Notes: Harrell expected to provide relief at DT

[steve823]

Hype has everything to do with the bust status. How is mandarich more of a bust than these #1 and #2 overall picks?

Kijana Carter, Blair Thomas, Steve emtman, Akili Smith.

Those are off the top of my head, but the list could go on and on. The NFL draft is a tough business, but GM's are starting to figure that out. Most have figured out which positions you "gamble" with in the first round and which you leave alone. I like TT's approach....in 4 drafts he:

1) took a talented QB that slipped
2) took a completed product (although LB isn't usually a top 5 position)
3) took a massive human being (who hasn't panned out yet)
4) traded it cuz no one stood out.

He hasn't taken end of the round RB's or LB's. He hasn't reached for a player who he knows might very well flop. He aquires picks, creates competition and figures out who is a hard worker and a player before they have to shell out huge money. In the middle rounds he takes a shot here and there at guys with huge upside who weren't given the right shot in college (blackman type). I like it so far.

Good post..and I agree. While TT may not get the most popular or desirable pick on the board he always comes through with a solid pick. He has a very good drafting method, which if I'm not mistaken he learned from Ron Wolf.

[Guiness]

Mandarich always gets a really bad rap because of the hype that surrounded him. I remember many at the time saying Dallas was stupid taking Aikman over him, and that if they didn't need a QB so badly they wouldn't even consider it. A lot of other guys went high, and didn't do anything, but just slipped away. A guy like Emtmen. Maybe a Curtis Enis.

Another guy who gets slammed unnecessarily, because he actually played well is Mamula.

I remember an article a while ago about "all-time draft busts" that, of course had Mandarich near the top. They talked to several anonymous execs of other teams. One said they all felt bad for the Packers, the way it turned out, because so many of them wanted Mandarich so badly. He said many had tried to trade up to get him and the only teams who didn't want him were the few who had young, all-pro LTs. He said they all believed Mandarich was as certain to be a star as anyone who had come along in many years. He said they all figured you could draft him, put him at tackle on Day 1 and forget about the position for the next 10 years.

Exactly. If GB had even an inkling that he wasn't what he was supposed to be, they could've gotten someone's complete draft for that slot. He didn't just fool the Pack, he fooled the whole NFL. I was too young to follow things closely then, but I dont' recall anything bad said about him at the time. Does anyone else remember ANYONE panning him?

As others have stated, he was also the product of some bad luck, with those drafted after him. If he'd been taken in '91, would he be such a bust?

We've seen some projected LT's go both ways in the past couple of years. Robert Gallery - remember the 'man playing against boys' comments about him? But Joe Thomas plays lights out. Who knows? (Gallery's playing reasonably well now though, isn't he?)

As far as the 'roid thing, that was a different time. I suspect most knew, or if they didn't know, made sure they kept on not 'knowing'.

I'd forgotten about the ESPN highlights of his college pancacke blocks. I wonder if those are hanging around on Youtube?

[steve823]

Mandarich always gets a really bad rap because of the hype that surrounded him. I remember many at the time saying Dallas was stupid taking Aikman over him, and that if they didn't need a QB so badly they wouldn't even consider it. A lot of other guys went high, and didn't do anything, but just slipped away. A guy like Emtmen. Maybe a Curtis Enis.

Another guy who gets slammed unnecessarily, because he actually played well is Mamula.

I remember an article a while ago about "all-time draft busts" that, of course had Mandarich near the top. They talked to several anonymous execs of other teams. One said they all felt bad for the Packers, the way it turned out, because so many of them wanted Mandarich so badly. He said many had tried to trade up to get him and the only teams who didn't want him were the few who had young, all-pro LTs. He said they all believed Mandarich was as certain to be a star as anyone who had come along in many years. He said they all figured you could draft him, put him at tackle on Day 1 and forget about the position for the next 10 years.

Exactly. If GB had even an inkling that he wasn't what he was supposed to be, they could've gotten someone's complete draft for that slot. He didn't just fool the Pack, he fooled the whole NFL. I was too young to follow things closely then, but I dont' recall anything bad said about him at the time. Does anyone else remember ANYONE panning him?

As others have stated, he was also the product of some bad luck, with those drafted after him. If he'd been taken in '91, would he be such a bust?

We've seen some projected LT's go both ways in the past couple of years. Robert Gallery - remember the 'man playing against boys' comments about him? But Joe Thomas plays lights out. Who knows? (Gallery's playing reasonably well now though, isn't he?)

As far as the 'roid thing, that was a different time. I suspect most knew, or if they didn't know, made sure they kept on not 'knowing'.

I'd forgotten about the ESPN highlights of his college pancacke blocks. I wonder if those are hanging around on Youtube?

I like Joe Thomas a lot. Besides the fact that he played for Wisconsin I think hes a good hard working player. Im not really a fan of o-linemen around the league but guys like joe thomas are great players and role models and I would love to see the Pack get a few of him.

[SnakeLH2006]

He said they all believed Mandarich was as certain to be a star as anyone who had come along in many years. He said they all figured you could draft him, put him at tackle on Day 1 and forget about the position for the next 10 years.

Mandarich said recently that he took massive amounts of steroids in college, and the last time he took a steroid was shortly after the NFL draft. (I heard this second hand from Tarek Saleh on his radio show.)

It seems to me that Mandarich committed a massive fraud. And then he denied ever taking steroids for about 10 years.

I suppose screwing the NFL is not like cheating a person, but it still seems pretty crummy.

Sounds like this fool everyone thought would be the next big thing...

[Patler]

I was too young to follow things closely then, but I dont' recall anything bad said about him at the time. Does anyone else remember ANYONE panning him?

As others have stated, he was also the product of some bad luck, with those drafted after him. If he'd been taken in '91, would he be such a bust?
...

As far as the 'roid thing, that was a different time. I suspect most knew, or if they didn't know, made sure they kept on not 'knowing'.

I'd forgotten about the ESPN highlights of his college pancacke blocks. I wonder if those are hanging around on Youtube?

Steroids were rumored about Mandarich, but even SI built a case for his family background, workout program, diet, etc. Their cover described him as "The Best Offensive Line Prospect Ever". I found a link to the April '89 article in the SI Vault:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068312/index.htm

At 320 pounds at the combine he benched 545, did 39 reps of 225, ran the 40 in 4.65, did a 10'3" standing long jump and a 30" standing vertical jump. He had lineman strength and linebacker speed/quickness. At that time, only Bo Jackson and Herschel Walker had exceeded his combined workout performance on an athletic performance scale used by the NFL.