wife and I moved back to Cedar Rapids to be near him. I told my wife I’d find a job there. While were in New Mexico I had visited with one of the more successful coaches in the Rocky Mountain Conference and he told me, “Dan I win 9-10 games every year and I never get a phone call about another coaching job.”

So I told Peggy, even though I’ve turned this program around it’s probably not going to be a stepping-stone so let’s go back to be with your father and I’ll find a job doing something. So we moved back to Iowa and I’m there probably a month to six weeks when I got a call from National Football Scouting.

They wanted to know if I’d be interested in scouting and if I would they’d send me a plane ticket to come see them. Long story short, I was actually hired simultaneously by the last director of national scouting Harry Buffington and Duke Babb the new director. It was Duke’s first hire and Harry’s last hire so that’s how I got into it.

I was recommended by John Fitzpatrick. He used to scout for National and he came through my area when I was at New Mexico Highlands and I knew him when he played at Purdue. He knew anyone who could work for Jim Young could certainly be an NFL scout. I was with National Football Scouting for seven years.

Waldman: How did you get with the Eagles?

Shonka: This one is a weird story. One of the scouts, Ray Biggs who was with National Scouting called me and said, “Dan the Eagles want to hire you as a scout and they left a message on my phone.”

(Laughter)

You know Matt, I really didn’t have to have an emblem on my shirt or something like that to do this job. I just really enjoyed player-personnel work. I enjoyed scouting. I loved recruiting.

When I was a recruiter at the different universities and colleges I loved it. But I called Philadelphia back through Ray and they said that they wanted to bring me in for an interview and that Jeff Lurie wanted to visit with me.

What they do at the Combine meetings is evaluate scouts’ reports. Well, I was the top-rated scout for four years in a row at National Scouting and they put a grade and kept track of how your draft choices go, which is kind of crazy because you’re doing stuff for 20 teams and each team is looking for something different. But Lurie saw these reports after he took over the Eagles and Joe Banner went through the stuff, too. So they invited me for an interview.

John Wooten who was the director at the time knew me through National Football Scouting and long story short I interviewed and they hired me. That’s how I got started.

Waldman: You mentioned Jimmy Young and the USFL, can you tell me about those experiences?

Shonka: Jim Young was at Purdue at the time I worked with him. Bill Kuharich was in the USFL and my boss was Carl Peterson. He was the GM for the Philadelphia Stars. When I was the head football coach at Independence Junior College, the Stars were looking for someone to be a part-time scout in that area so I scouting for them.

I’d go out to the different universities for the Stars for about a year. It was the year before the USFL folded. I remember Billy Kuharich calling me and telling me, “Listen, if you get another part-time job scouting you better get it because the league is about ready to fold.”

It was a little different. The offices of the Stars were actually in Veterans Stadium. As an area scout for the Philadelphia Stars we never actually went into Philadelphia for our draft meetings we did it by speakerphone. Rod Graves was one of the scouts. Tommy Marino. Carm Piccone. We had a pretty good group that went into the NFL sooner or later.

I had the Midwest area. At that time they could get reports from different teams. One time, Billy Kuharich looked at my reports and told me the two tackles I had on my list at the University of Kansas weren’t even on the New York Giants’ list. I said, “If you want to hire them as your scout go ahead. I recruited both of those guys so I know they can play.”

Billy laughed at that and both guys ended up playing in the NFL – Renwick Atkins and Reggie Smith. In fact Renwick was drafted by both leagues and Reggie was picked up by the Broncos after the USFL folded when he was with the Tampa Bay Bandits.

Anyway, I probably had more dialogue with Bill and Carl. It was Carl who actually wound up hiring me for the Kansas City Chiefs down the line. It was with the Stars that I got to know him a little bit.

Waldman: What aspects of coaching and scouting do you enjoy that is unique to their roles?

Shonka: I really loved the personal interaction with the players, game plans, and things like that when you’re coaching. When I was at a major college and I had my own scouting area or my own position to coach that was great. But once you become a head coach you spend more time putting out fires and doing all kinds of other stuff other than coaching. And the reason you get into coaching is that you like working with these guys and helping them become better players. You like to associate with the guys and try to put a team together that you could turn around.

That was my big thing. I loved recruiting so I could get the personnel to turn around a poor football program. All the programs I took over were either 0-9 or 1-8 when I took them over. We’d gradually get the teams better. With some of these programs if you go 6-5 after you were a 1-9 team its big, big progress. I liked building a program and doing that through personnel work.

