The Spaz
04-22-2003, 11:07 PM
April 2000
One on One: Tom Donohoe
Tom Donohoe is one of the National Football League's foremost talent evaluators. The former director of player personnel with the Steelers is known throughout the league for his ability to judge talent, evidenced, in part, by the Steelers' successes of the early to mid-'90s.
Donohoe had planned to work as a consultant with the Miami Dolphins for this year's NFL Draft, which takes place in New York April 15-16. The Steelers, who are still paying his contract, objected to that arrangement, which led to Donohoe terminating his deal with Miami.
He had time, though, to sit down with PSR Associate Editor Tony DeFazio and, in his first public interview since leaving the Steelers, discussed this year's draft and players whose stocks are rising and falling.
PSR: You attended the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. The combine seems to be such an important facet of the draft; how important are these workouts in terms of evaluating the top talent?
TD: It's tough to point out the top players specifically from their combine workouts, because it's not really football. It's more of an athletic competition. You have to keep that in perspective and use it as only a part of your total evaluation. I always looked at the combine as simply a way to evaluate a player's athletic ability.
One of the most important aspects of the combine - perhaps the single most important - is the medicals that you give the guys. The doctors and trainers that teams send to the combine really give as extensive a medical as you can give. So if you have a medical question on a specific player, you make sure your medical staff takes extra time with him. The medical information is really the biggest tool that comes out of the combine.
Next is the chance to interview players one on one and get to know them as well as you can, gain an insight into their personality. And then third is their athletic ability. Their performance in the drills - the forty, the vertical jump, the shuttles and the bench.
But you need to keep it in perspective. When I was with the Steelers, we used to look at the combine this way - is it important? Yes, it is, but you can't get carried away with someone's physical tools and get away from whether or not they are a good football player.
If we think "player A" is a good football player coming into the combine, but then he has a bad workout, we won't come off of him as a prospect. Some players simply are not great workout athletes. There are way too many examples of great players throughout the league who didn't have great workouts. The danger of the combine is that you can base too much on their workouts. You have to always ask yourself, "How does the player play the game?"
PSR: What types of players can really help themselves the most at a combine?
TD: Well, small-school players can certainly gain extra exposure. Players like IUP's Leander Jordan (OG) can really help themselves, and Leander did exactly that. People had heard of him and had known about him, but you can really take advantage of the exposure that a combine gives you by doing well in the drills and making a good impression physically.
PSR: A lot of people talk about the 2000 NFL draft as being a four-player draft. What is your opinion on that, and how do you see the early part of the draft shaking out?
TD: Well, it is always amusing to me how the so-called draft experts can start analyzing a draft before anyone has been selected or anyone has played a down. We always looked at the draft with the attitude that there are good players in every draft. A certain percentage of those chosen will eventually start, and a certain percentage will become Pro Bowl-type players.
As far as it being a four-player draft, the consensus is that Peter Warrick, Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington are 1, 2 & 3. Who would be your fourth?
PSR: The offensive tackle from Alabama, Chris Samuels, has been mentioned as a top four guy.
TD: Okay, Samuels probably does fit in there. But then you have a group of maybe 25-30 players who are all good players, and it will shake down as to who needs what. And that is where the draft has changed dramatically over the past several years, particularly since free-agency, Teams have to draft more in accordance with the holes they need to fill, rather than as a way to build for the future. You may have an All-Pro defensive end in January, and by February he is playing for a division rival and you have an unexpected hole to fill. So you take a player who maybe isn't the best available overall, but the best at his position. So it is more difficult to come up with list of who will draft whom, because the needs are so many and so varied around the league.
PSR: Beyond those four, are their any players in particular whom you noticed at the combine as having top-flight talent?
TD: One player I felt who has moved into the top ten is Brian Urlacher, a linebacker from New Mexico. He's a real versatile-type player, who played safety and linebacker at New Mexico. They used him to do just about everything there. They had him run the ball, catch the ball and he returned kicks for them. He was exclusively working out as a linebacker at the combine, and he really is an exceptional athlete and an exceptional football player. He's 6-4, 258 and runs a 4.59 forty, with a 34-inch vertical jump. The question with Urlacher is where will he play? Some teams see him as a defensive end, some see him as a linebacker, and some teams are actually working him out as a safety. Can you imagine that? A 258-pound safety?
But he might be good for a team like Buffalo or Pittsburgh, both of whom run the 3-4, as an outside linebacker.
