Winston has had an awful year. I am shocked that he graded so high.
The whole USC 0-line has had a great season, and Justice has led the way in pass protection and run blocking. Of the 14 sacks given up, one is credited to Winston. You can't hardly be the blindside anchor to an offense that's done what the Trojans have and also have an awful year. His last two performances against Fresno and UCLA were dominating. Maybe you're thinking of Eric Winston (who's had his struggles) not Winston Justice (who's been great)??
He supposedly has million dollar talent but he also clearly has a 2 cent brain. I don't think he is declaring because of potential draft status but because he knows that he will have a tough time remaining academically ineligible if he stays and that would hurt his draft status more than his poor season.
He doesn't have, nor has he ever had
academic problems. He was suspended for two semesters, which caused him to miss last season,
for brandishing a weapon on campus. His GPA was 3.0 at the time, and he had brought it up from 2.8 as an immature freshman. The misdemeanor was, by all accounts, a practical joke that backfired in the worst possible way. It was an unloaded pellet gun. A stupid move, sure. A 2 cent brain, hardly. Lots of people make mistakes and his response said a lot about him. He spent the missed season working on his weaknesses. He trained with a professional boxing coach and developed the best punch and hands of any of these top OLs. He lowered his body fat, and increased his speed, quickness and upper body strength. He went back to school when the NFL was projecting him as a late first rounder, and he's done nothing but increase his stock.
People will always question his maturity because of a stupid stunt he pulled at the age of 19. Oh well. It shouldn't be a concern to those with a little insight. Several articles have been published about his remorse, depression, hard work and lesson learned. He's become a serious young man, a locker room leader, and a better player.
That being said I understand the Brick is very, very small for a franchise left tackle (280 something lbs?) so maybe Winston can move up more than I would think.
Agreed. But I think the error is the constant comparisons of D'Brick to Jones, Ogden and Pace. I think there's 6 sure fire NFL starting tackles in this draft who will have excellent careers barring injury-- maybe one (or more) is a dominating franchise LT, but I doubt anyone can safely predict who it is. Three of them (at or near the top, DBrick, Justice, Scott) are very hard to rank based on similar talent and performance. McNeill is monstrous, runs better than most of them, takes his craft very seriously, and is more Ogden like than any of them. One of the the other two (Eric Winston) may have the best measureables of the lot. The last, Colledge, does everything you could ask at a very high level. Toss in Trueblood, Whitworth, and O'Callaghan (who would be late first rounders in a normal year), and you have 9 very solid prospects. Then there's three very high quality centers led by Eslinger, and a couple excellent guards, one who (Jean Gilles), who has a rare 1st round guard grade. Finally, there's a couple small school studs who have unusually stellar measureables.
Does the abnormal supply decrease demand? I can't decide. But this draft will be as interesting to me as any draft ever. I'm one who believes OL is the most important piece to the puzzle, but it takes time for a great OL to gel. A team that chooses wisely and exploits this talent pool will be setting itself up for long-term success.
Sorry for rambling. Anyone wanna talk OLs on a fantasy site?
Bloom, I know you will. I mentioned Kyle Young possibly coming out with a 1st round center grade. He is staying in school. Eslinger is the man, unquestionably.
