Getting 'Em Lined Up Early

Another Madison Memorial Spartan, a young guard with the interesting name of Vander Blue, is set to join the UW men's basketball team. Not for this coming fall, and not for the fall of 2009 . . . no, for the year after that. Yes, Blue is a high school sophomore. Though he's already 6 foot 3, and was voted to the all-tournament team at state this year, he doesn't turn 16 until this summer. Yet he's already decided where he's going to go to college. Pretty ridiculous. Were you decided on your post-high school future at age 15? High profile athletes grow up pretty fast in some ways. Maybe I shouldn't be so shocked. Others have noted that Michael Flowers, Greg Stiemsma, and JP Gavinski all committed at around the same time in their prep careers.

Instead of projecting two and a half years into the future, let's consider this possibility-- Blue's early acceptance indicates that Wisconsin's "yield rate" is getting stronger and stronger. By that I mean that kids who are offered Wisconsin basketball scholarships seem increasingly likely to accept, recognizing the strength and stability of the program, and the quality of the university. Of course, a higher yield on scholarship offers could also reflect the staff being more judicious with offers, and, perhaps, more conservative. Who knows? All I know is that if the UW staff thought enough of this 15-year old young man to offer him a scholarship, I'm glad he accepted. Even if he is a Spartan.

(Disclaimer-- 80% of the posters on this site are alumni of Madison West High School.)

The Dream Lives!

The awesomely balding Wisconsin punter, Ken DeBauche, has been signed as an undrafted free agent by the Packers. Kenny performed reliably as UW's punter the last few seasons, and grew up just outside of Green Bay. That is excellent, and I hope he makes the team. Not only would it further the long term goal of having as much positive overlap between the Packers and the Badgers as possible. But I would much rather have Kenny letting snaps go over his head in 50 mph Soldier Field winds than the team's current punter Jon Ryan, who couldn't handle the elements in that game and thus appears to be a faux-Canadian, not a real Canadian as claimed.

In other happy news, incoming Wisconsin basketball recruit Jordan Taylor was named Minnesota's Mr. Basketball. That's how (hopefully) it goes these days for the Badger men's basketball team. It's not just one guy, or a group of guys, it's a serious program. You lose one great guard in Michael Flowers, and another excellent player rises up to fill the gap. Rock.

And so it ends...

The Packers just traded away their final pick, a 7th round draft choice, number 237, in exchange for the New Orleans Saints 6th round draft pick next year. Not a bad swap, and it brings Packer fans to the end of the road, draft-wise. (Though it'll be interesting to see what free agents the team signs in the next few days.)

The headline pick today is obviously a second quarterback-- LSU's national championship winning Matt Flynn. Sure, two QBs in one class is odd, but hell, why not take him? Flynn fails on both of the readily available predictive stats (completion percentage and games started), but he's made some nice throws, was an excellent college player and a good runner. Now at least the Packers can release those two random dudes who are taking up space on the team's roster, pretending to be NFL quarterbacks. (My apologies to Dalton Bell and Jerry Babb; it's nothing personal.) He was a seventh round pick. That late in the draft, why not take flyers on guys with some potential, but a high chance of doing nothing? It's just a seventh round draft pick, after all.

That's also my opinion of Brett Swain, the Packers' other 7th rounder. He's another Caucasian wide receiver, this time from San Diego State. Who knows if he'll turn out, but he's big and fast. Might as well give him a shot.

What's more serious and probably more important for the team in the long run, are the additions in the earlier rounds. The team addressed areas that need competition and improvement, like offensive line, tight end, and defensive end, with guys that look like they have a lot of potential.

There's the hilariously named Jermichael Finley, who looks like a very solid prospect out of Texas. Finley left after three years, and had a bunch of big games last year, including over 100 yards receiving against Oklahoma. He's 6'4", 240, has soft hands, and can move. Good stuff. Plus, since he's from Texas, you know he has natural ability. True enough, according to Rivals, Finley was the number 6 tight end prospect out of high school his senior year. That kid is raw, but he reeks of potential. As Kiper said, had he stayed another year and gotten more consistent, he would have been a first rounder. It's great that we're getting a guy with that kind of ceiling, especially at a position where we have a solid starter in Donald Lee.

Then there's Jeremy Thompson, brother of Packer back-up tackle Orrin Thompson--a big fast, mobile, smart, physical end from Wake Forest. Not much in the way of sack stats, but Wake Forest plays a funky defensive scheme. And the kid had a 60+ yard interception return for a touchdown-- as a d-lineman. Sounds good to me. Sign him up. The more athletic and sizeable defensive linemen the better. Put some pressure on KGB and Cullen Jenkins to get better.
And then the offensive linemen started rolling in. A tackle from Central Florida, Josh Sitton, who's expected to jump right into the guard competition, and an enormous (6'7" 300#) long-term right tackle prospect in the Massachusetts-by-way-of-Brazil Breno Giacomini from Louisville-- another talented athlete who needs more seasoning. Great. Tauscher probably has another couple decent years left. I like it. Bring it on.

This Packers draft reeks of long-term thinking, promoting competition, and the mixture of commitment to the BPA (best player available) with a realistic balancing of needs. For a mostly young team, I love it. This is a thinking man's draft. Competition at guard, end, and receiver, possible successors at corner and tackle, legitimately talented back-ups to A-Rodg. I'm into all of it. Congratulations to Ted and the scouting staff. Now get em' signed and coach em' up, McCarthy!

Another Awesome Jordy Nelson Story

The hits just keep on coming with this young man. See here. Goodness, do I hope he turns into a good NFL receiver.

Jercamp Lambeau

The draft always delivers. I am loving this one especially. I was completely in love with Jordy Nelson and then we drafted Jermichael Finley. Seriously. The only way I could be more excited is if we drafted Jerkirk Penney. 

Well, Harumph

I was hoping I could find some quote from the Dolphins' personnel people about how they were disappointed that the Packers drafted Brohm, and thus forced them to draft Michigan's Chad Henne. (Miami picked Henne immediately after the Packers picked Brohm.) My motivation was not just to feel better about Brohm, but also to have some ammunition against my Dolphins fan friend. Alas, it was not to be.

Asked about the Packers' pick and its effect on their decision, Miami's Jeff Ireland said "We took a deep breath when (the Packers) took a quarterback who wasn't the one we coveted." Face.

TT, of course, felt the other way, though he seemed reluctant to put down Henne, saying "I think they're both. . . obviously, they went back-to-back there. It was close. We liked both those guys. But the way we went through the process, we had Brohm in a position where we'd take him first."

Bob McGinn Remains Prescient

Bob McGinn, one of the veteran Packer specialists at the Journal-Sentinel's Packer Insider website, is a heck of a sportswriter. He's one of those guys that does a tremendous amount of legwork with scouts all year round, and provides great previews and evaluations of opposing teams. He was also perhaps the only print writer out there to pick the Packers to win the division last year, believing that their young talent would jell. And he's done it again this year-- in an article put up on Friday, he accurately predicted that Ted Thompson would be confronted with several guys of equal talent at the end of the first round, and would trade down slightly. Ding, ding, ding! McGinn is right again. He's a modern-day NFL Nostradamus. (I overstate the case for Bob's predictive ability a tad-- he did predict the Packers would take that Tennessee receiver, Meacham, in the first round last year.) I'm happy to have you covering my team, Mr. McGinn. Keep up the excellent work.