PSR: Every year there is a kid like Urlacher, who posts great numbers at the combine and everyone seems to fall in love with him. Probably the most recent example of a player like that is Mike Mamula, the Boston College product who was drafted by the Eagles and has had limited success. Why is Urlacher different from a Mamula?
TD: Well, Urlacher can play football. Not that Mamula can't play, but people just got way too high on him based solely upon his workouts, and forgot about his play. The biggest question with him, then and now, is his size. He was just a tough fit for his size, a true "tweener." And some players train specifically for the combine drills, which will improve their workouts but does nothing for their football ability.
PSR: Last year, five quarterbacks were selected in the first round. That won't happen this year, obviously, but talk about this year's crop, especially Chad Pennington and Chris Redman.
TD: There's no question this won't be as deep a draft, quarterback-wise, as it was last year. But the consensus is that Pennington and Redman are the top two, and their order varies. Most likely Pennington will go ahead of Redman because of his better mobility and athletic ability. Redman may have the better arm and has probably faced the better competition over his college career. The one thing that disturbed some scouts about Pennington was that he did not have a good game in Marshall's bowl game against Brigham Young. The concerns for a small-school quarterback like Pennington are that they have thrown against corners who run 4.9s in college and then are facing 4.4 guys in our league.
Are they both first round talents? That's dubious. Will they both go in the first round? Probably, because of need. But they are both smart, both study the game and both played in offenses that throw the football.
PSR: One of the rumors after the combine was that the wide receiver corps is not as good as previously reported. What are your thoughts?
TD: I was pleasantly surprised by the wide receivers at the combine. I went into the combine thinking that the wideouts were Warrick, Plaxico Burress and a bunch of guys named Joe. But I felt they were better than that.
As far as concerns about Burress, he is so unusual in that he is 6-5, almost 230 and can make plays downfield. He may not be as consistent as some would like yet, but he's young. He has the tools to be among the best, certainly.
R. Jay Soward of Southern Cal looked good. He runs a legitimate 4.3 and can run after the catch as well. Todd Pinkston from Southern Miss, if you can get past the way he looks, is a real good prospect. He's just skinny as a rail, but he can play football. Sylvester Morris out of Jackson State is a real good receiver, with good hands. Dennis Northcutt from Arizona is another one. He's an exceptional athlete who can return kicks, and he worked a little as a DB.
I actually think there are more names now at wide receiver than before the combine.
PSR: Any players who surprised you, or who you feel are sleepers? And any over-rated players?
TD: I mentioned Urlacher. Another, and I wouldn't call him a sleeper, is Jamal Lewis, the running back from Tennessee. He was injured last year, came back and had some shoulder problems, but he may be the best running back in the draft if he is healthy. He has the best skills as a running back in the draft.
Another is Stockar McDougle (OT, Oklahoma). He has stepped his game up big time, although he may be better off dropping a few pounds. And John Abraham (DE, South Carolina), who didn't work out, is a good player. It will be interesting to see where he goes since he didn't work out.
As far as some guys whose stock has dropped, I think John St. Clair (C, Virginia), may not be quite as good as the scouts once thought. Another is Darnel Alford (OT, Boston College). He was a sure first-rounder in October, but he has definitely fallen.
PSR: Can we get your views on players from some local teams? Penn State has a tremendous amount of talent on defense in this draft. How will that group affect the draft?
TD: Penn State has an exceptional group. Arrington and Brown are probably going to in the top three. I don't know if that has ever happened before, two players from the same team going in the top three. After those two, you have Brandon Short, who is very instinctive, very physical and a smart player. He'll go in the first day for sure. The cornerback, David Macklin, is an outstanding player, although his size may have hurt him. Some teams are really bothered by that, although it never got in the way in college. He shut down Plaxico Burress completely last season, and he's a great jumper, which can help compensate.
Plus, he loves one on one situations.
PSR: Pitt has more draft prospects this year than in a number of years. Talk about some of the Panther players.
TD: Well, Hank Poteat is rated as one of the top corners in the draft. He didn't run real well at the combine. He didn't kill himself with his time, but he didn't help himself, either. Everyone just thought that he was a speed-guy, and he ran slower than expected. But he is coming on, especially considering he began his career as a running back and only recently shifted to corner. Plus, he's got good kick return ability, which is a huge plus for a guy like him. He can help a team immediately.
