College Football and the Draft

The draft always confounds me for two reasons. For one thing I am always amazed that the same writers who ignore most of the best players in college football during their careers can then have an opinion on them all during the draft process. Sure Johnny Manziel received too much press both as a college football player and a draftee, but other guys, like fellow first round pick from the QB position Blake Bortles, can get ignored while playing. Isn't ESPN, for one, embarrassed when evaluating Bortles that they basically ignored the guy when he was doing the kind of things that got him drafted? The regular college football media are so focused on over-covering guys like Manziel that they do not bother uncovering stories about interesting characters like former BC running back Andre Williams, who just so happened had an unbelievable year running the ball for the Eagles. But the focus is on a few programs and players and the coverage is sometimes driven by the sordid. Actually writing about good players is not going to win these guys any awards. And the basic writer cannot wrap his head around the constant change in rosters in college football and so waits until draft evaluators to tell them who is good and who is not. Which brings me to point number two. A lot of guys are very good in college football but do not project to the NFL. It is usually a numbers thing and guys like Shayne Skov of Stanford go undrafted due as much to a slow 40 time as anything. MSU's Max Bullough's does not have the hip movement to be a drafted NFL LB. Not dancer. Linebacker. The funniest was Teddy Bridgewater who was suddenly too damn skinny to be drafted high in the first round despite always being too damn skinny. The problem for me is that many very good football players who just do not have the measurables that the NFL desires--and remember the NFL did not bother to invite Wes Welker to the combine so it is often wrong--get forgotten. Not being a Johnny Manziel or a player for Alabama hurt them when they starred on the field; not having a bigger, faster body hurts them as pros. They each deserve more acclaim.