Posted on 06/02/2005 7:38:37 AM PDT by Asphalt
(June 1, 2005) -- The 1985 NFL Draft was held on April 30, and on that day I was in my office in Dallas prepared to add a new member to our team. One of the players I was hoping to select was a wide receiver out of little-known Mississippi Valley State by the name of Jerry Rice. We had the 17th pick, and using it on him was certainly a possibility.
The draft began with Buffalo picking first and taking Bruce Smith, followed by Atlanta taking Bill Fralic. There was only one wide receiver taken in the first 10 picks, and it was Al Toon going to the New York Jets. Things were looking good.
Houston, San Diego, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Kansas City all made their picks, and none of them were Rice. I remember getting excited as I hoped to catch the steal of the draft with our selection. New England came up on pick No. 16, and I sure didn't figure them to take a wide receiver since they took Irving Fryar the year before.
And then I heard the words that haunted me for a long, long time: "There has been a trade involving this pick, and San Francisco is now on the clock."
The Patriots got San Francisco's first-, second- and third-round picks for pick No. 16. Moments later, Rice was selected and was on his way to Northern California. Had the 49ers not traded up or taken someone else, Rice would have probably been our choice.
Now Rice, at the young age of 42, has signed on with the Denver Broncos and is still planning on playing 20 years later. I thought I would look back at our notes from when we scouted Rice back when he was in college and see what was accurate and what wasn't.
The first thing you may not have known about Rice is that in college, his nickname was "World," because according to his coaches and teammates he could catch anything in the world.
As is the case today, Rice was in great physical shape. According to the report, he had a "very big, strong pair of hands, long arms, tapered body, a well-developed upper body and arms." It did cite his lower legs for needing some development, but he had plenty of "natural strength."
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| Jerry Rice continues to play the game of football 20 years after his drafting. |
Equally impressive was his character. He had a "family that worked hard for everything," read the document. He was labeled as mature, soft spoken and respectful. I'd say that was correct.
So were there any negatives? There seemed to be a focus on his blocking that concerned the scouts. "He will not make an effort to cut or even push block," said the report. It also said Rice prefered to work along the right sideline and would need work on running patterns and reading the coverage. I'm pretty sure he's improved in all of these areas.
Also, he wore leather gloves until our scout asked him why he did. Since then, he didn't wear gloves. Maybe it helped his game.
When rating Rice on a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 being the highest and 3 being average, he scored 6s, 7s and 8s in character, competitiveness, strength and explosion, speed, short-yardage receiving, running ability after the catch, catching in a crowd and of course hands. Why no 9s? Because for some reason, we never gave out any 9s. We probably should have had the scale go from 1 to 8. And as you may expect, his worst grade came in blocking, a 3.
Our summary read as follows: "He could be a starter in this league in his second season for a contender. ... He has consistently been productive and durable in the past two seasons. He can be the type of player to play for a team in the NFL for a long time. The more I talk to him the more I am impressed with his character. He has big-play ability."
Sounds like Rice, doesn't it?
As the 16th pick in the 1985 draft, Rice received a $525,000 signing bonus. The 16th overall choice in the 2004 NFL Draft, Shawn Andrews, received $5,500,000 to sign.
From a Cowboys perspective, this was actually the second time we lost out on a Hall of Fame wide receiver by one pick. In 1974, the Steelers took Lynn Swann one pick before we could take him ourselves.
Rice wore No. 88 in college, not the famous No. 80 that he's worn every year he's played in the NFL. In Denver, Rod Smith wears No. 80 and Jeb Putzier wears No. 88, so Rice won't be wearing either of those jerseys. He has been spotted wearing No. 19 in workouts with the team.
As a senior in college, Rice threw five passes, completed all five, and three were for touchdowns. If this were the NFL, he'd have a perfect QB rating.
Rice is an older guy, but George Blanda was the oldest person to play in the NFL. He was 48 years old when he finally called it a career, but not before throwing a touchdown pass as a member of the Raiders in 1974 to beat the Cowboys 27-23. Blanda is also one of 11 NFL players to play the game at age 43, a list that includes quarterbacks Steve DeBerg and Warren Moon, both of whom played into their 44th year of life. Rice will turn 43 during the season.
When Rice and Maurice Clarett go through the "chow" line together when Denver's training camp opens on July 28, Rice will be twice the age of Clarett, who is 21. That means Clarett wasn't even walking when Rice was drafted.
You should be golfing and pitching insurance ads instead of sullying your career with non-Jerry-Rice-like swoon songs.
nothing against the pats, but the way that pic was taken, those guys look very ghey.
I have much respect for Rice. He's a great example of a winner. I've tried to learn from him.
hehe
If you do Internet searches, you can find what people wrote about past drafts. It can often be amusing.
For example, the 2002 draft of the Philadelphia Eagles was a great draft. It was one of the main reasons why they were in the Super Bowl this year. They picked up Lito Shephard, Sheldon Brown, Michael Lewis, and Brian Westbrook. Everyone but Brown has been all-pro, and a lot of people think Brown should have been named all-pro.
At the time, the reviewers said the Eagles had an okay but not great draft. Some reviewers said Brown was a reach and Westbrook was too small to play in the N.F.L. Some questioned the wisdom of drafting three defensive backs when the Eagles already had three all-pro defensive backs.
That year, many of the critics were praising the Raiders' draft. The Raiders did get a few starters that year, but no all-pro players from that draft as of yet. It's hard to think of a team's draft where the critics praised it the next day and it proved to be as good as they said. Can anyone think of any examples?
Peyton Manning. First overall pick in I believe 1998. Everyone knew he would be great.
huh?
Some doubted his arm strength but that was more because of the comparison to Ryan Leaf.
Predicting if a team had a good draft is very much a guess. Predicting if a team had a bad draft is a lot more firm.
From just an anecdotal observation, teams seem to do better when they have lots of draft picks rather than trading up and having only couple. Picking up a lot of guys in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds really seems to be the way to go to build a solid team. Dallas during the 90s, Tampa Bay in the late 90s and the present day Eagles seem to do a really good job with this approach.
The Falcons on the other hand have a history of trading away their 2nd and 3rd round picks just to move up a few spots.
The Chiefs picked just before the Niners that year.
They picked Ethan Horton.
It's like being a Cubs fan.
Jerry Rice could have easily flamed out if he had been picked by another team. Rice and the 49ers offense were a PERFECT match for each other. Many superstars have been just ordinary once they went on to another team.
Deion Sanders was certainly impressive as a punt returner while on the Falcons, but wasn't that great of a pass defender. After he moved to the 49ers he was capable of shutting down his side of the field.
Plus, a knock on Rice was that he was not very sure handed.
He had a reputation for dropping passes. I know that is impossible to believe, but he actually practiced his way out of his bad habits and made himself one of the most sure handed receivers of all time.
Yeah, he's great. Probably the greatest receiver playing today, even though he's far outside his prime.
But the HAIR! Jerry, it's time to Bic it for good pal. Just admit defeat.
-Eric
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