The other Pitt players with a chance to get drafted are Ethan Weidle (OL) and Kirk McMullen (TE), but it would be late in the draft. DJ Dinkins is an interesting possibility because of his size and athletic ability, but where does he fit?
Pitt has five good character guys in this year's crop, the kinds of kids that you want in camp because they are all hard workers and they come from a hard-nosed program. Walt Harris has done a fabulous job making it that way.
PSR: How about West Virginia? Marc Bulger, Anthony Becht, Jerry Porter and Barrett Green?
TD: All four are very good players. Bulger had the great junior year when he had a great supporting cast. He dropped off a bit last year, with injuries and so forth, but then he had a great performance in the Hula Bowl. With a thin QB crop this year, he's probably a third or fourth rounder. He has the intangibles - a hard worker, a good kid, excellent grasp of the game.
Anthony Becht also had a better junior year than a senior year. He's big, strong, can run and catch. He should easily be the second TE picked, and he may sneak into the first round.
Jerry Porter, to me, is a mystery man in this draft. For whatever reason, WVU couldn't find him a home while he was there. He is big, he is fast, he's strong...but he doesn't look like he's ready to play wide receiver in the NFL yet, at least to me. But he runs a legit 4.3, and may go higher than he should if someone falls in love with his athletic ability. He is not a first-sound talent, though. Would I be shocked if he goes in the first round? Absolutely not. Not at all.
Finally, Barrett Green is one of my favorite players in the draft. He's undersized, but he is intense, emotional...some teams look at him as a safety, but I like him outside, line him up and let him run to the football. He has great quickness.
PSR: Lastly, how about IUP? You mentioned Leander Jordan earlier, how about John Jones at TE as well?
TD: Both have a very good chance to get picked. Jordan will definitely be drafted, he is a great prospect. He has a really good physical presence, his problems lie in pass protection. But that's typical of a D-II player, and that will simply have to be learned. John Jones is a great athlete who was a huge recruit for Johnny Majors at Pitt. He had some problems there and transferred to IUP and he seems to have gotten those problems behind him. He is a great athlete with great pass catching ability, he just needs to improve his blocking.
Go Bills!http://www.pghsports.com/psr0004/00040109.html
One on One: Tom Donohoe
Tom Donohoe is one of the National Football League's foremost talent evaluators. The former director of player personnel with the Steelers is known throughout the league for his ability to judge talent, evidenced, in part, by the Steelers' successes of the early to mid-'90s.
Donohoe had planned to work as a consultant with the Miami Dolphins for this year's NFL Draft, which takes place in New York April 15-16. The Steelers, who are still paying his contract, objected to that arrangement, which led to Donohoe terminating his deal with Miami.
He had time, though, to sit down with PSR Associate Editor Tony DeFazio and, in his first public interview since leaving the Steelers, discussed this year's draft and players whose stocks are rising and falling.
PSR: You attended the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. The combine seems to be such an important facet of the draft; how important are these workouts in terms of evaluating the top talent?
TD: It's tough to point out the top players specifically from their combine workouts, because it's not really football. It's more of an athletic competition. You have to keep that in perspective and use it as only a part of your total evaluation. I always looked at the combine as simply a way to evaluate a player's athletic ability.
One of the most important aspects of the combine - perhaps the single most important - is the medicals that you give the guys. The doctors and trainers that teams send to the combine really give as extensive a medical as you can give. So if you have a medical question on a specific player, you make sure your medical staff takes extra time with him. The medical information is really the biggest tool that comes out of the combine.
Next is the chance to interview players one on one and get to know them as well as you can, gain an insight into their personality. And then third is their athletic ability. Their performance in the drills - the forty, the vertical jump, the shuttles and the bench.
But you need to keep it in perspective. When I was with the Steelers, we used to look at the combine this way - is it important? Yes, it is, but you can't get carried away with someone's physical tools and get away from whether or not they are a good football player.
If we think "player A" is a good football player coming into the combine, but then he has a bad workout, we won't come off of him as a prospect. Some players simply are not great workout athletes. There are way too many examples of great players throughout the league who didn't have great workouts. The danger of the combine is that you can base too much on their workouts. You have to always ask yourself, "How does the player play the game?"
PSR: What types of players can really help themselves the most at a combine?
