Reader Service Stewart and Rancher
Apparently this blog is drawing search engine hits for Auburn University FB Carl Stewart and University of Massachusetts WR Rasheed Rancher and their hopes in the NFL draft. Considering I’ve mentioned each guy once, I have to give credit to WordPress for getting that into the search engines.
I can’t say I saw Stewart play at all this year (his posted stats are typical for a blocking FB) and there’s little point in my regurgitating his draft evaluations from Scouts, Inc. (supporting ESPN) or NFLDraftScout.com (supporting NFL.com). He posted good combine performances at the 225lbs. bench press, vertical and broad jumps, so maybe he can audition for American Gladiators. It’s mathematically possible we have another Franco Harris situation (Harris was mostly a blocking FB at Penn State and had a Pro Football Hall of Fame career as a RB), but I’d guess if Stewart gets into the NFL, he’s got a career of special teams goonery ahead of him. Still a lucrative, if painful way to make a living. Get read up on investing Carl, you’ll make six figures but it’ll be touch and go with your roster spot.
Rancher was a bullet off my first ever post and his case is more interesting to me. His career numbers are unexceptional for a college starter. Averaged a little over 20 catches a year, 16.X per catch average, 3-4 TDs, as a red-shirt sophmore and junior (couldn’t beat out Brandon Hasselbeck for playing time?), then made the big jump as a senior to 49 catches, 20.6 yards per catch, 9 TDs.
However, Rancher is very (6′5″) tall. The NFL loves tall receivers. Yet Rancher merited neither a NFL Combine invite nor did he make the ESPN.com draft prospect list. He was on none of the rosters for the big post-season all-star games, the Senior and Hula Bowls, the East-West Shrine Game and the Texas vs. the Nation game. What did Rancher do wrong not to warrant at least a look? Is he really slow in ways a fan like myself can’t see? Does he really suck after watching his gamefilm? Is he sick of football and wants to do something else? All quite possible, but I’m puzzled. There are a number of other tall WRs in this year’s draft class, but it’s not like the class is overflowing with them. For what it’s worth, according to the ESPN list Indiana University WR James Hardy is 6′5-1/2″ (not 6′7″ as he was at one point) and their tallest receiver is Stanford’s Evan Moore at 6′5-3/8″.
University of Richmond WR Arman Shields, who like Rancher played in the CAA, got an invite to Combine and he was out most of last year with injuries. He had 14 catches in three games for 125 yards. His previous season numbers are better than Rancher’s but not exceptional. He’s 6′1″, a bit above NFL average but not dramatically so. Now Shields did very well at the combine, tied (among WRs) for second in the vertical leap at 37.5″ and eighth in 40 yard dash at 4.44 seconds, so he’s worth taking a look at. But not Rancher? Maybe a undrafted free-agent mini-camp invite then?
I’ve never understood the logic of who gets scouted as a good prospect. Perhaps if you show enough flaws that your measurables don’t help, you never make the lists we in the general public see. About ten years ago, back when tall pocket passing QBs still had value, North Carolina’s QB was a guy named Chris Keldorf. UNC ran a reasonably pro-like system and Keldorf was (at least by UNC stats, so have salt ready) 6′5″and 240lbs. After his senior season, when UNC was 11-1 and Keldorf was Gator bowl MVP, he never got much mention as a prospect. Never turned up in any pro football league I followed. Did he have flaws? From what I can dimly remember, yes. But what was wrong about Keldorf that wasn’t wrong in back-up QB to the stars Matt Cassel? Cassel who backed-up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at Southern Cal is now on his fourth season in the NFL backing up Tom Brady. Us amateurs have barely seen this guy play when a game mattered, but he can make it. As Jim Mora, Sr. was famously quoted as saying about those of us outside “You don’t know and you’ll never know.”
