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NFL Scouting, the draft and Gerald Willis

Ethnicsands said:
You say that like there is some secret reason other than all the obvious discussed ad nauseum in these threads. Unless you think he has HIV or some sordid criminal past held under seal, what’s the secret reason you imagine that all teams passed? What are the possibilities even?

Seems to me like the obvious is staring us in the face here. Guy played one year out of 5, effectively. Had major off field issues at UF and UM, sat out the bowl game, didnt do much to address concerns about his measurables leading up to the draft, and apparently inflamed concerns about attitude by how he reacted to nfl teams in terms of meetings, interviews, etc. At some point, teams just accept that where there is smoke, there’s fire and move on. They aren’t there to figure out Willis. They’re there to find enough guys for their team.

I happen to be more positive on Willis than the nfl, based on tje draft. I think he can become a good nfl player. But it’s up to him to decide.
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Do not put your personal opinion or feelings into what I wrote. I am merely quoting articles and what they say. Read the articles first and reread if you are not sure. Do not let your emotions rule your ******.
 
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randolph herndon said:
Here is another "feeble" article on why Willis was not drafted.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...-undrafted-which-was-not-such-a-big-surprise/
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Key quote: “So Willis was a one-year starter, was kicked off his first college team, missed a full season on his second college team with personal issues, missed time with injuries in his only season as a starter, and didn’t work out at the Combine because of injuries. The story should probably be less that it’s a surprise Willis went undrafted than that it’s a surprise Kiper thought Willis would be drafted in the first three rounds.”
 
Ethnicsands said:
Had major off field issues at UF and UM, sat out the bowl game, didnt do much to address concerns about his measurables leading up to the draft, and apparently inflamed concerns about attitude by how he reacted to nfl teams in terms of meetings, interviews, etc.
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He didn't have any major off the field issues at UM that I know of.
 
Most of the NFL executives are Clowns .They act like they know what they are doing but they don't. Its why the Patriots who actually have competent talent evaluators have dominated. The draft was supposed to ensure parity , in past years it did because it was harder to become a free agent. But now that parity is out the door. With the dumb way the handled the kneeling players and the politically correct liberal lawyer commissioner its a league in decline.
 
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Posters keep saying "the NFL will accept wife beaters so whatever Willis might have done cant be as bad." NFL teams don't particularly care if you are a bad person. What they care about is availability. For example, injury-prone guys nearly always drop in the draft (even if a guy has a torn acl it's not necessarily a negative, but if he was always missing stretches of the season due to bruises, turf toe, concussions, etc he gets flagged as injury prone). A wifebeater probably gets probation in a court of law, at worst a couple games suspension by the NFL. And the wifebeating/child abuse is probably an issue the team has to deal with 1 time, rest of the time they can just pay off the wife keep quiet, so the player doesnt miss games. NFL teams talk to HS and college coaches- they likely all got the same impression that Willis was unreliable.

Willis was a very good player in the one year he played a full season, but the fact remains that he was undependable for multiple seasons. That's the kind of player you spend a 6th or 7th round pick on. 3rd and 4th round picks are where GMs really fill out their teams and find values, and they will rarely waste a pick on an unreliable player (you might see an injury-prone guy go in the 4th if the GM thinks his medical staff can keep the guy healthy). A player with a reputation of not being reliable will generally go in the much later rounds as a 6th or 7th rounder rarely sticks anyways, so if you get production out of them it's a lucky break.
 
For_The_U said:
With all due respect, Calvin, this is an extremely dumb take. Canes were being put in the league regularly even when the product on the field at The U sucked donkey balls for a decade and a half. If anything there is a positive bias from the league re players from Coral Gables. To assert that Willis didn't get drafted BECAUSE he played his last year at Miami is ridiculous.
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You must be a new UM fan!
 
TimeB0mb said:
Posters keep saying "the NFL will accept wife beaters so whatever Willis might have done cant be as bad." NFL teams don't particularly care if you are a bad person. What they care about is availability. For example, injury-prone guys nearly always drop in the draft (even if a guy has a torn acl it's not necessarily a negative, but if he was always missing stretches of the season due to bruises, turf toe, concussions, etc he gets flagged as injury prone). A wifebeater probably gets probation in a court of law, at worst a couple games suspension by the NFL. And the wifebeating/child abuse is probably an issue the team has to deal with 1 time, rest of the time they can just pay off the wife keep quiet, so the player doesnt miss games. NFL teams talk to HS and college coaches- they likely all got the same impression that Willis was unreliable.

