POSNANSKI: Bowe to Canton or maybe a bust?

[Tribal Warfare]

http://www.kansascity.com/160/story/87896.html


Bowe to Canton or maybe a bust?

By JOE POSNANSKI
Columnist

Here’s the thing they won’t tell you about the NFL draft: Nobody knows. Sure things flop all the time. An undrafted free agent led the NFL in rushing. The best quarterback in the NFL was either the No. 1 overall pick (Peyton Manning) or a sixth-round pick (Tom Brady).

The best defensive player in the NFL was either the 12th pick overall (Shawne Merriman) or the 73rd pick (Jason Taylor).

The Chiefs busted with Junior Siavii in the second round and hit 90 picks later with fourth-rounder Jared Allen. They flopped with Trezelle Jenkins in the first round one year but found a Hall of Famer with Will Shields in the third round another. They traded up to get Tony Gonzalez, which worked awfully well. They traded up to get Ryan Sims, which was a fiasco. Point is: Nobody knows.

But the NFL draft has become such a monster event, everybody wants to know, everybody needs to know right now exactly what the Chiefs got on Saturday when they drafted LSU receiver Dwayne Bowe. Everybody wants answers — will he be a Pro Bowler? A starter? A bust? Sylvester Morris?

The Chiefs’ brain trust seemed excited about him. Of course, teams are always overly excited about their draft picks. They always seem stunned that the player they wanted all along — the player they dreamed about for weeks, the player they loved so much they had his name tattooed on their shoulder — somehow made it to them.

Chiefs coach Herm Edwards liked Bowe so much, he offered the ultimate compliment.

“He’s a football player,” Edwards said.

This is good to know. It would be awful to think the Chiefs spent all that time and money scouting players only to draft a golfer in the first round. Of course, Herm was referring to Bowe’s toughness, his tenacity, his sense of the game. The Chiefs talked a lot about those things. They kept talking about how big Bowe is, how strong he is, how tough he is, how well he can block and so on.

Of course, they may be a bit biased. We might need other opinions. We wanted to hear what the ESPN announcers thought about Bowe — unfortunately, they were so busy talking about Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn that they never seemed to notice the Chiefs drafted Bowe. In fact, they never seemed to notice that the draft went on after he was drafted. Look: I realize that Quinn dropping to the 22nd pick was a pretty big story (he almost fell all the way to the Chiefs — it would have been interesting to see if Carl Peterson would have drafted him like he promised). ESPN covered it like it was Armstrong landing on the moon. And I love the way they just kept crediting Quinn for the classy way he handled his plummet. Did they expect him to make obscene gestures to the camera? Start screaming and threatening general managers?

Sorry. Let’s go to the magazines.

Pro Football Weekly: “(Dwayne Bowe) shows good run strength after the catch and can break tackles … Very tough … Good worker.”

See, that looks good, oh wait, there’s more.

Pro Football Weekly: “(Bowe is) not elusive after the catch … Will mistime his jump and misjudge the ball … Not very smart and will take a few years to really understand an offense.”

OK, well, see, that doesn’t look quite as good. Of course, this is what all the magazines do — they will describe a player’s strengths and weaknesses so that no matter what happens in the future they can say they told you so. Let’s look at a few more (hey, I paid good money for these magazines):

Street & Smith’s

Strengths: “Will go across the middle and make the tough catch … adjusts well to ball in the air … runs well after the catch …hard worker … respected team leader.”

Concerns: “Slow in and out of breaks … sloppy route runner … inconsistent hands and will drop a few passes … still learning to read coverages.”

The Sporting News

Strengths: “Well-built athlete … will work the middle without fear … runs good routes … excels on jump routes … hands are strong enough to snag high and off-target passes.”

Weaknesses: “Must catch passes more consistently with his hands … should be better at breaking tackles … not a game breaker.”

Athlon Sports

Strong points: Long arms and big hands … will block downfield … tough and intense player … can burst in and out of his cuts.

Weak points: Inconsistent hands … loses concentration and focus at times.

NFL DraftTracker on ESPN.

Strengths: Fluid and smooth athlete … Does a good job catching the ball over his head … his hands are extremely strong … shifty and physical runner.

Weaknesses: Has a tendency to lose focus … will drop some catchable passes … lacks elite speed.

So there you go. It looks like Dwayne Bowe is a powerful player with remarkably strong hands who will work hard and make fabulous catches over defenders. And it looks like Dwayne Bowe is a slow receiver who drops passes and doesn’t run very good routes. It looks like a great pick. It also looks like a terrible pick. Like all the others.

[Arrowhead Pride]

Yet another brilliant title out of the KC Star staff.

[pikesome]

News Flash:

You can't evaluate the draft half a week later.

Thanks Joe.

[Eleazar]

Funny that all those draft scouting reports contradict each other.

[htismaqe]

Jason Whitlock would like to extend his personal thanks to Joe Posnanski.

The only thing dumber than "I don't who they should have taken, but it shouldn't have been those guys" is "this player is almost sure to be a Hall of Famer, or a bust".

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by pikesome

News Flash:

You can't evaluate the draft half a week later.

Thanks Joe.

Ummmm....I think that was the point he was trying to make.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by pikesome

News Flash:

You can't evaluate the draft half a week later.

Thanks Joe.

Perhaps you should read the article?

[KC-TBB]

Talk about hedge your bet...either it is going to rain today, or perhaps it will be dry...WTF???

[pikesome]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

Ummmm....I think that was the point he was trying to make.

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

Perhaps you should read the article?

I forgot the /sarcasm tag. I re-wrote his article being a bit more succinct.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by pikesome

I forgot the /sarcasm tag. I re-wrote his article being a bit more succinct.

Gotcha.

[Frazod]

You'd think he could reserve judgment until the kid has at least PLAYED A SINGLE fuckING DOWN OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL.

Moron.

[JBucc]

I can't believe people actually pay for some of that draft analysis.

[Reaper16]

I can't believe that some people in this thread can't read. People, he agrees with you: it's way too early to pass judgment on drafted players.

[pikesome]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

I can't believe that some people in this thread can't read. People, he agrees with you: it's way too early to pass judgment on drafted players.

I guess I feel like an experienced sports journalist could come up with something better than this. No talk about where he might fit in, his strengths, weaknesses as they pertain to the Chiefs. He could have spent 5 mins writing an article along the lines of "Bowe was a top receiver and run blocker on a top team. Here is what he might bring to the Chiefs." Instead, we get him quoting the same scouting reports 100s of other wonks use. A phone call down to Louisiana might have netted some information we haven't seen regurgitated over and over. At least it would look like he made an effort. GoChiefs could have done better most likely.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by pikesome

I guess I feel like an experienced sports journalist could come up with something better than this.

QFT