godeep811
04-19-2010, 12:50 PM
Great insights from CNN SI writer Peter King on Iowa Tackle Peter King. I think Okung and T. Williams will be gone when the Raiders pick. That leaves, Bruce Campbell, Bulaga and A. Davis from Rutgers.
I'm inclined to take Bulaga, if OT is a must have. Why? Because work ethic is critical and the Rutgers tackle has been suspended/ benched multiple times. Imagine him with big coin going to him? Bruce Campbell is much too raw. So then we're left with Bulaga. It appears when he was weakened by his thyroid condition, that Graham from Michigan abused him. However, at full strength, Bulaga dominated the Georgia Tech DE. Arm length? Joe Thomas and Jake Long both have sub 33 inch arms. Arm length for a tackle seems overrated.
I'm not sold on Bulaga but we could do worse. See below.
Is Bryan Bulaga the next Robert Gallery?
Two Midwestern kids, two Iowa left tackles, two guys forecast to be high picks when they entered the draft, two short-armed guys (more about that later).
Gallery went number two overall, to Oakland, in 2004. He was a disappointment at left tackle, and eventually moved inside to guard, where he's been a good player. But not good enough to have merited the second pick in a draft, ahead of wideout Larry Fitzgerald and quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Roethlisberger, clear positions of need for the Raiders.
Bulaga had a sub-par season in 2009, missing three games due to a thyroid condition and not regaining top form until Iowa's bowl game. A couple of scouts told me they're not sure he's even a first-round talent after watching Michigan's Brandon Graham abuse him on tape last fall.
"They're pretty different in terms of profiles,'' their coach, Kirk Ferentz, the former NFL line coach, told me Friday. "Bryan's a third-year college player who didn't redshirt and came out early. He came here and started at left guard as a freshman; I've told lots of the scouts that in my years of coach, there're not many true freshmen who came in and played at a high level -- Mark Stepnoski and Bill Fralic at Pitt, and then Bryan would be in their class for how he played right away.
"Robert was a career tight end [in high school and his first year at Iowa] until we switched him to tackle midway through his second year here. He stayed five years. With Bryan, it's so hard to judge him if you look at last year's film, because he wasn't allowed to do any physical conditioning for the three weeks he was out, and when he came back, he obviously wasn't the same. Look at his '08 film. He dominated. And when he came back this year for our bowl game [against Georgia Tech], watch him when [first-round defensive end prospect] Derrick Morgan lined up against him. Bryan beat him.''
Ferentz won't say it, but those close to Gallery believe he was rushed into the full-time left tackle job at Oakland when he might have been better-served playing inside a year or two, then moved outside. Ferentz compares Bulaga to Jordan Gross, who has effectively split his career playing well on the left and right side at tackle for Carolina. At 6-foot-5, rock-solid and 316 pounds, Bulaga could start his career inside at guard, or at right tackle, then move to the left side when he get more comfortable with the speed of the pro game.
In the spy-versus-spy world of mock drafting, I've thought for a while that Bulaga was a natural to go to Kansas City at five. GM Scott Pioli is so close with Ferentz I thought at one point he might try to hire him as his head coach in Kansas City. But Ferentz told me he hasn't spoken with Pioli about Bulaga this offseason, and Pioli hasn't been to Iowa City since the fall. Hmmm. Another layer to consider about the landing spot of Bulaga. I think he'll be picked in the top 14; I doubt he'll get past Seattle's second pick of the first round.
I'm inclined to take Bulaga, if OT is a must have. Why? Because work ethic is critical and the Rutgers tackle has been suspended/ benched multiple times. Imagine him with big coin going to him? Bruce Campbell is much too raw. So then we're left with Bulaga. It appears when he was weakened by his thyroid condition, that Graham from Michigan abused him. However, at full strength, Bulaga dominated the Georgia Tech DE. Arm length? Joe Thomas and Jake Long both have sub 33 inch arms. Arm length for a tackle seems overrated.
I'm not sold on Bulaga but we could do worse. See below.
Is Bryan Bulaga the next Robert Gallery?
Two Midwestern kids, two Iowa left tackles, two guys forecast to be high picks when they entered the draft, two short-armed guys (more about that later).
Gallery went number two overall, to Oakland, in 2004. He was a disappointment at left tackle, and eventually moved inside to guard, where he's been a good player. But not good enough to have merited the second pick in a draft, ahead of wideout Larry Fitzgerald and quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Roethlisberger, clear positions of need for the Raiders.
Bulaga had a sub-par season in 2009, missing three games due to a thyroid condition and not regaining top form until Iowa's bowl game. A couple of scouts told me they're not sure he's even a first-round talent after watching Michigan's Brandon Graham abuse him on tape last fall.
"They're pretty different in terms of profiles,'' their coach, Kirk Ferentz, the former NFL line coach, told me Friday. "Bryan's a third-year college player who didn't redshirt and came out early. He came here and started at left guard as a freshman; I've told lots of the scouts that in my years of coach, there're not many true freshmen who came in and played at a high level -- Mark Stepnoski and Bill Fralic at Pitt, and then Bryan would be in their class for how he played right away.
"Robert was a career tight end [in high school and his first year at Iowa] until we switched him to tackle midway through his second year here. He stayed five years. With Bryan, it's so hard to judge him if you look at last year's film, because he wasn't allowed to do any physical conditioning for the three weeks he was out, and when he came back, he obviously wasn't the same. Look at his '08 film. He dominated. And when he came back this year for our bowl game [against Georgia Tech], watch him when [first-round defensive end prospect] Derrick Morgan lined up against him. Bryan beat him.''
Ferentz won't say it, but those close to Gallery believe he was rushed into the full-time left tackle job at Oakland when he might have been better-served playing inside a year or two, then moved outside. Ferentz compares Bulaga to Jordan Gross, who has effectively split his career playing well on the left and right side at tackle for Carolina. At 6-foot-5, rock-solid and 316 pounds, Bulaga could start his career inside at guard, or at right tackle, then move to the left side when he get more comfortable with the speed of the pro game.
In the spy-versus-spy world of mock drafting, I've thought for a while that Bulaga was a natural to go to Kansas City at five. GM Scott Pioli is so close with Ferentz I thought at one point he might try to hire him as his head coach in Kansas City. But Ferentz told me he hasn't spoken with Pioli about Bulaga this offseason, and Pioli hasn't been to Iowa City since the fall. Hmmm. Another layer to consider about the landing spot of Bulaga. I think he'll be picked in the top 14; I doubt he'll get past Seattle's second pick of the first round.