“The Scout” returns, gives his take on A&M’s NFL draft prospects
'For the past four years or so, we’ve had the good fortune of being able to talk about the NFL Draft with a guy
who scouts the region for a team who has had a lot of success during that time period. Most of his calls have proven to be right in the time we’ve been talking to him, so we were curious to see what his take was on the Aggies in the 2015 draft.
Cedric Ogbuehi:
Pros: Remarkable athlete, maybe the best in a long time on the O-line. Very smart. Has not reached his full potential. Will get stronger in time. Very good zone blocker. Has shown a lot of dedication in his ACL rehab.
Cons: Was a much better right tackle than left tackle. Played soft frequently last year. Can be beaten by more physical linemen who just bullrush him. Sometimes gets very mechanical, like he’s thinking instead of reacting.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late first round, early second round
Jarvis Harrison:
Pros: Very athletic for a guy who is 330 pounds. Good footwork. Can play tackle in a pinch, showing his versatility. Extremely strong. Should be a force in the running game.
Cons: Has a tendency to get lazy and lack motivation. No way he should have been benched for half a season, but it was his fault. Effort needs to be more consistent. Has to stay in shape.
Where he’ll be drafted: Middle rounds, 4th to 6th
Trey Williams:
Pros: Very quick, great agility, very good speed. Makes plays when he gets the ball. Improved as a receiver as his career went on. Good in the return game. Underused in college.
Cons: Tends to dance in the backfield instead of getting upfield. Needs to be more decisive. Relies too much on his agility, and won’t be able to do that at the next level. Undersized, which will likely limit his role.
Where he’ll be draft: Later rounds, 5th-7th. More likely 6th-7th
Deshazor Everett:
Pros: Tough, physical. Good, but not great speed. Impressive at pro day. Very good sophomore and junior years. Not afraid to play the run.
Cons: Regressed considerably as a senior. Does not play well when off receivers or in zone coverage. Too many blown coverages, especially in 2014. Questions about what kind of system he fits in.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late rounds or free agent. Will get a chance in camp.
Malcome Kennedy:
Pros: Consistent receiver. Good hands. Good but not top flight speed. Improved throughout his career. Good guy in the locker room.
Cons: Doesn’t fit in every system. Slot in a spread system. Needs to improve his route running. Lack of size and/or great speed hurts him.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late rounds or UFA.
Aggies to have their pick at RB?
Right now, A&M has a total of four offers out at running back, to C.E. King’s Trayveon Williams, New Orleans’ Tre Turner, Beaumont Central’s Devwah Whaley and McAllen’s Trevor Speights. The Aggies appear to want two backs in this class, and they may be able to take their pick of two of these four. Williams is believed to have A&M as his leader, and Turner is high on the Aggies as well. Speights de-committed from Arizona, and it looks like A&M’s interest had a lot to do with that. Whaley is the best of the bunch, probably, but Oklahoma is coming hard after him.
Looking good in tackle recruiting
Even though Greg Little is a soft commit at the moment and target Frank Martin committed to USC this week, things look pretty decent at the tackle front for A&M. They’re firmly in the mix for four-star Jean Delance, and jumped to the top of the list for Trophy Club Byron Nelson’s Kellen Diesch as soon as they offered. They’re also very high on the list for the Mineola twins, Austin and Riley Anderson. Add in that they’re still working on Baylor commit Patrick Hudson and things here should be interesting for some time.
Waiting to offer versus lots of offers (Fletch)
A lot of people have been wondering why A&M waits so long to offer recruits and not just go ahead and offer a bunch of kids. This could work multiple ways. If you offer early, then some kids remember it and it stands out to them as they remember who was there from the start before they got big names. The problem is with offering that many kids, an offer from said school becomes not as valuable. Majority of the time, A&M offers a lot of kids from out of state early because they have to in order to get in there before the schools from that player’s state offer them early on. Now when you wait and don’t offer kids early on it could be for multiple reasons. Sometimes the recruit’s grades are not great or they are not exactly model citizens. If you look back at the 2013 class, A&M got burned by a lot of kids who did not pan out for them either because they could not become a starter and transferred or they had off the field issues. The 2013 class probably made A&M weary offering a lot of kids before doing extensive homework on them. They don’t have the luxury that a team like Alabama does where they can offer a lot of kids and some of those offers become no longer committable offers if one or two guys at a position take the offer.
Recruiting momentum (Fletch)
So how can A&M get some momentum back in recruiting? Well right now a lot of the kids they offered want to wait and take their time which is perfectly fine in April. A lot of kids will make decisions at the end of spring ball or the end of the summer so there will be commits soon. A&M has four now and when you compare to one year ago where A&M had seven it is not too bad. A lot of people forget that A&M got eight last year in the summer months and A&M tends to get multiple recruits in the summer so no need to panic yet. A few recruits are planning to commit in the summer that A&M are in pretty good shape in so they could get a few commits soon. Who are these recruits? One of them is Cibolo Steele defensive end Mark Jackson who A&M is in really good shape in. Another is Galena Park North Shore cornerback Eric Monroe and A&M is likely the leader at this point. A few others who could possibly commit at the end of the summer are the Anderson twin offensive tackles Austin and Riley from Mineola.