I just liked recruiting and evaluating players to see if those guys could contribute for you. I always liked it. In fact, I coached little league teams of 10 year-old baseball teams when I was 13 years-old and when they’d have a draft I used to study those guys when they were 9 year-old kids to see I’d eventually want to have them on my team!

(Laughter)

It’s just something that’s in your blood and there are a lot of people who are very good at different things. You have great writers like Malcolm Gladwell. He’s a great writer, always wanted to be a writer. Everybody has got something that they’re good at. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you don’t. I found out a long time ago that player-personnel work was something that I enjoyed doing and as I said I didn’t need to have an emblem on my shirt to enjoy doing it.

Waldman: What was it like with National?

Shonka: For National Football Scouting you’re working for 20 teams. You do your reports, you turn them in, and then you report to the teams at your different meetings in the fall and the spring. A lot of people always looked at that as a stepping-stone to the NFL, but it never crossed my mine. I never looked at the next job while I was in the job I was in.

Some people might think that’s dumb, but I felt like that any time that I wasn’t spending on my job I was not being fair to my employer or my team. I wanted to work for that team. When my contract was up or something like that then I was pretty lucky because I always had someone looking for me.

It all just kind of ties in, Matt: the evaluation of the players, the recruiting, the scouting, and it turned into being a full-time scout. Even when you’re coaching at different universities you scout other teams. You’re looking at their plays.

When I was a graduate assistant at Iowa State you would travel to different places and look at the offense, the defense, and personnel for other teams. I enjoyed that. I always felt I was good at it. I always felt like I had a knack for it just like some people have a knack for the violin, the piano, or the written word.

It’s frustrating at times because I would know that a player could play and I would be jumping on the table and people would be fighting me saying that this guy isn’t worth a shit. It kind of bothers you. Nevertheless I was always lucky regarding the teams I worked for because they would let me sign free agents and it would pay off for them.

The following blog is a reprint by permission of the fourth in a series of five articles by Matt Waldman that was posted on his blog: http://mattwaldmanrsp.com/

I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combine 16 years as a NFL scout for National Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last week, Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. The scheduled 60 minutes became two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected.

In this segment of the conversation, Shonka talks about pro prospects from the past and present, including two players he thought would be great who didn’t pan out, a sneaky-good runner he and Wes Bunting both like, and his take on Andrew Luck.

Waldman: I’ve talked to Chad Reuter and Wes Bunting about players in the league now that exceeded or under performed to their expectations. Reuter mentioned Marcus McNeill exceeded his expectations. Bunting said that Aaron Maybin under performed to his expectations and he learned a big lesson about evaluating defensive ends as a result.

Bunting said he gained insight that a defensive end needs to have that “off-speed pitch” in their arsenal to fool linemen. Are there any NFL players in recent years that surprised you with their performance in the college game?

Shonka: To touch on Maybin first, we gave him a third-round grade because he had only played eight games and he had everything in my mind working against him. He was the same size as KGB up at Green Bay who was a fifth-round choice. I gave him a third-round grade and that was probably too high. But you know what? We were also one of the few that liked Marcus McNeill.

But one guy that was a disappointment to me and it could be for a lot of reasons and I saw him at his very very best in bowl games and I still remember the day that I was at Arizona State and watched Oregon play. Joey Harrington could throw the frickin ball and he was smart.

When I went to the University of Oregon with the Redskins back then Oregon went into overtime and this kid could throw lasers. When I went up there to make the school call, they had A.J. Feeley there and he was picked later by the Eagles and then they got a second round pick for him from the Dolphins.

Let me tell you something, there was no comparison. A.J. Feeley looked like the ball boy. Harrington looked like a classic pro quarterback. I had him rated higher than David Carr that year and they were both in my area. Harrington was so much more athletic, he was smart, and he could throw rockets. He could stand on the far hash and throw lasers of outs on the far side and he did it in games. He was spectacular in the Bowl game he won as a senior.

I think going to Detroit completely gutted his confidence. There were times I’d watch Detroit film and think why aren’t these receivers catching the ball?

I think this is a stat that should be changed in the National Football League: If the ball is in the receiver’s hands and it’s out of the receiver’s hands and intercepted then it counts against the receiver who couldn’t catch! You know what I mean? Not against the quarterback.