TD: Well, small-school players can certainly gain extra exposure. Players like IUP's Leander Jordan (OG) can really help themselves, and Leander did exactly that. People had heard of him and had known about him, but you can really take advantage of the exposure that a combine gives you by doing well in the drills and making a good impression physically.
PSR: A lot of people talk about the 2000 NFL draft as being a four-player draft. What is your opinion on that, and how do you see the early part of the draft shaking out?
TD: Well, it is always amusing to me how the so-called draft experts can start analyzing a draft before anyone has been selected or anyone has played a down. We always looked at the draft with the attitude that there are good players in every draft. A certain percentage of those chosen will eventually start, and a certain percentage will become Pro Bowl-type players.
As far as it being a four-player draft, the consensus is that Peter Warrick, Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington are 1, 2 & 3. Who would be your fourth?
PSR: The offensive tackle from Alabama, Chris Samuels, has been mentioned as a top four guy.
TD: Okay, Samuels probably does fit in there. But then you have a group of maybe 25-30 players who are all good players, and it will shake down as to who needs what. And that is where the draft has changed dramatically over the past several years, particularly since free-agency, Teams have to draft more in accordance with the holes they need to fill, rather than as a way to build for the future. You may have an All-Pro defensive end in January, and by February he is playing for a division rival and you have an unexpected hole to fill. So you take a player who maybe isn't the best available overall, but the best at his position. So it is more difficult to come up with list of who will draft whom, because the needs are so many and so varied around the league.
PSR: Beyond those four, are their any players in particular whom you noticed at the combine as having top-flight talent?
TD: One player I felt who has moved into the top ten is Brian Urlacher, a linebacker from New Mexico. He's a real versatile-type player, who played safety and linebacker at New Mexico. They used him to do just about everything there. They had him run the ball, catch the ball and he returned kicks for them. He was exclusively working out as a linebacker at the combine, and he really is an exceptional athlete and an exceptional football player. He's 6-4, 258 and runs a 4.59 forty, with a 34-inch vertical jump. The question with Urlacher is where will he play? Some teams see him as a defensive end, some see him as a linebacker, and some teams are actually working him out as a safety. Can you imagine that? A 258-pound safety?
But he might be good for a team like Buffalo or Pittsburgh, both of whom run the 3-4, as an outside linebacker.
PSR: Every year there is a kid like Urlacher, who posts great numbers at the combine and everyone seems to fall in love with him. Probably the most recent example of a player like that is Mike Mamula, the Boston College product who was drafted by the Eagles and has had limited success. Why is Urlacher different from a Mamula?
TD: Well, Urlacher can play football. Not that Mamula can't play, but people just got way too high on him based solely upon his workouts, and forgot about his play. The biggest question with him, then and now, is his size. He was just a tough fit for his size, a true "tweener." And some players train specifically for the combine drills, which will improve their workouts but does nothing for their football ability.
PSR: Last year, five quarterbacks were selected in the first round. That won't happen this year, obviously, but talk about this year's crop, especially Chad Pennington and Chris Redman.
TD: There's no question this won't be as deep a draft, quarterback-wise, as it was last year. But the consensus is that Pennington and Redman are the top two, and their order varies. Most likely Pennington will go ahead of Redman because of his better mobility and athletic ability. Redman may have the better arm and has probably faced the better competition over his college career. The one thing that disturbed some scouts about Pennington was that he did not have a good game in Marshall's bowl game against Brigham Young. The concerns for a small-school quarterback like Pennington are that they have thrown against corners who run 4.9s in college and then are facing 4.4 guys in our league.
Are they both first round talents? That's dubious. Will they both go in the first round? Probably, because of need. But they are both smart, both study the game and both played in offenses that throw the football.
PSR: One of the rumors after the combine was that the wide receiver corps is not as good as previously reported. What are your thoughts?
TD: I was pleasantly surprised by the wide receivers at the combine. I went into the combine thinking that the wideouts were Warrick, Plaxico Burress and a bunch of guys named Joe. But I felt they were better than that.
As far as concerns about Burress, he is so unusual in that he is 6-5, almost 230 and can make plays downfield. He may not be as consistent as some would like yet, but he's young. He has the tools to be among the best, certainly.
R. Jay Soward of Southern Cal looked good. He runs a legitimate 4.3 and can run after the catch as well. Todd Pinkston from Southern Miss, if you can get past the way he looks, is a real good prospect. He's just skinny as a rail, but he can play football. Sylvester Morris out of Jackson State is a real good receiver, with good hands. Dennis Northcutt from Arizona is another one. He's an exceptional athlete who can return kicks, and he worked a little as a DB.
