2012 Rookie Draft
There are only three players from Akron in this draft.
T Curtis Sherman will be a fairly high draft pick, and looks like a future NFL starter for somebody, rated by the scouting board at 4.8, and by my scout as 25/57.
DT Christian Lincoln and
FB Ronnie Graul probably will both be passed over.
For us, we hold an extra pick at #11, and hold our own picks at #24 down the line. We’ll try to grab an impact player with the early pick, and then target needs afterwards. Our top need areas are probably DT, RB, TE, S, and perhaps DE. I’d take a real impact player at almost any position, though.
I see th guy I want right away – but I don’t know what it will take to go and get him. I’ve pursued safeties in the past and have been disappointed, but Kenneth Eskridge is a can’t miss superstar prospect. After five picks, he is on top of the consensus board – and I must have him. I offer my second an fifth round picks to move up to #6, and they accept. I don’t know how much longer he would have lasted, but it’s good to land the guy I really wanted (I have waited out a lot of rookies in this career, only to see them taken just ahead of me).
At pick #20, the DT I want is atop the board, and I decide to move up slightly to get him. It takes a sixth round pick, which is no problem, and I get my guy there, too.
Code:
Amateur Draft Report:
Rnd 1 - Kenneth Eskridge, S, South Florida
Rnd 1 - Zach Bailey, DT, Florida
Rnd 3 - Eric Pritchett, FB, Southern California
Rnd 4 - Oscar Covington, TE, Iowa
Rnd 7 - Allen Upshaw, OLB, Iowa State
T Curtis Sherman from Akron went at #29 to Oakland – the first player from the Zips to go in the first round under my watch.
I’m very optimistic about Eskridge, and also about Bailey. Two need positions hopefully filled for the long run here. FB Pritchett looks like a very solid fullback/utility player, and the others are projects.
Late Free Agency
QB Marco Clancy wants a new contract, and has instigated a holdout. Since we didn’t pursue a veteran, he realizes he’s out top dog for now – and wants to be paid accordingly. This is the first time I’ve been in this situation – I intend to work something out with him, and get him happy again. Thing is, he’s looking for a multi year deal, with salaries upwards of $3-4 million a season after this year. We’d be pretty well locked into Clancy as our long term guy, even though I’m not 100 sure he’s beaten out James Houston right now. Tough position.
RB Roderick Arsenault has not really adjusted his demands much, but we really need a RB – so I put in an offer: 2yrs, $9 million. It’s good enough to get his attention, and hopefully we can land him without major incident.
I also put in bids for about a dozen undrafted rookies – we’ll try to land someone to help out, perhaps at TE, LB or on the OL.
After one week, I adjust my bid to Arsenault down to one year, $4.4 million. Nobody else is after him, and I feel I have some power now. He sees the shift, and decides to take the deal – so he will be back, at least for this season.
DT Gary Cascadden turns out to be very tough to deal with – we eventually work out a deal, but it’s at $6.75 million a season. A high price to pay to avoid bitterness – but he has been excellent for us, and we want him to return.
I get through the late free agency process, and we have 64 player signed – and about $7 million in available cap space. With the cap space available, I work out a two-year deal with QB Marco Clancy, who will now make about $3.5m for each of the next two seasons. I felt it was a necessary step, and now we have that major position issue settled.
Heading into trainig camp, we got a B+ for our draft, and have only last year’s two players on the Green page again: QB James Houston (#7), QB Howie Gordon (#10). I’m worried because I expected safety Kenneth Eskridge to be there for certain. Hhis absence is very puzzling. (Crossing fingers)
Training Camp
Code:
Player # Pos Start Exp Cur Fut Cur Fut ChgC ChgF
Clancy, Marco 8 QB 4 50 60 53 60 3 0
Houston, James 7 QB 2 35 60 39 60 4 0
Gordon, Howie 3 QB 2 29 57 34 57 5 0
Arsenault, Roderick 33 RB 9 49 49 49 49 0 0
