With the NFL Draft coming up this weekend, we have made our prognostications on the prospects. In the next couple of days we will be helping to get you ready as we narrow down the top prospects and match wits with all the “draft experts”. Today we will be highlighting the offense as we have compiled our final rankings as we head into the draft weekend.
The quarterback position has been a two pony show from the beginning but considering what each Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith bring to their prospective teams, it is hard to call them ponies but perhaps more appropriately, horses. We give Rodgers the slight advantage simply based on his having a stronger arm and playing in the Jeff Tedford system seems to have him just ahead of Smith. Admittedly, the two are close enough that they could be 1 and 1a. Making a strong push through the combine and workouts was Akron’s Charlie Frye. His strong arm and great size (6’4″ 225lbs) combined with decent speed and agility, has him leading the second tier of signal callers into the draft. On his heels is one of the more intriguing options in Jason Campbell of Auburn. Making the biggest jump into our top ten quarterbacks is another strong armed lefty, Stefan LeFors of Louisville.
The deepest position in the draft is running back. Our top ten shows a few names that others may have outside their top ten but we liked what we saw and we feel that they will make an impact at some point in the NFL. We have Auburn’s Ronnie Brown leading the stable of backs as he used the combine and workouts to put some distance between himself and Cedric Benson of Texas. Slipping in our rankings were both Vernand Morency (Oklahoma State) and JJ Arrington (California) but not entirely because of their performances but rather because of the strong performances of Frank Gore (Miami) and Eric Shelton of Louisville.
In the pass catching group, Braylon Edwards surged ahead of Mike Williams simply on his speed and quickness combined with Williams’ absence from the field. Again, much like Rodgers and Smith, both players are solid and will make immediate impacts on their respective teams. The two biggest movers are Troy Williamson of South Carolina and Matt Jones of Arkansas. Terrence Murphy of Texas A&M slid backwards as his game seems to have wilted in comparison to the strong play of some of the other receivers.
At the tight end position, Virginia’s Heath Miller continues to be the class of the field.
Along the offensive line, no significant changes occurred to our rankings, but rather some minor shuffling as the prospects remained solid. Elton Brown of Virginia has been given our top slot at guard while Alex Barron (Florida State) and Khalif Barnes (Washington) are the bookend tackles at the top of the list but a pair of Adam’s; Adam Terry of Syracuse and Adam Snyder of Oregon have shown that the tackle position has the depth that the NFL teams want. Chris Colmer of NC State and Jeremy Parquet of Southern Mississippi also pushed their way into our top ten at the tackle spot. Michigan’s David Baas remains the best option for teams looking to address the center spot in the draft.
Be sure to check out the entire top ten lists for each of the offensive positions in our draft section. We will also be highlighting the defense as well as posting our final mock draft this week. Be sure to stay with us as we continue the countdown to the 2005 Draft.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Les Barnhart