Mike Freeman’s 10-Point Stance: The Super-Duper Drafty Edition

CHICAGO — I want Moritz Boehringer to succeed. I don’t think he will, but I want him to. I want him to succeed because he’s the coolest story in the draft. I want him to succeed because I like the idea of a player emerging from outside the homogenized, overhyped, overprocessed, overanalyzed NFL draft system.

I love the idea of a player like that becoming a star. It won’t happen, but I am crossing my fingers.

Watch tape of Boehringer, and you see some remarkable athleticism and ability. It’s in Germany, yes. And that’s the problem. This is the list of great NFL players who made their bones playing in Germany:

Calculating…

Calculating…

Yep, got nothing.

There are good basketball players from Germany. Hockey players, too. There is, of course, gorgeous soccer played there.

But football?

Boehringer played for the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League.

The Unicorns. I kinda like it.

I’ve heard a great deal about Boehringer from NFL scouts. In the personnel community, I’m told, there is a great deal of division about him. It’s either love or hate. Nothing in between.

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His proponents say the German league is a joke. One scout described it as “not even Division III-level football.” Another said the league was actually not bad. The Vikings, who drafted Boehringer in the sixth round Saturday, obviously fall in the latter camp.

He had 70 catches for 1,461 yards and 16 touchdowns in 21 games with the Unicorns last year. When he worked out at Florida Atlantic’s pro day, he ran a 4.4 40-yard dash and had a 39″ vertical leap. Those numbers would have put him right near the top of the receiver class at the combine had he attended.

There is a great deal of professionalism when it comes to the NFL’s scouting process. There is also a great deal of elitism. Even as I was writing this, one scout texted me and said it was a joke I was wasting time writing on Boehringer.

Yeah, I want him to make it. Badly.

I’m just not sure he can.

 

2. “Dumbest pick in the history of the draft”

The Buccaneers took a kicker, Roberto Aguayo, in the second round. Wait. Check that. They traded up to take a kicker in the second round. The Bucs traded third- and fourth-round selections to move into the second round and get a kicker. A kicker.

The Buccaneers have won 23 games in the past five years. They have been putrid. It seems a kicker is the least of their needs, to be kind. One general manager told me the selection was “the dumbest pick in the history of the draft.”

That seems to be the consensus in the league. There are, however, outliers.

One scout told me he considered the move to actually be fairly smart. The reason? The rule changes have made kickers extremely valuable. This scout believes that in the next few years, they could become as valuable as running backs. That seems a little extreme, but I get what he’s saying.

What was once a 17-yard kick is now 32 yards. That’s far from automatic, and a miss can be catastrophic in a game. 

The Buccaneers aren’t an explosive offense. They play a lot of close games (10 last year within 10 points); there’s a good chance Aguayo could win a lot of contests for the team.

Yet as good as Aguayo is, and he might be the best kicker in college history, this selection is easily one of the biggest gambles in draft history.

And maybe the dumbest.

 

3. Panthers take player accused of battery …

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