THUNDERING BLURB

ANDREW GARDA'S ENDLESS TAKES ON NFL AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Archive for April, 2010

Big East Football Talk w/In The Bleachers.net

Apr 30

Posted by admin in Big East Conference, bowl championship series, college football | No Comments

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of chatting college football with Michael Felder of InTheBleachers.net. I don’t get as much time to talk college football – especially Big East football – nearly as much as I like and Michael was kind enough to let me run my mouth for close to an hour.

You can check it out here on the ITB site.

We talk a lot of Big East football, chiefly about the problems facing the Conference with the Big Ten sniffing around Rutgers and potentially one or two other schools. What they can do to avoid it – and what they can do to survive it – are both topics we air out a good long while.

Check out the podcast and stick around for the great content they have about everything CFB.

Thanks to Michael for having me on – I look forward to returning the favor as we approach CFB season and returning again to talk more college ball in general.

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The Thundering Blurb Football Show – 4/28

Apr 29

Posted by admin in 2010 Rookies | No Comments

You’d think I might have collapsed post-2010 NFL Draft or at least take a week off, but there’s no stopping the signal. Or at least I need to work off some of this extra energy the experience left me with.

So as always, we have a new episode. (You can subscribe to the Itunes feed in the Itunes store or HERE and get these things as soon as they update!)

In last night’s episode, we started off talking about the success of the new NFL Draft format and how it pretty much crushed everything sports-related going on Thursday and Friday night. Baseball? HAH. NHL playoffs? Double HAH.

NBA playoffs? Complete HAH.

Not to denigrate any of those events but they were buried by the NFL Draft, a sports event minus actual sports being played.

The format is here to stay and don’t be shocked if they monkey with it further.

I go into some of my experience and talk a little about how highly I recommend going to the Draft once if you can.

We segue into some news, covering Jamarcus Russell, Alan Faneca and the Dez Bryant/Jeff Ireland flap.

After the break we start talking teams including the New York Jets & Giants, the Carolina Panthers and how they and Jimmy Clausen both got a best case scenario, the 49ers and how I have no idea what the Buffalo Bills are doing.

All that and some chit-chat with the chat room (which you can always join Wednesdays at FSC.fm.

As always, thanks for listening, subscribing and coming along on the journey.

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2010 NFL Rookie Analysis – Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, New York Giants

Apr 28

Posted by admin in 2010 Rookies, Jason Pierre-Paul, NFC North, New York Giants, University of South Florida, defensive end, defensive line, football | No Comments

Since I’m now located on the East Coast, I’ve been following East Coast teams much more closely than I have before.

Of course, you’d have had to be blind to miss Rutgers’ recent rise to prominence (hence the rumors they are the target of a pilfering attempt by the Big Ten) no matter where you lived. But there’s a lot more to the conference than I thought before I returned back to NY.

This year, 18 players from the Big East Conference were drafted and a slew of others were picked up as street free agents.

Over the next week we’re going to take a look at some of them, where they went and what their landing spot might mean for their success in the league.

Previous Articles:

Devin McCourty, CB, New England Patriots

Anthony Davis, OT, San Francisco 49ers

This time out, we finish off the first rounders with former University of South Florida defensive end, Jason Pierre-Paul.

 

The Giants' defensive line rotation should allow Pierre-Paul time to round out his game

Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, South Florida – Drafted by the New York Giants at 1-15
Pierre-Paul is the highest drafted player in the University of Southern Florida’s history and according to Brian Bennett’s ESPN Big East Blog, when he was selected he gave the Big East more first round picks in this draft than the Pac-10, the same number as the Big Ten and only one less than the ACC. And the Big East did this, Bennett points out, with fewer teams than any of those leagues.

Pierre-Paul may be a bit of a big boom-bust risk but Giants just might be the perfect team for him. As New York loves to rotate defensive linemen in and out, they’ll be able to give Pierre-Paul the time he needs in order to sand off the rough edges of his game while still taking advantage of his explosive pass-rushing skills.

What rough edges you ask?

His speed and quickness make up for a lack of instinct as Pierre-Paul will sometimes read a play completely wrong and on occasion gets too focused on pursuing the quarterback, abandoning his positional responsibilities at times.

His athletic ability will allowed him to make up for it at times in college, but that won’t fly in the pros and he’s going to need to reign it in. Remember also, he lacks a lot of experience, having transferred from College of the Canyons (a JUCO) to USF, where he only played for a year.

