dennisblundon

May 5th, 2011 at 7:47 AM ^

This is why you recruit athletes instead of giants who are already 330lbs. Your strength program will determine how the recruit will put on the weight which more often than not, leads to mostly a good weight gain. In short 40lbs added on an athlete makes a good lineman, 40lbs added on to average athleticism makes you just plain fat.

This article is why I can't wait to see AJ William's college career play out. He is our recruit with the highest ceiling at this point and that is saying something considering our current commits.

dennisblundon

May 5th, 2011 at 7:48 PM ^

Ok let me be more clear by highest ceiling I am saying the most likely recruit to exceed your expectations. If rjs or Ross is an All-American I won't be surprised. Williams has the potential to be an amazing LT or an exta lineman on running plays. His body frame can lead to a few different scenarios. Sorry for not wording my earlier post better.

Wolverine0056

May 5th, 2011 at 8:28 AM ^

I'm with Magnus on this. I am just as excited as the next guy about AJ Williams and excited to see what he will become, but I disagree that he has the highest ceiling on the team. Time will tell, but other than weight, your statement doesn't share much on why he has the highest ceiling. 

JDVan

May 5th, 2011 at 9:29 AM ^

I love the A.J. Williams commitment but to say he has the highest ceiling is quite a statement given RJS and Biggs IMO. Also, the "ceiling" you are referring to is quite vague. His ceiling as the greatest blocking TE ever or growing into a Jake Long? Quite a disparity in the Ole' NFL paycheck.

jethro34

May 5th, 2011 at 8:22 AM ^

With recruits you want to look at their frame, their work ethic, and diet.  If they're already eating right and spending hours in the weight room and yet lacking in ideal size - you might be stuck unless the natural maturation of the body changes it. 

But look on the front page at the pictures of Woodley and Long.  Woodley was strong but still pretty skinny.  Now his arms are bigger than my head.  (I've stood next to him and compared at a basketball game in Saginaw)

jethro34

May 5th, 2011 at 8:38 AM ^

If he has the highest ceiling you must be assuming he will become a 1st round pick at LT?  Because otherwise it's pretty easy to argue why many others have a pretty dang high ceiling.  People keep talking about how small Biggs is height-wise.  Last time I checked he was an inch shy of being the same height as Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis.

ReggieNoble04

May 5th, 2011 at 9:37 AM ^

Way to early to say AJ Williams has the highest cieling, he's yet to strap up for the maize n blue

TESOE

May 5th, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^

Wellman, but ceiling implies more than that.  Ross, Stone and Bolden all have serious work ahead to capitalize on their strengths.  (Let the double entendre do the heavy lifting.) 

Recruiting is pretty vague as is without putting labels on players who regardless of ceiling have D-1 talent.  It is what they do.  Make plays guys. 

As has been said before line recruits are hard to gauge.  Even going to the next level...that Mandarich sure was a beast. /s

Until we get some other commits on the line - in my dreams I do want Williams to have the most growth over his carrer - Omameh at tackle please. 

HS 250+lb TEs make D-1 OT college recruits...this speaks more to footwork.  Weight gain and ceilings are on the athlete.  Williams looks (IMO only) to be nimble enough to push rush ends into the stands and also to grow big enough to seal a DT.

Nosce Te Ipsum

May 5th, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^

Ross' father is about 6'3" from the looks of the photo on Scout and his mother seems to be tall for a woman as well. I'm expecting Ross to be at least 6' 2". 

Tater

May 5th, 2011 at 10:39 AM ^

As fans, most of us talk about the "skill" positions most of the time, and it is the smaller guys who get all of the headlines.  For example, if we counted the number of times the word "Denard" appeared here last year, it would be quite impressive. In this year's draft, though, only eight of the thirty-two players chosen in the first round weigh 240 or less.  

The "grunt" jobs might be thankless most of the time, but they certainly weren't on draft day.

Magnus

May 5th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^

Well, this year was a bit of an oddity, with only 2 receivers and 1 running back taken in the first round.  There was a record 12 defensive linemen taking in the 1st round, so that's pretty strange.

Plus, one of the quarterbacks (Newton) was over 240, which is also kind of a rarity.  Most QB draft picks are probably in the 220-230 range.

TESOE

May 5th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^

Given this draft maybe there is a trend.  I haven't read much on that other than SI's article on left tackles a couple years ago.

I would like to see the stats.  Agents, the player's union and the owners have to be all over this.

I'm thinking the year to year compensation by draft order is going to be skewed this year with all the contract issues.  Maybe skewed due to position as well?

Great 1 and 3 tech HS recruits are hard to find.  That is for sure.

Hill.FootballR…

May 5th, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^

Magnus just beat me to that. But yeah the other thing you have to remember Tater is that there is a major disparity between the needs of college teams and the needs of an NFL team. For example in the NFL teams generally draft more depth at the line positions because they are more likely to get injured than say a quarterback, wr or even cb/s. Then as Magnus said this was a very rare draft where there just happened to be a lot of talented big men.