Joe Haden and Carlos Dunlap Bashers, Don't Believe The SEC Hating!

Well, it's that most wonderful and favorite time of the year, when media types gather around to trash high profile SEC players headed to the combine. Every year it's the same thing: guys who supposedly lack the work ethic, character or intelligence to make the NFL. The reason why this happens: there are few large media markets in the SEC, and few of the national writers live in the SEC region or went to SEC universities. Instead, the big media markets and the institutions that produced most of the media writers represent places and schools like USC, UCLA, Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Miami, North Carolina etc. So, far better to take a hard working high ethics kids from a Pac-10, Big 10 or ACC elite academics institution than from an SEC aggie school from flyover country. Basically, the same nonsense that worked against LSU and Auburn in the media-driven BCS controversies in 2003 and 2004 (costing the SEC a national title and a half) works against SEC players in the draft. And every year, we get to hear how stupid/lazy/criminally inclined/disappointing various SEC players are.

A few years back, it was Darren McFadden. Because he got into a bar fight or something like that, he was supposed to go crazy and become "the next Pac-Man Jones" once he got an NFL contract. Guess what? Didn't happen. Then, it was JaMarcus Russell. Granted, Russell has been a disappointment so far, but like Notre Dame's Brady Quinn, whom the media badly wanted to see go #1 overall instead, has been better. (If anything, Quinn, who has had better protection and receivers, has been worse). Then, it was Matt Stafford, who allegedly had emotional issues because of his parent's divorce. And Percy Harvin, who was the next guy the media pegged as the next Pac-Man (in addition to questioning whether he could learn an NFL defense). And those are just some of them.

Now it isn't that the SEC players aren't getting criticized on legitimate issues. Instead, it is that these issues get blown way out of proportion for SEC players as compared to players from conferences and schools that the media likes. For instance, why is Terrance Cody's weight problem a bigger issue than that of TAILBACKS like Jonathan Dwyer and LenDale White? As Gilbert Brown and a host of other oversized DTs proved, a NT can be 10-20 lbs. overweight and still stop the run and rush the passer. But an LB that is 10-20 lbs. overweight? You get White and his 3.3 yards per carry. Yet where the Pac-10 and ACC RBs White and Dwyer are/were still projected as possible first round draft picks by the media, Cody is being mentioned as a FIFTH ROUND PICK in an NFL where 14 teams run the 3-4 defense and need NTs (not to mention the 4-3 and Dungy cover 2 teams like to use college NTs as over-tackle DTs). 

But that is just Alabama's Cody, who is only receiving some of what his former teammate Andre Smith went through last year before he still was one of the top OTs in the NFL draft and despite his holdout (which was the Bengals' fault, as always) had a decent rookie season (a better one than several of the guys drafted ahead of him). The REAL hatchet job is being done on Florida's top two prospects, CB Joe Haden and DE Carlos Dunlap. With Haden, we hear that his "shocking" 4.57 40 time will send him plummeting down the draft board because now he is being viewed as a No. 2 CB instead of a No. 1 CB to build a defense around. (This fellow even asks if a CB with that slow a time has ever been successful, ignoring that corners who run 4.6 routinely make the Pro Bowl, and that perennial Pro Bowler Aeneas Williams ran a 4.8. Not surprisingly, he is suggesting that teams look for the ACC's Patrick Robinson and the Big East's Devin McCourty instead.)

First of all, Haden's 4.57 time was only "shocking" to the media types who don't really follow the Florida program (they are just a southern land grant school after all). The truth is that Haden, a former high school QB (and not a pure speed option guy either, he had 7300 yards and 80 TDs PASSING) was never considered a speed guy to begin with. Instead, Haden is a guy who used his great cover and ball skills, tackling and toughness to beat out the many speed CB recruits, blazers who played the position in high school, at Florida. If he could do it at Florida in the SEC, he will do it in the NFL, where plenty of guys like the heavily hyped Antrel Rolle who run 4.4s wind up at safety not because of their lack of speed, but because of their poor coverage and ball skills.

Also, Haden's 4.57 came on the combine's slow track. When he runs during his pro day on a faster track, Haden will shave as much as a tenth of a second off his time. Many NFL scouts already do this, to come up with unofficial times to compare with the pro day times of guys who don't run at the combine. Of course, the media types know this. That's why when it is a Pac-10 player like Taylor Mays, you hear the blazing unofficial times from scouts of 4.33 (and some even reported 4.24). And when it was Reggie Bush and Darnell Bing on their pro days, you heard about the 4.38 and the 4.63 they ran, with no mention whatsoever about how USC's track is considered one of the "fastest." (The "world class speedster" Bush routinely gets caught from behind in the NFL, and Darnell Bing was ultimately converted from safety to LB.) But when it is an SEC player they are trying to knock down a peg, well the official time on a slow track will do. When Haden runs a 4.50 or lower at his pro day, that will satisfy everyone but the Al Davis types.