Ramsey, Kendrick 32 RB 7 37 38 38 38 1 0
Aguilera, Danny 30 RB 2 32 33 33 33 1 0
Hawkins, Todd 21 RB 1 24 45 25 41 1 -4
Devine, Howie 40 RB 1 24 39 24 35 0 -4
Pritchett, Eric 45 FB 1 51 71 53 67 2 -4
Woodson, Mickey 36 FB 9 43 43 43 43 0 0
Goodwin, Ian 23 FB 4 40 52 42 52 2 0
Holmes, Jonathan 18 TE 7 70 70 70 70 0 0
Pariso, Wade 82 TE 3 31 43 35 43 4 0
Thomason, Tony 88 TE 1 22 37 25 41 3 4
Covington, Oscar 83 TE 1 16 54 17 47 1 -7
Leeper, Alex 13 TE 1 11 41 14 46 3 5
Temple, Johnnie 84 TE 1 11 46 12 39 1 -7
Blair, Zach 81 FL 4 52 52 53 53 1 1
Ellard, Jimmy 87 FL 7 48 48 48 48 0 0
Sasser, Marlon 85 SE 7 50 50 50 50 0 0
Causey, Marvin 86 SE 3 47 51 50 51 3 0
Rose, Mickey 89 SE 6 40 40 40 40 0 0
Owens, O.J. 51 C 6 59 66 64 66 5 0
Pond, Ellis 57 C 2 26 58 28 58 2 0
Nevers, Walter 59 C 1 10 44 12 37 2 -7
Thornton, Mickey 53 LG 2 41 64 45 64 4 0
Gruber, Lincoln 63 RG 8 55 55 55 55 0 0
Hampton, Todd 67 RG 6 39 39 40 40 1 1
Mueller, Derrick 60 RG 1 13 35 15 40 2 5
Heinlein, Bennie 71 LT 8 54 56 54 56 0 0
Norton, Danny 68 LT 3 13 38 16 38 3 0
Johnston, Heath 64 LT 1 3 38 5 33 2 -5
Thornton, Donnie 73 RT 6 60 60 62 62 2 2
Creighton, Lamont 9 P 2 68 68 68 68 0 0
Vallejo, Jeremy 19 K 4 60 66 60 66 0 0
Spencer, Blake 16 K 1 40 72 44 72 4 0
Moseley, Cris 94 LDE 7 59 59 59 59 0 0
Fox, Jimmy 93 LDE 6 52 52 52 52 0 0
Bromley, Skip 78 LDE 4 45 51 49 51 4 0
Limon, Lincoln 95 LDE 9 42 42 42 42 0 0
Hendrix, Tim 99 RDE 6 57 66 60 66 3 0
Cascadden, Gary 72 LDT 6 69 70 69 70 0 0
Oliveira, Willie 76 LDT 8 44 47 45 47 1 0
Bailey, Zach 96 LDT 1 32 65 32 66 0 1
**Gustafson, Harvey 75 RDT 6 52 52 52 52 0 0
Hicks, Ben 74 RDT 2 28 38 29 38 1 0
Carlson, Kirk 77 WILB 2 28 42 29 42 1 0
Davis, Curtis 55 MLB 7 56 65 58 65 2 0
Casey, Rick 90 MLB 9 57 59 57 59 0 0
Goodwin, Cedric 92 MLB 9 55 55 55 55 0 0
Perez, K.C. 56 MLB 6 50 63 54 63 4 0
Phillips, Myron 70 MLB 1 23 45 24 41 1 -4
Hamilton, Wendell 98 MLB 1 19 45 21 45 2 0
Frederick, Clarence 58 SLB 3 33 50 35 50 2 0
Sanderson, Reuben 97 SLB 1 24 33 27 38 3 5
Benjdya, Sherman 62 SLB 2 23 42 25 42 2 0
Upshaw, Allen 54 SLB 1 16 47 19 47 3 0
DiGiacomo, Ricky 91 WLB 5 70 70 73 73 3 3
Holmes, Warren 50 WLB 6 56 56 56 56 0 0
Regalado, Darrin 52 WLB 4 49 49 52 52 3 3
Wickliff, Calvin 28 LCB 8 53 53 53 53 0 0
Freeman, Jamie 44 LCB 2 30 59 33 59 3 0
Maxwell, Brett 25 RCB 5 63 65 63 65 0 0
Richmond, Deon 43 RCB 7 57 57 57 57 0 0
Callens, Zack 39 RCB 9 44 44 44 44 0 0
Weed, Kirk 24 SS 4 61 61 61 61 0 0
Ellery, Deron 46 FS 5 60 60 62 62 2 2
Eskridge, Kenneth 20 FS 1 61 77 59 75 -2 -2
Specter, Rex 41 FS 2 34 52 37 52 3 0
Well, my top two rookies are still unsigned, so there’s still mystery there – but neither got crushed during training camp. DT Zach Bailey even jumped up a point in his future evaluation, and that usually means good things.
We grabbed a couple of fairly promising prospects after the draft, and we might make room for a couple of them. RG Derrick Meuller is certainly among those who are worth a serious look.
Setting the defensive lineup, I decide that free agent pickup LB Curtis Davis will get to play in the strong-side spot (the pass-rusher position) ahead of developing Clarence Frederick. We expect to get Frederick playing time, but Davis just has more complete skills right now, and I think he can be a solid addition there.
We need to get our top rookies signed – I still hope to get each into prominent if not starting roles.
Season Analysis
Our roster rating is only a 72 – but that might bump up when we sign our top two rookies (I have no idea how they get counted). Our cohesion ratings remain high: 92-94-100(98)-95. We’re near the top in every category, including the OL where we turned over a lot in the last couple of seasons.
I’m fairly optimistic about the season ahead. I think we should be better in the passing game, and if Clancy can stay with it, our offense should be better overall than last season. On defense, we have more turnover, but I like adding a very solid corner to the mix, and hope that our DL rotation is deep enough to withstand the inevitable rash of injuries we’ll face. This is the first year I’ll set the “official” team goal at winning it all.