Major Pre-Draft Shake Up of CBS' WR Rankings!

CBS Sports

I have been participating in the Social Media football scouting world for three years now and there has been just one constant – I time and again find myself checking CBSsports’ NFL Draft prospect list.   Not because it is the most “accurate” or because I agree with their rankings.  No, I return because they have a huge number of prospects (up to 1,000, I believe) and they frequently update.  Sure, at times they can have some stale players in there (don’t recall the specific player but they once had ranked a receiver who was incarcerated at the time) but having a list of 150 receivers is a nice way to make sure you don’t miss any prospects.

With the Draft no longer days but just hours away, I wanted to check the rankings once more.  I maintain a log of the CBS rankings at various times: pre-season, throughout the regular season, post-bowls, after combine and just before the draft.  I don’t use this for my own purposes (you can read some of my other posts to get some insight into my evaluation process) but more so as a backdrop by which to compare what I see and here in other news media and from other scouts.  I had last checked and updated the listing on April 5^th and checked today to see the most recent update was April 24^th, just three days before the Big Day.   When the new Top 150 wide receivers prospect list is updated, pull the data off the site and compare increases and decreases.  The change since I last monitored was dramatic, to say the least.

Up and Down

• The Top 5 - Remained unchanged:

1. Davis
2. Ross
3. Williams
4. Samuel
5. Godwin

• The Top Twenty? Not so much:

1. Noah Brown dropped completely out of the Top 20, going from WR16 to WR27th - no idea why. 
2. Isaiah Ford, dropped 5 spots to WR15.  This is the same player who was listed as WR3 going all the way back to October 16.  Oy!
3. My War Horse, Josh Reynolds jumped 5 to WR 17, landing in the Top 20 after spending the entire year hovering in the high 20's.  
4. My man Mack Hollins is listed as WR18, up 5 spots from earlier this month.  We can attribute his recovery from the shoulder injury as a possible driver but I'm assuming his Pro  Day may have driven interest in him. 
5. Kenny Golladay, Malachi Dupre, Isaiah McKenzie and Ryan Switzer were WR21-WR24, respectively, all falling out of the Top 20.
6. KD Cannon rose up 10 spots to WR19 after previously never rising above WR28.
7. Finally, Josh Malone leapfrogged 15 spaces to WR12,  A huge jump but not even close to the largest in the CBS rankings.

What I find interesting is three of the guys I've been promoting for a while (usually through my Return on Investment updates over the season) were Reynolds, Hollins and Malone.  Not saying CBS is out there reading my blog for pointers, but if they do that's fine to me.

Meteoric Risers 

Based on the entire list of 150 WR prospects, here are some of the incredible rises in just the 20 day period between April 5th and April 24th according to CBS Sports Draft website:

1. Former Duke Blue Devil Anthony Nash rocketed SEVENTY-EIGHT spots from WR141 to WR63 in the course of 20 days.  He had a nice combine complete with 4.38 hand timed 40. Granted, the ranking still does not project to get him drafted but the jump is profound nonetheless. 
2. Former Arkansas Razorback Dominique Reed rose 56 places from WR115 to WR59 after demolishing his pro day (with a hand timed 4.37 second 40 and a 40 inch vertical), passing his far more viable teammate Keon Hatcher who fell 21 places to WR70 in the same period (victim of a hatchet job?)   I have said all year I would take any Arkansas WR to compete for a roster spot but that's ice cold. 
3. Former ASU Sun Devil Tim White rose 53 spots to WR79.  The ASU pro day was reportedly well attended and White showed off versatility as a receiver and return man. Don't be surprised if he latches on as a UFDA .
4. David Moore from everyone's favorite East Central (OK) Tigers jumped 35 places to WR76 after a 4.43 second 40 time and pumping out 26 reps on the bench at his pro day. Not much on him on YouTube except Carl Weathers screaming at us over the team's recent highlights. 
5. Utah Ute Tim Patrick (another of my top ROI guys) is the most within Striking distance of these risers, jumping 20 to WR39 after a nice Pro Day (22 reps, 10'8" broad jump and 37 inch vertical).  He may have disappeared from the radar during the season due to teams scheme keeping his production low but Patrick should compete for a roster spot as at least an UDFA.

Free Fallin'

The Draft, she's a cruel mistress, as the saying goes. Or at least, these guys would say...