Further ... and this is the real reason why his stock isn't endangered ... is that Haden even with a slow 40 time is still by far the best CB prospect in the draft. It isn't close. CB is one of the premium positions in the NFL (along with QB, DE and OT) and there aren't any other prospects with a surefire first round grade. So even if he is no longer considered to be a "franchise" type player that a team will build its defense around, the first team for whom CB is one of their biggest needs is still going to take Haden because there is nobody else. So Haden's "huge drop" will be no more than 5 spots, and that will be with teams attempting to trade up to get him.

Then there is the guy who is REALLY getting hammered: Carlos Dunlap. Now unlike Haden, Dunlap had a good 40 time. So what's the problem? Some refer to him as "too skinny." 6'6", 290 lbs. Yeah, right. Others are hammering him for defering most of the combine workouts until his pro day, calling him "lazy." Never mind the fact that TONS of prospects do the same. Basically, the story line of "Carlos Dunlap character issues" was pre-fitted because of his DUI arrest and suspension, and the media is finding and reporting anything and everything that goes into it. Like the talk about how his "effort was inconsistent." These folks know full well that not all DEs are "high motor" guys, and that the bigger DEs generally aren't. How about the fact that Dunlap dominated offensive lines and had 77 tackles and 19 sacks despite playing beside DTs that continually let the Gators down?

Sure, bash Dunlap for getting himself suspended and missing the SEC title game. But did you see what happened to Florida without him in that game? They were the nation's #1 defense going in, and the nation's No. 3 defense coming out. Why? Because without Dunlap making tackles and rushing the passer (the rare guy at that position who does both ... because the DTs weren't doing much the Gators actually needed him to tackle people; he had 5 solo tackles in the Mississippi State game that Tebow nearly threw away, and 3 tackles in the very close Tennessee game as well) Alabama had a field day. They gave up 260 rushing yards, plus Greg McElroy, who was 6-11 for 58 yards in the national title game and almost as bad against Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee, had his 2nd best game of the season (his best was against Arkansas' marshmallow defense).

This is not to say that Dunlap is a future team captain or anything. However, most teams don't choose DEs based on leadership potential. If they get it, great. Instead, they choose DEs based on their ability to rush the passer, and that Dunlap can do. Instead, the media is projecting a bunch of 3-4 DE/OLB types, Derrick Morgan (who put up great stats, but for a very bad Georgia Tech defense) and a guy who only played one year of college ball, and did so for USF in the quasi-mid major wide open Big East (Jason Pierre-Paul).

Then there are the folks who are trying to hang the NFL failures of Jarvis Moss and Derrick Harvey on Dunlap's head. First, Harvey and Moss were "contract year" guys who only had one great college season and cashed in by coming out early. Dunlap showed potential his freshman year and then played at the caliber of a first round pick in 2008 and 2009. Another good thing about Dunlap: he didn't pile up his stats against weak opponents. Instead, of his 9 sacks in 2009, 5 were against SEC teams, 1 was against FSU and 2 were in the Sugar Bowl. He only had 1 sack against Troy, Charleston Southern and FIU, and didn't have very many of his tackles in those games either. Also, Moss and Harvey were the undersized rush end types ... 265 lb. guys, not the big DE who could conceivably play DT like Dunlap. Where Jacksonville and Denver actually tried Moss and Harvey as OLBs in 3-4 formations, Dunlap could - and possibly should - be viewed as a DE in a 3-4 defense for 3-4 teams like New England whose LDEs rush the passer.

So despite all the folks determined to knock Dunlap out of the first round, the guy won't fall past No. 16 to the Tennessee Titans. Dunlap's "concerns" are actually minor compared to those surrounding some of the other players that the Titans have used recent No. 1 picks on, including their No. 1 pick from last year Kenny Britt. The media didn't mention Britt's problems, of course, because Britt played for Rutgers, not an SEC school. Come to think of it, the media rarely mentioned Pac-Man Jones' significant off-the-field problems at West Virginia until he became a problem in the NFL. Lots of Rich Rodriguez's players were huge headaches in college and went on to be in the NFL, yet - because they weren't an SEC program—it was rarely mentioned.

So, ignore the SEC bashers. Joe Haden and Carlos Dunlap will both go in the top 16 picks in the NFL draft. And the media will simply have to move on to hoping that USC, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Miami, FSU, Boise or what have you actually beats a top SEC team on the field (like, er, Utah did).