'For the past four years or so, we’ve had the good fortune of being able to talk about the NFL Draft with a guy
who scouts the region for a team who has had a lot of success during that time period. Most of his calls have proven to be right in the time we’ve been talking to him, so we were curious to see what his take was on the Aggies in the 2015 draft.
Cedric Ogbuehi:
Pros: Remarkable athlete, maybe the best in a long time on the O-line. Very smart. Has not reached his full potential. Will get stronger in time. Very good zone blocker. Has shown a lot of dedication in his ACL rehab.
Cons: Was a much better right tackle than left tackle. Played soft frequently last year. Can be beaten by more physical linemen who just bullrush him. Sometimes gets very mechanical, like he’s thinking instead of reacting.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late first round, early second round
Jarvis Harrison:
Pros: Very athletic for a guy who is 330 pounds. Good footwork. Can play tackle in a pinch, showing his versatility. Extremely strong. Should be a force in the running game.
Cons: Has a tendency to get lazy and lack motivation. No way he should have been benched for half a season, but it was his fault. Effort needs to be more consistent. Has to stay in shape.
Where he’ll be drafted: Middle rounds, 4th to 6th
Trey Williams:
Pros: Very quick, great agility, very good speed. Makes plays when he gets the ball. Improved as a receiver as his career went on. Good in the return game. Underused in college.
Cons: Tends to dance in the backfield instead of getting upfield. Needs to be more decisive. Relies too much on his agility, and won’t be able to do that at the next level. Undersized, which will likely limit his role.
Where he’ll be draft: Later rounds, 5th-7th. More likely 6th-7th
Deshazor Everett:
Pros: Tough, physical. Good, but not great speed. Impressive at pro day. Very good sophomore and junior years. Not afraid to play the run.
Cons: Regressed considerably as a senior. Does not play well when off receivers or in zone coverage. Too many blown coverages, especially in 2014. Questions about what kind of system he fits in.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late rounds or free agent. Will get a chance in camp.
Malcome Kennedy:
Pros: Consistent receiver. Good hands. Good but not top flight speed. Improved throughout his career. Good guy in the locker room.
Cons: Doesn’t fit in every system. Slot in a spread system. Needs to improve his route running. Lack of size and/or great speed hurts him.
Where he’ll be drafted: Late rounds or UFA.
Aggies to have their pick at RB?
Right now, A&M has a total of four offers out at running back, to C.E. King’s Trayveon Williams, New Orleans’ Tre Turner, Beaumont Central’s Devwah Whaley and McAllen’s Trevor Speights. The Aggies appear to want two backs in this class, and they may be able to take their pick of two of these four. Williams is believed to have A&M as his leader, and Turner is high on the Aggies as well. Speights de-committed from Arizona, and it looks like A&M’s interest had a lot to do with that. Whaley is the best of the bunch, probably, but Oklahoma is coming hard after him.
Looking good in tackle recruiting
Even though Greg Little is a soft commit at the moment and target Frank Martin committed to USC this week, things look pretty decent at the tackle front for A&M. They’re firmly in the mix for four-star Jean Delance, and jumped to the top of the list for Trophy Club Byron Nelson’s Kellen Diesch as soon as they offered. They’re also very high on the list for the Mineola twins, Austin and Riley Anderson. Add in that they’re still working on Baylor commit Patrick Hudson and things here should be interesting for some time.
Waiting to offer versus lots of offers (Fletch)
A lot of people have been wondering why A&M waits so long to offer recruits and not just go ahead and offer a bunch of kids. This could work multiple ways. If you offer early, then some kids remember it and it stands out to them as they remember who was there from the start before they got big names. The problem is with offering that many kids, an offer from said school becomes not as valuable. Majority of the time, A&M offers a lot of kids from out of state early because they have to in order to get in there before the schools from that player’s state offer them early on. Now when you wait and don’t offer kids early on it could be for multiple reasons. Sometimes the recruit’s grades are not great or they are not exactly model citizens. If you look back at the 2013 class, A&M got burned by a lot of kids who did not pan out for them either because they could not become a starter and transferred or they had off the field issues. The 2013 class probably made A&M weary offering a lot of kids before doing extensive homework on them. They don’t have the luxury that a team like Alabama does where they can offer a lot of kids and some of those offers become no longer committable offers if one or two guys at a position take the offer.
Recruiting momentum (Fletch)
So how can A&M get some momentum back in recruiting? Well right now a lot of the kids they offered want to wait and take their time which is perfectly fine in April. A lot of kids will make decisions at the end of spring ball or the end of the summer so there will be commits soon. A&M has four now and when you compare to one year ago where A&M had seven it is not too bad. A lot of people forget that A&M got eight last year in the summer months and A&M tends to get multiple recruits in the summer so no need to panic yet. A few recruits are planning to commit in the summer that A&M are in pretty good shape in so they could get a few commits soon. Who are these recruits? One of them is Cibolo Steele defensive end Mark Jackson who A&M is in really good shape in. Another is Galena Park North Shore cornerback Eric Monroe and A&M is likely the leader at this point. A few others who could possibly commit at the end of the summer are the Anderson twin offensive tackles Austin and Riley from Mineola.