I really really liked Joey Harrington. He was competitive and everything I looked for in a quarterback I thought Joey had physically and mentally. He could have been a pianist, he was a total person not just some jock out there.

He was like a lot of those great quarterbacks who was smart, had other interests, but studied to be a great quarterback. I really thought he might get new life when he went to New Orleans for a stint and got coached by Sean Payton for a while. Sean was a great detail guy for quarterbacks and I felt Harrington could maybe get a new lease on life. If he went out of college to a coach like Payton I wondered if his career would have been different.

Waldman: Well I don’t really need to ask you my next question, which was ‘who is the most talented player you saw who didn’t have a great career in the NFL and what happened?’

Shonka: Yeah that’s a two-for-one answer for you. But then there’s Tony Mandarich. I did him like everybody else and God, he was just a beast at Michigan State and I still see the tape.

It was comical. As the left tackle he blocked down the defensive tackle who got knocked back into the inside linebacker on that side who then fell into and knocked down the linebacker on the other side! It was like dominoes. He was such a dominant blocker.

Everyone said that he was on juice but nobody could prove it. He was one helluva a college offensive tackle. That was another one that I thought would be a great, great player. The Green Bay Packers got sold a bill of goods on that deal because they bought something that wasn’t really there I guess.

Waldman: Speaking of players beloved by the evaluator community, what do you think of Stanford QB Andrew Luck?

Shonka: God, I tell you what…last year when I thought he might come out I looked at seven tapes on him and I really like him. I have to think really carefully about this, but he might be the closest to Peyton that I’ve seen in regards to his total package of his intelligence and skill set. He can run better than Peyton and he probably has better foot work than Peyton coming out. He’s probably more athletic than Peyton.

The only way we’ll know if he’s going to be that guy is if he’ll continue to work at it. With his dad being a pro quarterback, you have to believe he’ll spend time studying and become a great NFL quarterback. I think he’s competitive enough and he has a lot of pride in his name to pay the price to be a great NFL quarterback.

He does some special things going through his reads. Last year with Harbaugh they had an NFL west coast offense which is just loaded with terminology. When Steve Mariucci was at Cal calling plays I would stand behind him and hear him calling the plays we had here in Philadelphia. Schaub, the coach there now, uses the same terminology we used in Philadelphia. It’s the same terminology as Gruden, Holmgren and all those west coast guys.

And Andrew Luck is so smart and makes those checks and adjustments and makes so many good decisions. He’s the real deal. I just hope he doesn’t get injured – I’ll knock on wood. He’s a good enough athlete – he’s flexible, maybe he’ll bend rather than break.

Waldman: Are there any players at the college level that you like what you see out of them but the average fan might not know about them?

Shonka: A guy I like and he didn’t put big numbers up when he played Georgia, but Doug Martin of Boise State is a real tough guy. He’ll probably go in the fourth or fifth round. He’s a real tough guy with great vision and I think he’s a good football player.

I don’t know many people will know Kelechi Osemele from Iowa State, the offensive tackle there. He is 6-5, 335 and he goes up head to head with Aldon Smith the seventh pick in the draft and he couldn’t get close. They played the spread there, but still. The scouting community has certainly heard of him but possibly fans haven’t.

Waldman: Wes Bunting gave Doug Martin as well as his first answer.

Shonka: I favor Big Ten offensive lineman because I know the guys that coach them like Jim Bowman and Ohio State who was a coach with us at Philadelphia. He’s a good position coach. Then we talked about the Wisconsins and Iowas. But there’s another guy I like at Mississippi State who is a center that played guard last year by the name of Quentin Salisbury.

Good athlete, four-year starter, and boy he keeps those feet moving all the time. Active guy. He’d be another guy I think will be a third or fourth rounder but I liked his footwork and things like that. He would be another one that I kind of like.

Waldman: I like the comment you made about people standing out. The publication I write is limited to skill position players and I’ve been doing it for six years and I find that they do pop out at you. It’s usually several elements of their game and you can’t get enough of watching them. Guys I remember liking a lot were a Steve Smith of the Giants, Ahmad Bradshaw, or Matt Forte. I grade them on technique so sometimes their stats aren’t very good but they still grade high.

