Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq.
Joe enjoys college football writers Brett McMurphy and Andy Staples. Both were ex-Tampa Tribune dudes and are very, very good at what they did and do.
Another guy Joe enjoys is Bruce Feldman.
The long-time college football writer has an insane list of sources. Feldman is smart. He goes to college football coaches’ conventions and gets close with young coaches working at big-time programs.
Those guys often become head coaches themselves or head to the NFL.
Feldman is old school in that he does his schlock draft the right way: He does one. He trusts his sources, instincts and conviction.
Feldman admitted on his podcast this week he didn’t text or call many NFL general managers or coaches. Instead, he looked at team needs and then he spoke with college coordinators, sometimes ex-NFL guys, and had them compare prospects and say who gave them the most trouble.
In Feldman’s lone schlock draft, he, like many others, has the Bucs picking Oregon freak tight end Kenyon Sadiq.
Signing Al-Quadin Muhammad takes away some urgency from needing an edge here and linebacker can come a bit later. Sadiq is a rare athlete who was a matchup nightmare in college. At 6-3, 241 (he was 255 entering last season), he has exceptional burst and explosiveness. It showed up in a big way at the combine, when he ran a 4.39 40 with a 1.54 10-yard split to go with a 43 1/2-inch vertical and 11-1 broad jump. Sadiq will be a weapon in the screen game as well as a deep threat, although he had only one catch of more than 30 yards last season. He’s also shown to be a capable blocker. The one negative with him has been inconsistent hands. One Big Ten coach compared him to Vernon Davis.
“Physically, he’s freaky, man — he’s everything you want,” said a Big Ten DB coach who faced Oregon. “He’s agile. He’s twitchy. I think he fits more in the NFL than in college. They’ll split him out and flex him and let him do his thing. I’d have thought they would’ve forced the ball to him, but they didn’t. He routed-up our safety and it would’ve been a touchdown easily, but the ball didn’t come his way.”
“He’s such a freak,” said a DB coach whose team faced Oregon late in the season. “He did it all. His in-line blocking was pretty solid. On the perimeter, he was really good. He could stretch us vertical. He was a problem for our linebackers and some of our safeties. He has a big catch radius. He runs routes like a wide receiver. You turn on that tape and he’s blowing by people. He’s catching streaks up the hash and running by people who are 8 yards off of him, which is pretty dang impressive for a tight end. We had a game plan for him because he definitely has a skill set that can take a game over.”
Feldman’s comment about the Bucs having less urgency for their pass rush may be more accurate than it appears. Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht keeps banging the drum that second-year edge rusher David Walker is all that even though he hasn’t practiced in pads. And yes, Licht did sign a double-digit sack guy in Al-Quadin Muhammad (AQM).
Maybe Licht is playing Moneyball and figures if he can get 7 to 12 sacks from AQM, and maybe 6 from Walker and 4 from Anthony Nelson, that’s strong sack production from the right outside linebacker — if they are not otherwise too busy covering receivers 20 yards downfield.
If the Bucs stay put at No. 15, drafting an inside linebacker is reaching. Sonny Styles is highly unlikely to be on the board at No. 15.
But Sadiq, who could turn the Bucs offense lethal, is in range of No. 15.
Joe has no issues with Sadiq coming to Tampa Bay.