Grantland so far

Any day with Katie Baker's NY Times wedding game is a good day for Grantland.

 

Nearly one week ago?

And IJAG, I don't expect breaking news on there. But NSD - and the idiotic hoopla that surrounds it - is an area that should be fertile ground for Grantland writers.

 

NSD is a joke.

Look at the "five star" football recruits from the past decade. What percentage became playmakers in the NFL?

Write all of these kids names down now, because in four years you won't remember half of them.

 

You can probably say the same thing about the first round of the NFL draft.

But it's no accident that the team that has won two of the last three BCS national championships has ranked in the top 5 in the final recruiting rankings every year since 2008.

 

I hate signing day as much as anyone. But you can reverse engineer your statement pretty easily, 93Devil.

Most five star recruits do not turn out to be playmakers in the NFL.

But most playmakers in the NFL were five star recruits coming out of high school.

 

http://blog.pennlive.com/pasports/2012/02/pats_draft.html

 

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/rankings/rank-50
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/rankings/rank-255/2003;_ylt=AglYqenQGQTY9yZkcaAmSTZGPZB4

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2006/draft.htm

Here are the top 100 players from 2002 and 2003. What I do not have the time to do is try and figure out who is not on this list that was drafted in 2006.

I see Ngata, Bush and others, but I also see a lot of guys who never made it, especially at the top.

But I am not seeing Hawk, Mario Williams, Cutler, Addai, Colston, Jennings, Dumervile and others.

But I am also seeing some of the true stars listed as four-stars like Hali for instance.

I love the NFL Draft, but I am not quite sold on this "signing day" hype. I would love to know the correct answer, but I am guessing half of the players in the Pro Bowl or drafted in the first round in a few months were three star or less recruits.

I am really interested, but I just don't have the time to look all of this up.

 

So essentially that article proves my point. The only three players worth a damn on that offense, Brady, Gronk and Hernandez, were elite high school prospects. Deion Branch wasn't offered a scholarship coming out of high school? Um, ok. And his time in Seattle was proof he was nothing special without Tom Brady. Welker was a decent third receiver in Miami, but nothing like the player he is now when he was catching balls from Joey Harrington. There are always going to be a handful of Welkers, guys who defy the odds, and people point to and say "He's proof recruiting star system is bullshit!" There are typically going to be a lot more Calvin Johnsons and Andre Johnsons, guys that EVERYONE wanted.

 

But what about Mankins, Light, Wilfork, Spikes and Chung?

 

A debate on Signing Day? Ye gods, what hath I wrought?

 

Please come and put me out of my misery if I every forget the name "Barkevious Mingo."

 

Anyone read James' novel? Was it any good?