Shonka: You’re exactly right. It’s like an oasis in the desert. You live for those moments. But you have to look for them. Like Malcolm Gladwell said in his book Outliers it’s 10,000 hours before you’re competent at something. You just have to keep looking at tape and working at it.

Tomorrow: Shonka talks about how he got into scouting and tells stories about some of the jobs he’s held in the field.

The following blog is a reprint by permission of the third in a series of five articles by Matt Waldman that was posted on his blog: mattwaldmanrsp.com/

I think it’s accurate to describe Ourlads’ Dan Shonka as one of the ultimate practitioners of football evaluation. Shonka has 39 years of football experience as a player, college recruiter, college coach, and a combine 16 years as a NFL scout for National Scouting Service, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Redskins, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Last week, Shonka agreed to speak with me about scouting, players, and the NFL. The scheduled 60 minutes became two hours of football talk that flew by. Dan was afraid I got more than I bargained for, but I told him that I got exactly what I wanted – just more than I could have expected.

I asked Shonka to indulge me in a game where I named a position on the field and he talked about skills he looked for that could or couldn’t be learned if the player didn’t exhibit them in the college game.

Waldman: Let’s play a game. I’ll name a position and you tell me about that position’s skill sets or attributes that either a prospect can develop easily or you tell me about specific skills that can’t be developed as easily.

Shonka: First, let me tell you that that No.1 thing that you have to have besides competitiveness and confidence is smarts. You’ve got to be smart. You know that’s probably killed more players than anything – the inability for players to learn fast.

Coaches are under so much pressure to win that those guys get left behind even if they are pretty good athletes or potential players. You have to be smart. You have to be able to grasp things quickly.

Waldman: You definitely have to think and process fast. I was just writing about receivers the other day and how many fine players early in their careers had drops as pros when they demonstrated good hands in college. A lot of that I attributed that to learning the system, new techniques, and that they aren’t processing things fast enough, which is distracting them from making plays that were once second nature to them.

They’re clouded with too many things to think about. Antonio Brown this year compared to last year and his decisiveness on the field is a great example. His skills are emerging on the field because he’s not longer thinking so hard about which route option he has to run or how he gets off a jam. He’s working in a more intuitive fashion.

Shonka: You’re exactly right. This is the thing that kills good football players. That’s what I was referring to about smarts. When you put a great athlete in a complex system he’s not a great athlete any more. He gets slower.

It’s not that the game slows down because you’re so much more experienced. What happens is that your brain isn’t reading and reacting as quickly when you’re inexperienced at the pro level. Take a pro-caliber linebacker for instance. He’s not thinking about stepping with his right foot as a take off and then using his left arm to shed and get underneath pads and do all that.

He just did it naturally. If he’s thinking about doing all those other things he’s no longer that great player. You might as take that son of a gun in the fourth round instead of the first one.

Waldman: I always think of it as fluidity or having an on field IQ. It all connects to the idea that the faster you can process without thinking consciously about it the more you can maximize your skills on the field. The more you have to think about it, the slower you get no matter how athletic you are.

Shonka: Right.

Waldman: So let’s get back to this little game here. Tell me about the safety position and what a prospect can learn when he shows competitiveness, confidence, and intelligence on the field.

Shonka: This is the other sticky wicket, how your scheme works is important. Some secondary schemes have a safety play the strong or the free whereas some schemes have a definite strong player who plays run support and is an alley player. They will be locked up on the tight end but they don’t have to worry about getting back as a free safety. They might play some halves of the field but that’s about it. Whereas other teams have that free safety that covers sideline to sideline.

Anyway, for a safety the thing that is learn-able if they have all the physical abilities that the position needs is learning not to take false steps in coverage. They can certainly improve once they get technique down. Then they won’t do that foot-fire in one place on the path to breaking up a pass. They can stick their foot in the ground and drive on the ball.

On an intellectual level – and this depends on the team they play for in college – a guy has to be able to communicate with the other safety and the corners new assignments and adjustments because of the demands of the spread offenses that require quick changes from the defense. Intellectually their ability to communicate can be taught. And physically it’s ending the tendency to take false steps ad close on the ball quicker.

Waldman: Any real life examples?
Shonka: The big safety Steve Atwater. When I was going through Arkansas the rap on him was that he wouldn’t hit anybody! I couldn’t believe it. I was wondering what kind of tapes these guys were looking at.