1. My man Bug Howard of Tar Heel nation started out the season as WR45, improved to WR32 and would have been able to ride the coat tails of his teammate Mitchell "Don't Call Me Mitch or Mitsubishi*" Trubisky (anyone watching MT video will have to see Bug there once in a while) bu'sept his 4.58 second 40 will not wow anyone. He fell 15 to WR47.  I am a big Howard fan but CBS just made his life a bit more difficult. 
2. Dwayne Stanford of the Oregon Ducks started the season at WR49; not great, but with a lot of room to run.  Unfortunately he ran the wrong way, getting down to WR78 as of April 5th just to anger the CBS Draft gods and get absolutely WHACKED by plummeting 40 spots to WR118. Having been injured most of the season, it's pretty nice of them to even list him.
3. If given a shot, and I know he may, KeVonn Mabon of Ball State will do all he can to crack an NFL roster but he won't be able to lean on his not-too-exciting pro day (with a 4.66 second hand timed 40...yikes).  For that performance, he dropped 47 spots to WR136 after starting the season at WR64.
4. Poor Darreus Rogers.  The former USC Trojan made the mistake of showing up to the combine.  After sitting as high as WR35, someone looked at his athletic results over the last three weeks and he dropped (are you sitting down?) SEVENTY SPOTS to WR105.  That will ruin your day.  After lifting 8 reps, being out vertical-ed by at least 3 OL and running a 4.54 40, he likely screened himself off several analytics based NFL Big Boards. 

*Not mine, this belongs to @FourVerts

Out of Nowhere

CBS is good at just dropping guys in with no warning.  Here are a few examples:

• Some guys, like my Tanner Gentry of Wyoming (WR90 after starting at WR148) or Robert Wheelwright of Wisconsin (WR89) have put in their dues all season and just like that, they wake up and find Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr (wasn't he in college in the 1900's?) ranked ahead of them (he debuted at WR88).  That's not just cold. That's stone cold.
• More evidence that CBS is monitoring me, after a couple of days of whining about the glaring omission of Hawai'i Rainbow Warrior Marcus Kemp (also a high ROI player) from the list, he shows up at WR110.  Way too low in my opinion, but I guess I didn't specify where I thought he should go.  Dadgum football spies. 

Could You Spell That for Me, Please?

There are many player who have earned their way on the CBS list for the first time in this, the last edition before the draft.  I'm sure they are very good, I've just never heard of any of them:

• WR 85 - "Iron" Mike Sharp (I put the nickname in there; not sure he has one) from Southern Utah didn't blow up the Combine (4.53 second 40, 35" vertical, 4.28 second short shuttle) but he did lead the T-birds (I didn't know that, I had to look it up) in receiving with a line of 75/898/12.
• WR 87 - Levern Jacobs - Don't know if he has a cursive "L" on his uniform, but Maryland Terp Jacobs  had a 39" vert and 11'3" broad jump so you know folks will give him a second look for athleticism.   His senior year performance  of 41/439/2 was second on the team for WR to Teldrick Morgan who eked out a 43/497/4 line.  For his troubles, Morgan dropped off the Top 150 list after starting at WR61.  Go figure. 
• WR 111 - Isaac Whitney - After not inventing the cotton gin, Whitney transferred to USC from Riverside CC (where he transferred from Central Oklahoma).  He was a JUCO all-American, winning the national title with Riverside but couldn't quite get it going at the University of South Central having broken his collarbone his first year there. In 2016 he had a stat line of (are you ready for this?)  3/32/0.  Keep in mind, he debuted one spot behind Kemp who lead Hawai'i in receiving. 

This is For My Homie

They can also make them disappear.  Here are guys who couldn't seem to beat out some of the lesser known candidates and end up off the list at the worst possible time... just before the Draft. 

• Chance Allen - Houston (formerly WR61)
• Nate Cole - Cincinnati (WR77)
• Ricky Jones - Indiana (WR81)
• Dontez Ford - Pitt (WR113)

It would be interesting to one day to talk to a person on staff at CBS to discuss how they develop their Draft Prospects list just to see what goes into the monitoring of such a massive list.  If I ever find out, believe that I will write all about it.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I will be on commenting on the Draft life every day this weekend on Twitter (@boombearjr) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/boombearjr/).  Join me!