Willis was a very good player in the one year he played a full season, but the fact remains that he was undependable for multiple seasons. That's the kind of player you spend a 6th or 7th round pick on. 3rd and 4th round picks are where GMs really fill out their teams and find values, and they will rarely waste a pick on an unreliable player (you might see an injury-prone guy go in the 4th if the GM thinks his medical staff can keep the guy healthy). A player with a reputation of not being reliable will generally go in the much later rounds as a 6th or 7th rounder rarely sticks anyways, so if you get production out of them it's a lucky break.
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Well put.

Willis choose to miss the bowl game, senior bowl, combine, and performed poorly at Miami’s pro day. He was late or missed meetings with NFL teams interested in him. All the proof needed to take a pass and draft other DTs the same group.

Willis did nothing to contradict scouts initial impression of him.
 
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TemplarCane said:
Well put.

Willis choose to miss the bowl game, senior bowl, combine, and performed poorly at Miami’s pro day. He was late or missed meetings with NFL teams interested in him. All the proof needed to take a pass and draft other DTs the same group.

Willis did nothing to contradict scouts initial impression of him.
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He missed meetings? How do you know?
 
Canenable said:
So Willis may have not done all the right things during his pre-draft activities, or had the cleanest progression through college but I thought the NFL was about winning football games and acquiring talent wherever you can???

The argument for Willis to get drafted, simply put the guy was the best player last year on the #2 defense in the country. He wore the Captain's C on his jersey so presumably he had the respect of the team, a team I might add that was anchored by their defense as their offense had some big issues so the defense was required to play a majority of the game, even in games they won handily, like Pitt. The defense was asked to do too much last year and they responded like a great defense and the captain of that defense doesn't even get drafted??? Doesn't UM warrant enough respect to take a flyer on a guy from a program like that at least in the last round of the draft?

This is an example of a bunch of lemmings following each other over a cliff, oh the geniuses of the NFL deem Gerald Willis not worth drafting. I am sick to my stomach the Dolphins did not draft him in the 7th round with one of their two picks, just inept drafting at that point! A team as bereft of talent as the Fins can't squeeze a potential starter into their mix? Bullsh!t!

Well nothing gets a Cane more motivated than disrespect, so I would love nothing more than to see Willis with some significant playing time next year and to watch the imbeciles in all the front offices around the league watching it up close and personal! I root for all Canes in the league, even if they play for the Jets, but Willis just became the most important Cane to succeed in the league!
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I think you are seeing this through a very narrow point of view. Take emotion out of the equation for a minute. Now try to think of the situation as a business decision and you are a CEO of a fortune 500 company. When you go invest capital, you want to reduce risk and increase potential gains. Of course Willis is a great talent and can perform on the field, the issue or risk is if in the future, will there be any situations where he doesn't see the field, or sees it for a limited amount of time due to extracurricular activities. When you commit money in a guaranteed fashion on a contract, you usually do it for a low risk/high gain asset. Willis' risk was too high from a business standpoint to invest guaranteed funds in. Now, a team like the Ravens giving Willis a UDFA deal to see if he can perform and keep his nose clean before committing a guaranteed, high payout is good practice from a "business" standpoint. The NFL and its teams are corporations essentially. Morals play no factor into this equation...just good business sense. It's like stock, you try to buy low and hope the stock takes off and has a high yield/payout in the short/long run depending on what you are investing in.
 
MotoSniper said:
I think you are seeing this through a very narrow point of view. Take emotion out of the equation for a minute. Now try to think of the situation as a business decision and you are a CEO of a fortune 500 company. When you go invest capital, you want to reduce risk and increase potential gains. Of course Willis is a great talent and can perform on the field, the issue or risk is if in the future, will there be any situations where he doesn't see the field, or sees it for a limited amount of time due to extracurricular activities. When you commit money in a guaranteed fashion on a contract, you usually do it for a low risk/high gain asset. Willis' risk was too high from a business standpoint to invest guaranteed funds in. Now, a team like the Ravens giving Willis a UDFA deal to see if he can perform and keep his nose clean before committing a guaranteed, high payout is good practice from a "business" standpoint. The NFL and its teams are corporations essentially. Morals play no factor into this equation...just good business sense. It's like stock, you try to buy low and hope the stock takes off and has a high yield/payout in the short/long run depending on what you are investing in.
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Everything you’re saying is correct, but I still contend had he handled himself, or possibly had better direction from his agent team, and killed the offseason, those concerns would have been allayed.

Like I said in another thread, every single decision he made the day after the last regular season game was the wrong decision.

Yet there was nary a peep from anyone at Miami about him being a problem the last couple of years..

What happened between
 
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