Are Robert Woods and Matt Barkley Top 10 Picks Next Year
Read any number of 2013 NFL Mock drafts and in most Robert Woods and Matt Barkley at top 10 picks and with good reason. Both players are terrific College Football players who play at a higher level than everyone else around them. But the truth of the matter is, neither player “pops” the way their contemporaries have. Neither player possesses terrific NFL size with exceptional measruables–and with them being in the conversation for top 10 picks all season they might be the next victims of paralysis-by-over-analysis.
Barkley measures in at 6’2 230 pounds. He has a good, but not great arm, and is a good, but not great athlete. Barkley is a nice looking NFL Prospect who has terrific touch on his passes and good accuracy–he is every bit a first round N.F.L. prospect, but he doesn’t possess Logan Thomas’ excitement, Tyler Wilson’s arm or size. He’s not Tyler Bray, and come this time next year I think Barkley might be on the outside looking in at the top 10, but that will be to a huge benefit to a team picking in the middle of the first round. Barkley is much more Matt Ryan than he is Cam Newton (or Jake Locker) with all that excitement.
Likewise, Robert Woods is listed at 6’1 a 190 pounds (and is probably actually smaller than that), and 6’1 190 pound WR don’t get drafted in the top 10all that often–two recent ones were Ted Ginn Jr and Troy Williamson and we saw how that worked out. If Woods is to get drafted in the top 10 he might have to run a blazing fast 40 yard dash (which he’s been clocked at 4.4–fast, but not elite) and even that might not be enough.
Both players are really good players and I like them a lot, but I think when people are projecting their stock into the league they are overlooking what NFL teams tend to fall in love with. Barkley is the most polished NFL QB prospect heading into the 2012 College Football season and he’ll be under a bright light all year and my guess is next season we’ll hear about the quarterback who lacks the tremendous arm, athleticism, or height. Woods will also be scrutinized under a microscope and teams will see a guy who’s not as big and fast as Julio Jones, not as strong and wide as Justin Blackmon and they might not see a top 10 pick. This time next year it could cost them a top 10 selection in the 2013 NFL draft. But will the league be making a mistake?
What do you think?
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