That lack of experience coupled with his instinct issues makes him a risk. Again, the Giants need not rely on him completely to be effective and hope by sharing time, he will be allowed to improve without the pressure of having the defense sit on his shoulders.

The cost will still be high if he busts, but if he hits, Pierre-Paul could be a dominant pass rushing force to be reckoned with in the NFC North.

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2010 NFL Rookie Analysis – Devin McCourty, CB, New England Patriots

Apr 28

Posted by admin in 2010 Rookies, AFC East, DevinMcCourty, New England Patriots, football | No Comments

Since I’m now located on the East Coast, I’ve been following East Coast teams much more closely than I have before.

Of course, you’d have had to be blind to miss Rutgers recent rise to prominence (hence the rumors they are the target of a pilfering attempt by the Big Ten) no matter where you lived. But there’s a lot more to the conference than I thought before I returned back to NY.

This year, 18 players from the Big East Conference were drafted and a slew of others were picked up as street free agents.

Over the next week we’re going to take a look at some of them, where they went and what their landing spot might mean for their success in the league.

Previous Article:

Anthony Davis, OT, San Francisco 49ers

In our second edition, we look at another former Scarlet Knight – cornerback Devin McCourty.

 

McCourty will help a secondary which allowed some huge games in 2009

Devin McCourty, CB, Rutgers – Drafted by the New England Patriots at 1-27
It seems like this selection confused people as many thought the more pressing defensive need was pass rush and either a defensive lineman or a linebacker. But the secondary is a problem as well and with teams like the Vikings and Packers coming to town this year and the Colts always a threat in the playoffs, the Patriots know they need to secure the secondary.

McCourty was a pretty good corner at Rutgers although he did allow a lot of passes. A tough, versatile player with return skills, McCourty fits the Belichick mold of solid, muti-functional athletes who can fill several roles. It looks as though he will start out as a nickel back and more than likely get some special teams work, probably on coverage as well as returning kicks but don’t be surprised if in a few years he’s moved to corner where his press skills will come to fruition. You could see him a lot this year in fact, as the Pats play nickel defense nearly half the time.

At 5′10″, 193lbs, McCourty isn’t the prototypical sized defensive back, but he’s incredibly tough and competitive and that may make up for some size issues. The physical nature of his game will also secure him a frequent spot on coverage units and you have to know Coach Belichick will try to recreate some of the seven blocked kicks McCourty produced for the Scarlet Knights.

The Patriots not only struggled against the likes of Drew Brees and Peyton Manning but were torched by Chad Henne (335 yards, 2 TDs), Kyle Orton (330 yards, 2 TDs) and Matt Schaub (303 yards, 2 TDs).

McCourty should be able to step in and help reverse course for New England, and very quickly at that.

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2010 NFL Rookie Analysis – Anthony Davis, OT, San Francisco 49ers

Apr 27

Posted by admin in 2010 Rookies, Anthony Davis, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, San Francisco 49rs, football | No Comments

Since I’m now located on the East Coast, I’ve been following East Coast teams much more closely than I have before.

Of course, you’d have had to be blind to miss Rutgers recent rise to prominence (hence the rumors they are the target of a pilfering attempt by the Big Ten) no matter where you lived. But there’s a lot more to the conference than I thought before I returned back to NY.

This year, 18 players from the Big East Conference were drafted and a slew of others were picked up as street free agents.

Over the next week we’re going to take a look at some of them, where they went and what their landing spot might mean for their success in the league.

This entry covers Anthony Davis, former Rutgers offensive tackle.

Davis will be the anchor across from Joe Staley on the 49ers oline

Anthony Davis, OT, Rutgers – Drafted by the San Francisco 49ers at 1-11
A long time before the 2010 NFL Draft I did an article on Bleacherreport.com which hoped that the 49ers would 1) end up with at least one if not two offensive linemen and 2) that Anthony Davis would be one of them.

For a while, Davis’ stock rose enough that – coupled with rumors that as many as seven (!) offensive tackles would go before the 49ers picked – it looked unlikely.

The team must have felt the same way. Which is why when Davis was still on the board at 11, they jumped at the chance to swap spots with Denver and finally secured a player who can take over the tackle spot opposite Joe Staley.

While both his run and pass blocking abilities are very good, Davis will need to work on being a little more aggressive and nasty in the trenches. If anyone can get that out of Davis, it will be his new Head Coach Mike Singletary. Davis is the big, physical player they have lacked on the right side for years and it was the 49ers biggest need to fill.

