WTKA Roundtable 5/6/2021: A Bearskin Stuffed With Hamburger
Things discussed:
- NFL Draft: is Justin Fields a good draft pick? What we think of the Lions picks.
- The trolling Michigan fans draft! Extensive talk on Melifonwu.
- How did a team with 8 draft picks lose to one with none?
- Did sitting out hurt or help? Will opt outs be part of college football in the future?
- Which Michigan draftee does well?
- This is the year Chris Evans catches a lot of passes.
- Devonte’ Jones or Frankie for PG next year?
- Jones can rebound—that’s a real skill. Crafty player.
- Chris Solari: Emoni Bates will be a 2-year player at MSU because of his strong feelings for Tom Izzo :)
- Around the Big Ten: who got better who got worse?
- Liddell transfer? Uh, right. Has there ever been a more delusional fanbase than Illinois?
- Softball talk.
- Strauss Mann: why did he leave? Portillo gets some time, NHL might not like big netminders but AHL needs goalies and rarely can you get a guy like Mann without a draft pick.
- 1991 What If: Derrick Alexander doesn’t get hurt? When the drop’s to Yale Van Dyne…
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment two is available here. You can also watch the video here:
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
That’s like having your pick of religions and choosing ours
Craig always seems to have more contrarian and downer observations and thoughts. That is all. I think Brian, Sam, and Seth are on the same page regarding expectations for the program next year. Big ten favorites with OSU making a push for the top spot.
It is, IMO, a bit too soon to predict since all teams in the BT have uncertainties and moving parts. Right now I would put UM in the top three, at worst, with OSU and Purdue. IF MD's wings returns, in the top four. Certainly, UM can win the conference if two of the frosh are ready to play at a high level---but I think it is hard to know if young players will hit the ground running. Hunter, did, of course.
At this moment, I don't think it is pollyanna-ish to see UM as the favorite.
I think Seth was spot on about the players opting out. I think it will really hurt Michigan too. They will recruit players that will be able to be drafted, but often will be out of a championship before October is over, so players that have draft possibilities will opt out and rightfully so.
Seth is 100% on point with the opt out situation. These guys that pull a Bosa and decide to declare for the nfl mid season are going to submarine their respective teams. This, more than than anything is going to kill college football. Some sort of contract will be required to preserve this but even with a contract in place, I fear most of these guys will violate the contract and pay a fine if they feel their draft chances are good enough. Or have an “injury” etc. so many loopholes.
Im with Craig on the draft picks. The two Cams have the best careers. WRs/DBs will flash a great season here and there but it’s hard to be consistently elite. I’m not sold on Kwity as a star at DE, but who cares, he just got 7 million guaranteed and is set for life.
I think Seth is right in the sense that some players will opt out if they feel assured of their draft position but that's sort of true already; it's mostly top-tier guys already eyeballing the first round. But most guys aren't going to have that clear a view of their draft stock; every year you see guys rise and fall multiple rounds and so it's hard to assume you're spot is set. And that's especially true in the layer rounds; I can't imagine a guy will say "yep, 3rd round is the best I can hope for so time to hang it up."
I also think people tend to overreact to guys dropping from way-too-early draft lists a year+ before the actual draft. Mayfield probably wasn't ever going to be a first-round pick, for example, since most of the big knocks against him were his shorter arms and questions about overall experience. At some point draft people would have measured his arms and had him run drills and likely would have come to a similar conclusion about his position. Similar things would have happened to Justin Fields, as the questions about him would have lingered about accuracy and his ability to read a defense.
Will there be some guys who opt out and not hurt their stock? Sure. But an equal number will and I feel after an adjustment period we'd get to a steady state where most guys stick around for the bulk of the year, if not all, but you may see fewer guys play in bowls, a phenomenon that's been in play for a while.
Comments