Outside the Lines

[HairOnFire]

I'll buy the unspectacular prospect part but not solid because from what I've seen Rucker does nothing well enough to surface on the field for any team. However, "worthless" remains to be seen and even the prospect analysis on the Bengalszone home page from NFL.com sings some praise for Rucker despite grading him as a 7th round/priority free agent:

We've found numerous pre-draft sources that listed Rucker as a 3rd or 4th round prospect, as well as others that ranked him as low as the above source. So which ones should we believe? Which ones boast of player evaluations and rankings that are superior to the draft itself?

For the millionth time I have to say...."Please burn your draft guides."

[schweinhart]

I'll buy the unspectacular prospect part but not solid because from what I've seen Rucker does nothing well enough to surface on the field for any team. However, "worthless" remains to be seen and even the prospect analysis on the Bengalszone home page from NFL.com sings some praise for Rucker despite grading him as a 7th round/priority free agent:

We've found numerous pre-draft sources that listed Rucker as a 3rd or 4th round prospect, as well as others that ranked him as low as the above source. So which ones should we believe? Which ones boast of player evaluations and rankings that are superior to the draft itself?

For the millionth time I have to say...."Please burn your draft guides."

If anyone's got any draft guides, either burn them or mail them to the Bengals front office because the Bengals have not shown that they have an iota of aptidue in drafting defensive linemen. The hard fact that they drafted Rucker in the 3rd doesn't mean any other team would touch him in any round-- and not just because of character issues. My recommendation as to who to believe when considering prospects is to believe your own eyes -- even if it means taking off Trojan colored glasses -- regardless of where a player is drafted. Hard to believe, I know, but not all picks work out.

The point of the summary wasn't to highlight the grade but rather the attributes that were given to Rucker, mainly ones that credit him with overachieving in a nutshell. That summary praises him being an adequate back-up. We'll see but I'll stick with what I saw despite a smattering of decent plays by Rucker because overall his weaknesses seem to me certain to be exposed -- no burst, no contain, no pass rush, no strength...ie lack of talent.

[HairOnFire]

The hard fact that they drafted Rucker in the 3rd doesn't mean any other team would touch him in any round-- and not just because of character issues. My recommendation as to who to believe when considering prospects is to believe your own eyes -- even if it means taking off Trojan colored glasses -- regardless of where a player is drafted. Hard to believe, I know, but not all picks work out.

More than one poster has tried to make the point that had the Bengals not drafted Rucker in the late 3rd round that he would have fallen into the 4th, 5th, 6th, or even the 7th round. The claim has also been made that he wouldn't have been drafted at all. Frankly, I find it all very amusing.

It's also consider those opinions as pointless as pointless can be since each of those claims is based upon things that didn't happen and can't be debated or disproven. It's just so much worthless crap getting thrown into cyberspace, and for it to be considered credible for even a second, it demands the reader ignore what really happened.

Why should I do that?

As for the wisdom of believing your own eyes rather than a draft guide, well....that's exactly what I've done. You see, USC plays it's version of championship football in my adopted backyard and because that's true I don't need a stinking draft guide to come to the conclusion that Rucker was worth a late 3rd round pick. No kidding, I've actually seen him play. In fact, I've seen him play very well at times, not so good other times, and occasionally somewhere in the middle. It's what leads me to call him solid, but not a worldbeater. And somewhere on thse boards I think I've mentioned the fact that I think he's got as many flaws as strengths. Add it all up and it hardly sounds like rose-colored hype, and I doubt I'll feel silly for expressing my opinions later on.

However, those of you who have labeled Rucker a "worthless DE" are probably in for a future bruising.

[schweinhart]

However, those of you who have labeled Rucker a "worthless DE" are probably in for a future bruising.

I damn sure hope so

There's a much better chance of that in store than a pummeling for those who would say Eric Henderson deserved to go undrafted. But that's why they're all going to bother and go out and play the game.

I can't bearly wait for the fun to begin.