I actually think there are more names now at wide receiver than before the combine.
PSR: Any players who surprised you, or who you feel are sleepers? And any over-rated players?
TD: I mentioned Urlacher. Another, and I wouldn't call him a sleeper, is Jamal Lewis, the running back from Tennessee. He was injured last year, came back and had some shoulder problems, but he may be the best running back in the draft if he is healthy. He has the best skills as a running back in the draft.
Another is Stockar McDougle (OT, Oklahoma). He has stepped his game up big time, although he may be better off dropping a few pounds. And John Abraham (DE, South Carolina), who didn't work out, is a good player. It will be interesting to see where he goes since he didn't work out.
As far as some guys whose stock has dropped, I think John St. Clair (C, Virginia), may not be quite as good as the scouts once thought. Another is Darnel Alford (OT, Boston College). He was a sure first-rounder in October, but he has definitely fallen.
PSR: Can we get your views on players from some local teams? Penn State has a tremendous amount of talent on defense in this draft. How will that group affect the draft?
TD: Penn State has an exceptional group. Arrington and Brown are probably going to in the top three. I don't know if that has ever happened before, two players from the same team going in the top three. After those two, you have Brandon Short, who is very instinctive, very physical and a smart player. He'll go in the first day for sure. The cornerback, David Macklin, is an outstanding player, although his size may have hurt him. Some teams are really bothered by that, although it never got in the way in college. He shut down Plaxico Burress completely last season, and he's a great jumper, which can help compensate.
Plus, he loves one on one situations.
PSR: Pitt has more draft prospects this year than in a number of years. Talk about some of the Panther players.
TD: Well, Hank Poteat is rated as one of the top corners in the draft. He didn't run real well at the combine. He didn't kill himself with his time, but he didn't help himself, either. Everyone just thought that he was a speed-guy, and he ran slower than expected. But he is coming on, especially considering he began his career as a running back and only recently shifted to corner. Plus, he's got good kick return ability, which is a huge plus for a guy like him. He can help a team immediately.
The other Pitt players with a chance to get drafted are Ethan Weidle (OL) and Kirk McMullen (TE), but it would be late in the draft. DJ Dinkins is an interesting possibility because of his size and athletic ability, but where does he fit?
Pitt has five good character guys in this year's crop, the kinds of kids that you want in camp because they are all hard workers and they come from a hard-nosed program. Walt Harris has done a fabulous job making it that way.
PSR: How about West Virginia? Marc Bulger, Anthony Becht, Jerry Porter and Barrett Green?
TD: All four are very good players. Bulger had the great junior year when he had a great supporting cast. He dropped off a bit last year, with injuries and so forth, but then he had a great performance in the Hula Bowl. With a thin QB crop this year, he's probably a third or fourth rounder. He has the intangibles - a hard worker, a good kid, excellent grasp of the game.
Anthony Becht also had a better junior year than a senior year. He's big, strong, can run and catch. He should easily be the second TE picked, and he may sneak into the first round.
Jerry Porter, to me, is a mystery man in this draft. For whatever reason, WVU couldn't find him a home while he was there. He is big, he is fast, he's strong...but he doesn't look like he's ready to play wide receiver in the NFL yet, at least to me. But he runs a legit 4.3, and may go higher than he should if someone falls in love with his athletic ability. He is not a first-sound talent, though. Would I be shocked if he goes in the first round? Absolutely not. Not at all.
Finally, Barrett Green is one of my favorite players in the draft. He's undersized, but he is intense, emotional...some teams look at him as a safety, but I like him outside, line him up and let him run to the football. He has great quickness.
PSR: Lastly, how about IUP? You mentioned Leander Jordan earlier, how about John Jones at TE as well?
TD: Both have a very good chance to get picked. Jordan will definitely be drafted, he is a great prospect. He has a really good physical presence, his problems lie in pass protection. But that's typical of a D-II player, and that will simply have to be learned. John Jones is a great athlete who was a huge recruit for Johnny Majors at Pitt. He had some problems there and transferred to IUP and he seems to have gotten those problems behind him. He is a great athlete with great pass catching ability, he just needs to improve his blocking.
Go Bills!http://www.pghsports.com/psr0004/00040109.html