I caught up with an AFC area scout this week to get some of his early thoughts on the draft season and while I was on the phone with him, we talked about some current Texas players and D'Onta Foreman. (It should be noted that there are hundreds of NFL scouts, and this is just one person on one team's opinion).
- He said he doesn't see any locks to be drafted in 2017 on the Texas roster outside of Foreman, but did mention that Tyrone Swoopes as a tight end was an interesting idea.
- He said there is "no consensus" in his building about D'Onta Foreman as a prospect at this time. Apparently, he may be viewed in at least one organization as somewhat polarizing. The source said that some people in his organization love Foreman while others think he would have been a lot wiser to stay in school for another year.
- In this one scout's opinion, he's a "day two" guy (meaning 2nd or 3rd round) - however, this person did say that "he's not a guy who's going to help himself (at the combine or his pro day)."
- This made me ask what he meant, and what kind of 40 he was expecting out of Foreman. He said he sees Foreman as a "4.6-guy" meaning he thinks Foreman will run his 40 in over 4.6 seconds which is not terribly slow but not impressive enough to make him any money, either.
- It's my personal belief that Foreman can run a time closer to 4.5 as I've timed him with my own hands in the high 4.4's at a camp he attended prior to his freshman season. While he may not still be at that speed (and while hand-times are always more generous than laser-times) I think somewhere in the 4.5s is certainly the slowest he'd run. I asked if a 4.5-flat in the 40 would change the way some people felt about his speed and the source said "it would have to."
- He actually asked me what was going on with the younger guys on the team. "How many NFL guys outside (Connor Williams) are even on the entire roster?" he asked. We'd had conversations previously about some of the younger (particularly Class of 2015) players on the team and this source along with others was very interested in many of them during and after their freshman seasons. "Like Strong's second class at Louisville," he said, talking about the class with Marcus Smith, Calvin Pryor, Damian Copeland, Teddy Bridgewater, Preston Brown, etc.
- But in this conversation, he said some of the young players at Texas who many had thought would be bigger-name NFL prospects didn't keep pace through their sophomore seasons, "What happened to Malik Jefferson, what happened to the corners (Davante Davis and Holton Hill)?"
- He did say he believes Connor Williams is as impressive as advertised and agreed there was a strong likelihood of him leaving after the 2017 season. Many forget that Williams, in addition to being an athletic All-American, has also received All-Big 12 academic honors and could possibly graduate after his junior year anyway.
- He said he doesn't see any locks to be drafted in 2017 on the Texas roster outside of Foreman, but did mention that Tyrone Swoopes as a tight end was an interesting idea.
- He said there is "no consensus" in his building about D'Onta Foreman as a prospect at this time. Apparently, he may be viewed in at least one organization as somewhat polarizing. The source said that some people in his organization love Foreman while others think he would have been a lot wiser to stay in school for another year.
- In this one scout's opinion, he's a "day two" guy (meaning 2nd or 3rd round) - however, this person did say that "he's not a guy who's going to help himself (at the combine or his pro day)."
- This made me ask what he meant, and what kind of 40 he was expecting out of Foreman. He said he sees Foreman as a "4.6-guy" meaning he thinks Foreman will run his 40 in over 4.6 seconds which is not terribly slow but not impressive enough to make him any money, either.
- It's my personal belief that Foreman can run a time closer to 4.5 as I've timed him with my own hands in the high 4.4's at a camp he attended prior to his freshman season. While he may not still be at that speed (and while hand-times are always more generous than laser-times) I think somewhere in the 4.5s is certainly the slowest he'd run. I asked if a 4.5-flat in the 40 would change the way some people felt about his speed and the source said "it would have to."
- He actually asked me what was going on with the younger guys on the team. "How many NFL guys outside (Connor Williams) are even on the entire roster?" he asked. We'd had conversations previously about some of the younger (particularly Class of 2015) players on the team and this source along with others was very interested in many of them during and after their freshman seasons. "Like Strong's second class at Louisville," he said, talking about the class with Marcus Smith, Calvin Pryor, Damian Copeland, Teddy Bridgewater, Preston Brown, etc.
- But in this conversation, he said some of the young players at Texas who many had thought would be bigger-name NFL prospects didn't keep pace through their sophomore seasons, "What happened to Malik Jefferson, what happened to the corners (Davante Davis and Holton Hill)?"
- He did say he believes Connor Williams is as impressive as advertised and agreed there was a strong likelihood of him leaving after the 2017 season. Many forget that Williams, in addition to being an athletic All-American, has also received All-Big 12 academic honors and could possibly graduate after his junior year anyway.
