What is wrong with L. Pope? (1 Viewer)

[Texasmouth]

Before the combine, I was seeing Pope going as low as to the Broncos or Bears, now they are saying he is a late second round pick? Why the drastic drop? The dude is a giant, 6'7" and pretty fast for his size......

Also M. Lewis out of UCLA is a great TE and had a great career in college, much better than Vernon Davis....why has he fallen so far? Vernon Davis is now a top ten pick and neither of these other two are even first round picks?

Before the combine, most mocks, actually NO mock that I saw had Vernon Davis on the radar.......

 

[Bri]

My guess:

Davis is considerred a star already(not saying he is just...)Pope gets about the same description every TE gets most years like they cut and pasted it. Simply put his game's gotta develop more. Lewis is solid and still all over the place. The more I read the more I think people don't have a clue. I'd guess the reason is because he could be the BPA and alot of teams ignore need and draft BPA.

But one team example:

IIRC Bengals.com had Marvin Lewis+co lovin' Mercedes and there's was a whole thing how their offense would be "unstoppable" if they could add a top TE it. They seemed real excited at the prospect of it. I doubt he'll be there in round 2 for them but might be too early in round 1. So now what? Forget all that excitement? draft him early?

 

[cstu]

My guess:

Davis is considerred a star already(not saying he is just...)Pope gets about the same description every TE gets most years like they cut and pasted it. Simply put his game's gotta develop more. Lewis is solid and still all over the place. The more I read the more I think people don't have a clue. I'd guess the reason is because he could be the BPA and alot of teams ignore need and draft BPA.

But one team example:

IIRC Bengals.com had Marvin Lewis+co lovin' Mercedes and there's was a whole thing how their offense would be "unstoppable" if they could add a top TE it. They seemed real excited at the prospect of it. I doubt he'll be there in round 2 for them but might be too early in round 1. So now what? Forget all that excitement? draft him early?

You have to take into account that coaches say what they really think during the pre-draft evaluations, but as the draft approaches they tend to cool off on their enthusiasm for guys they are interested in. I think the same thing happened with Gruden and Cadillac when Gruden seemed uninterested in Cadillac right before the draft.

 

[Chaos Commish]

Before the combine, most mocks, actually NO mock that I saw had Vernon Davis on the radar.......

Maybe you didn't see any mocks with him high, but I sure did. They day he declared Scott Wright made him TE1, so did Football's Future and On The Clock. Those are three of the busiest draftnik hangouts. In the forums at NFL Draft Countdown he was agreed to be TE1, a total freak, a possible top 10 pick should he declare-- during the season-- last October November. There's a lot of tools in those forums, but there's also a lot of solid college football fans with their ears to the ground.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Before the combine, I was seeing Pope going as low as to the Broncos or Bears, now they are saying he is a late second round pick? Why the drastic drop? The dude is a giant, 6'7" and pretty fast for his size......

Also M. Lewis out of UCLA is a great TE and had a great career in college, much better than Vernon Davis....why has he fallen so far? Vernon Davis is now a top ten pick and neither of these other two are even first round picks?

Before the combine, most mocks, actually NO mock that I saw had Vernon Davis on the radar.......

I saw things differently. I was reading and hearing that if Davis declared, he would leapfrog both Pope and Lewis. Lewis's college career was not much better than Davis. That is false. He has compiled more numbers, but that is because he played four years as opposed to 3. Lewis wasalso getting more press while UCLA was winning. He is in the LA market, playing for a big name school. Davis caught more yards both this year and last year than Lewis. Davis averages 16+ yards per catch for both of the last two years. Those are good numbers for a speed wr. Those are huge big play potential out of a TE. When you factor in that he caught 50+ balls this year, you are looking at a preety large sample set that is not spiked because of a few big plays.

 

[think]

If I remember correctly (and please somebody help me out if you have the numbers) Leonard Pope's shuttle time was slower than his 40 time.

That implies he can't turn his hips and is strictly a straight-line player.

He'd be a great pick for a team that sends the TE on a fly on every play and never asks him to block. He's a bit more raw than everyone thought during the '05 season.

His size/speed is astounding though. Big question is, can he be taught to roll his hips and/or make good, solid cuts? Time will tell, but history shows that BIG and FAST guys get drafted early. I don't think he'll fall too far.