Davis is incredibly quick off the snap, allowing him to catch pass rushers coming in off the edge. His speed also allows him to quickly get to the second level on rush plays and get a good lick on a linebacker before the ball carrier arrives.

Davis’ speed, quickness and strength will be a tremendous asset to his new team and if Singletary can push Davis to reach his maximum potential, they will have a lynchpin on the once sieve-like right side who is stout enough to be a very good run blocker and has the athleticism and agility to be outstanding in pass protection as well.

Paired with the pick of Iowa Guard Mike Iupati, the 49ers have made a huge jump forward in terms of improving their offensive line. You have to think Frank Gore, Glen Coffee and Alex Smith are extremely happy this week.

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2010 Draft Blurb Appearences

Apr 26

Posted by admin in 104.3 The Fan, 2010 NFL Live Blog, AFC East, AFC West, Cecil Lammey, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Tim Tebow, draftguys.com, football, footballguys | No Comments

So I did a bunch of radio work this past weekend and didn’t have time to post it (and at times, didn’t have time to get a link to it) until now.

When you get a chance, check out the following bits of audio:

Friday Night I appeared on Brian Carriveau’s Cheesehead Nation show on Blogtalkradio.com. We talked about the first few rounds of Packer picks, which I actually like quite a bit. (about 10 minutes at the front  but the ep goes much longer)

I’m at the top but stick around for the whole show as they break down some of the picks more in depth later on. It’s good stuff, and Railbird Central is a great place to go for Packer stuff.

Saturday I joined my good friend Matt Levine of The Final Score of WSTC/WNLK in Connecticut to talk some Jets and Giants as well as some general NFL Draft stuff as well. I uploaded it here so you can hear what I had to say from Radio City. (about 20 minutes long)

On Sunday I got to hoof it to the home of Sirius Satellite Radio and join Cecil Lammey of 104.3 The Fan in Denver and Footballguys.com as well as Russ Lande, analyst for SportingNews.com’s NFL Draft Warroom and head of GMJr for three hours of 2010 NFL Draft recap.

As Cecil’s show (every Sunday on the Fan) is on in Denver, we covered a lot of Broncos (and Tim Tebow) but also hit on the Draft in general and the AFC West as a whole.

You can also get a behind the scenes look at the three of us on this episode of Blurb TV. In fact you can get a look at ALL of my experience at the 2010 NFL Draft here at Thundering Blurb or over at my channel on Viddler as well.

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Blurb TV Ep 8 – Behind the Radio Curtain

Apr 26

Posted by admin in 104.3 The Fan, 2010 NFL Live Blog, BlurbTV, Denver Broncos, Josh McDaniels, Tim Tebow | No Comments

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Blurb TV – Ep 7 – Late QB talk

Apr 24

Posted by admin in 2010 NFL Live Blog, BlurbTV | No Comments

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Blurb TV – Ep 6 – 3rd Round Recap

Apr 24

Posted by admin in 2010 NFL Live Blog, BlurbTV | No Comments

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2010 NFL Draft Live Blog: Day 2

Apr 23

Posted by admin in 2010 NFL Live Blog, football | No Comments

And so another day ends here at radio city Music Hall and the 2010 NFL Draft.

LOT’S of interesting things today, unfortunately most of them involving precipitous drops by players we expected to go in the first or early second who then fell into the late second or mid to late third.

Before I get into that, I wanted to tip the cap to Wake Forest cornerback Brandon Ghee the FINAL player taken in the third round AND the final guy in the green room.

They nailed 14 of the 17 players attending in the third round, and then two more in the second. Ghee had a long wait and got a nice round of applause when his name was called.

He hung in there, looked tired but also happy.

A few other thoughts, which I will add to in a video blog tomorrow. Check out the video recap of the second round HERE.

The workout warrior concern must have hit Kindle, Maryland OT Bruce Campbell and USC defensive end Everson Griffin hard as Kindle fell a round and Campbell and Griffin are still on the board.

I’m not sure what to make of Colt McCoy’s fall although we weren’t sure exactly where he’d go to begin with. Cleveland and Buffalo both needed quarterbacks and yet they were in no hurry for them.

I’ll have more from the NFL Draft tomorrow. Thanks for following, thanks for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far.

Tomorrow, I’ll be working with Cecil Lammey of 104.3 the Fan, Footballguys.com and their podcast the Audible the next two days, including a recap radio show on Sunday.

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