Washington Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan (Darron Cummings/AP Photo)
INDANAPOLIS -- If the Indianapolis Colts -- or any other team, for that matter -- are needing significant help in the 2010 NFL Draft, there may be good news.
This may be the best draft in a significant period of time.
Charley Casserly, a longtime, respected NFL General Manager with the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans, on Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine said the general managers, coaches and personnel officials may be scouting at Lucas Oil Stadium the best class in nearly three decades.
And he said that's particularly true early.
"This is the best first round I've seen since 1983," Casserly said at the combine, which will continue through Tuesday, March 2. "In talking to general managers throughout the league, decision makers. I think it's the result of two things: Last year, there was a concentrated effort to keep players in school. Conversely, both sides in the labor negotiations have talked about a rookie wage scale, so when you have those two things working, players without a motivation to stay in school will say, 'the players who stayed in last year, you have a perfect storm to have the best junior crop you've had since all the way back to '83.
"So I think this is the best first round I've seen going into a draft since 1983."
Said St. Louis Rams General Manager Billy Devaney, "I think everybody feels good about the depth. And I think we have all the juniors to thank that came out this year. It's a deep junior class; it's a big junior class. They're the ones that made it so deep. You're going to get good players, second, third, fourth round. There's a lot of quality there."
Also at the combine:
* Casserly on the professional prospects of Florida QB Tim Tebow: "Most teams have a major question on the guy's ability to play pro quarterback. I did have a couple of teams actually
rate him in the first round, end of the first round, who thought before the Senior Bowl, he was a guy who they could develop. The vast majority of opinions are questions on accuracy deep, the throwing mechanics, which leads to speed of release, the defense's ability to break on the ball. The quickness factor and the athletic ability are uestions. No one questions the character, the work habits, this guy will be off the charts in the interviews. Watching him in the Senior Bowl, I thought he was a little mechanical in the practices, not as quick twitch as you'd like to see. The majority of opinions is it's a project at quarterback."
* Devaney said it's not ridiculous that many quartertbacks opt not to throw each year at the combine. "You'd love to see them work out, but for a quarterback here, it's not the greatest environment for them to show what they've got," he said. "So there's no sense freaking out about it. It is what it is. We'll get to see 'em throw eventually." Elaboraing on the point, he said, "They're throwing to receivers that they've never worked with before. They'll go to their pro days that they'll have and it's structured. It's organized. They're throwing to receivers that they know a lot about. They're throwing routes here (at the combine) that maybe they haven't thrown in college. And it's hard to get in a groove. You throw three balls and then you go to the end of the line. And you wait for your turn to come up again and you throw three balls and then you stand around. . . .It does make it hard for a quarterback."
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