He goes to Denver and he’s a well-known big hitter. Everyone has seen the tapes of him hitting Christian Okoye. Some guys look like they aren’t that big of a hitter, but they could become one because once they improve on these techniques the big hitting shows up.

Waldman: How about linebacker?

Shonka: Believe me, I’ve seen more than one linebacker get hit in the chops with the analysis “he doesn’t have long arms.” Yeah, but he has great instincts and he’s waiting at the pass for him, too. I think instincts are innate and I don’t know if those things be improved a whole lot.

I think some guys can see it and explode on it and get there. But those instinctive guys will be waiting at the pass and they can be a little slower with that 40 time and if they have great instincts they still make the play because they can get there before the fast guy does.

But to learn it? Maybe the guy was a two-down linebacker in college and he can learn coverage to help out and learn to be a three-down linebacker I guess.

Waldman: Defensive End.

Shonka: You’ve got to be able to have speed off the edge. The one way you can really improve as a defensive end is your hands technique of shedding and not allowing a guy into your body. I thought Chris Long had great hands at Virginia, but he always got stuck on blocks at the next level. But now it’s starting to fall into place. Hand use can be improved in the pros.

Waldman: Running Back.

Shonka: I always thought God made those!

(Laughter)

I’ve asked great running backs “how did you do that?” and almost every one of them says, “I don’t know, I just felt it. I just did it. I don’t know how I did it. I ran with my eyes and boom.”

The No.1 one thing about running backs that they can improve upon is pass protection. They aren’t asked to do much more than run the ball in college and they don’t have much experience with pass protection. They have to be tough on blitz pickup so I think that’s one thing that they can come in the NFL with it as a weakness and improve upon it if they have the willingness to do so. They just have to be especially willing to stick their nose in there.

Waldman: Offensive Tackle.

Shonka: Technique. That’s the big thing. You have to really improve your techniques, but you also have to have really great lateral range to be a good offensive left tackle in the National Football League. Everything is so technique-oriented and that’s why some of those that come in early and play is because of pretty good coaching.

At Iowa they have great coaching, Kirk Ferentz coaches those offensive linemen. They may have an offensive line coach, but I guarantee you that Ferentz coaches those linemen. Same thing at Wisconsin they are well coached in the zone-blocking, inside stretch, outside zone blocking scheme. Those guys have an advantage coming into the league. But there are guys that don’t necessarily have that type of coaching when they enter the league.

One of the great offensive line coaches, and I’ve known him for 20 years and watched him coach at different places as well as recommended him to Philadelphia, is Bill Callahan. He’s tremendous.

I want to tell you something, Matt. The first time I talked to him was at Wisconsin. I knew him at Southern Illinois and other places, but I went into his office for the first time I saw how he grades his linemen on their footwork with a level of exactness I’ve never seen.

He has an individual page for each of them just on their footwork for that particular game.He looks at their steps size and grades them if their steps are too deep or if they opened up too much. His detail was unbelievable.

Waldman: Receiver.

Shonka: I’m with you in regards to catching the ball. It’s like a fish hook in my eye when I see pro receivers dropping balls. Especially when you see them catch the ball all the time in college.

I will say that most of the time if the guy doesn’t have really good hands in college it carries over in the NFL. But they can improve their hands by knowing their assignments and making it second nature to get off the line and catch the ball. They can get a Jugs machine and work on it and improve their hands and velocity.

Also, route running. One of the worst route runners in the league last year that came out in the last 2-3 years is Golden Tate. He was awful at Notre Dame. You wonder if he was ever coached at running routes.

There are receivers that do come out with good techniques as route runners. They know how to set up a defensive back. I think that’s one thing that can really be improved. You can really make great improvement on.

Waldman: Tight End.

Shonka: Now it’s really tough because most of these spread guys are in the slot, they stand up, and they don’t have to block. A tight must be able to bend and block and a lot of those guys are high cut and they really have to work to bend and block the edge.

Right now they are basically screen off type of guys and ultimately you see them screening guys off, but you still have to be able to block down and get the edge for toss sweeps and things like that. They have to really work to bend. They also have to work on their releases to get off even though a lot of the teams give the free releases.

The good teams don’t let you have a free release and you have to get off that line and get down the field and find your void in the zone and square your chest up for the QB to see your numbers. The blocking is really a big, big thing for tight ends.

Tomorrow: Shonka talks about specific draft prospects from the past and the present.