David-Te Thomas

[Chadman]

Chadman is just listening to an interview with him on "The Site That Won't Be Named"- some interesting viewpoints- he's a scout for NFL Draft Scout, so he's well connected. Shares an agent with Jason Worilds, for what it's worth, and credits Ike Taylor & Cortez Allen as 2 of his 'finds'...
NFL Draft Scout-

Donta Hightower- Jets could covet at #16, bad lateral, over rated, bad intelligence- gets by due to the success of the system & those around him.

Nick Perry- likes him alot, Worilds to ILB? Only pick him if Worilds moves inside.

Lamar Miller- Likes him- could be the guy if they think Mendenhall can't go.

Worilds- 3rd year should be his breakout year.

Cortez Allen- to start at LCB.

Dontari Poe- Possible Philly pick. Prefers Michael Brockers. Brockers is the best NT in the draft. Poe over rated.

Mike Adams- Will be passed on.

Cordy Glenn- Would be a good pick, played Senior Bowl with bad ankle. Would be LG, not LT. Thinks he'll fall to #24. 63 TD resulting blocks. Position flexability.

Jonathon Martin- Over rated- not even a 3rd Round pick. Too finesse.

Mike Tomlin has a big prescence on Draft Day.

Cody Fleener- Over rated.

Mitchell Schwartz- might not play this year- bad knee. Fall? Good player.

Brandon Brooks- Definate Round 2 guy- great player. Would play LG/RG. Versatile.

Bobby Massie- Not a 1st Rounder- Round 2/3 type.

Jerrel Worthy- Not a 1st Round pick, 2 down guy.

Kevin Zeitler- 2nd round player- 5th round brain.

Amini Silatolu- Great player- knows how to play the game. Reminds him of Larry Allen.

Late Round OT/OG's worth a look- Zebrie Sanders 3rd/4th- fire lit after moving to LT. Could go in the 5th Round.

Levy Adcock- 6th/7th- not worth a look. Prefers Jeff Allen.

Olivier Vernon- brick with legs- dumb.

Marcus Forston- Late round steal, missed 6 games. Smart player.

Sean Spence- 4th round, poor man's Jonathon Vilma.

Cam Johnson- Medical concern. Red Flag. Sickle cell trait- similar to Ryan Clark.

Kelvin Beachum- Can play as LS. 6th/7th round pick.

Derek Carrier- Belloit college TE- does it all. 5th round type. Very undervalued.

Brian Linthicum- TE Michigan St- would be a great pick- not thrown to enough at college- does it all. Undervalued.

Michael Egnew- didn't play the right offense in college- spread offense- 5th or 6th round type.

Chase Ford- great blocker, good receiver. 4.78 40-time.

Markelle Martin- FS- good player. Could slide to the middle of round 3.

Casey Heyward- Could move from CB to FS- physical.

Jeremy Jones- Sleeper pick.

Jerrel Harris- will move ILB- lots of false steps in transition- 2 down player. Dumb.

Isaiah Pead- crazy.

Robert Turbin- 2nd coming of Curtis Martin- physical, good hands. Steelers spent a lot of time going to Utah.

Ronnie Hillman- dropsies- 8 fumbles.

Chris Rainey- good change of pace. Good catcher out of the backfield.

Bobby Rainey- Excellent kick returner

Bryce Brown- good change of pace back.

Mike Martin- shows up on tape, gets taken down easily.

Derek Wolfe- moving up, good player.

Akiem Hicks- 7th round monster- thinks he might be a great steal. Body of work will have him drop to the 7th.

Ziggy Hood- did a good job at DE last year, but is a 1 gapper, needs physical LB behind him. Was a reach when selected.

Ryan Van Bergen- interesting player. Had a down year, but Mike Martin played hurt. Tomlin showed interest in both Martin & Van Bergen, 5 technique player.

Josh Chapman- played on bad ACL for 8 weeks- high character.

Courtney Upshaw- ONLY a strong-side OLB. More agility than Hightower.

Mark Barron- Colbert could have been there to see him, due to injury. If at #24- MUST be the pick.

Won't trade down- more likely to trade up. Will draft more 'need' areas this season due to the players released.

Myron Rolle- went through the motions at college- academics held him back. Carnell Lake is the the guy that could re-ignite him.

Keith Tandy- Loves his game. Jams at the line. Strong.

Julian Miller- Tomlin paid a lot of attention at the Pro Day.

If the Steelers don't think they can retain Wallace- look for Sanu in Round 2.

Steelers will select WR's- could pick a few. Junior Hemingway & Tommy Streeter are big chances. Greg Childs is a great pick. Best reciever in the conference. T.Y. Hilton- excellent returner, 4th round type.

27 teams ask David-Te Thomas for his opinion on players. Has scouting reports from their first year of college.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Laughing at the brick with legs description. Interesting on the Isaiah Pead "crazy" description...I think, regarding the players that we bring in to our facility for pre-draft visits, just as many of them get ruled out when coaches get to see them for a whole day (and the other half get themselves "ruled in"...for lack of a better term). Since you can't work out players during those visits, you are bringing them in to answer other questions, either psychological (will he mesh with our team, or his he just another me-first prima donna) or medical (to get a full up-to-date physical by our team doctors at our facility).

[RuthlessBurgher]

For what it's worth, here is that guy's background:


Dave-Te’ Thomas is a sports writer, talent evaluator and scouting personnel consultant for a majority of teams in the National Football League. Thomas also coordinates scouting services for Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association organizations.

Dave-Te’ runs a scouting information service called NFL Scouting Services and produces THE NFL Draft Report, a publication provided by league headquarters to the media in preparation for the NFL Draft. As a teenager, Dave-Te’ was contracted by several NFL teams to assist their scouting departments on the nation’s top gridiron stars. Soon, other teams began requesting his services, thus the start of his scouting service. After serving in the United States Football League as a scouting information consultant, Dave-Te’ returned to the NFL circles, serving in a personnel consulting capacity since 1984.

Known for his “shoot first, but know where to aim” style, Dave-Te’ has co-hosted several shows including:
• Sports Channel’s NewSportsTalk with Chet Coppock
• ESPN Fiesta Bowl College Gameday Show with Kevin Ray and Beano Cook
• ESPN’s KMOX-St. Louis
• The Football Network
• Cox Cable’s NFL Draft Report along with Paul Crane.
• Versus Network’s Countdown to the NFL Draft, Countdown to the NBA Draft, Countdown to the BSC Championship Game and Countdown to the NCAA Final Four Shows

Dave-Te’ has served on the selection committee for the following Bowls:
• Kelly Tire Blue-Gray Game
• Martin Luther King Classic
• Original All-American Classic
• Hula Bowl

His abilities as a writer led him to produce the NFL’s draft and preseason reports (over 3,000-page tome) yearly since 1983. He is editor of The NFL Draft Report, NFL Report, The Poor Man’s Guide to College Football and The NBA Report. Dave-Te’ also serves as a sports writer, with works featured in over 100 college media guides (College & Pro Football Newsweekly, Associated Press, Giants Weekly, New York Daily News, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, San Jose Bee, San Francisco Chronicle).

His extensive football material is used by all the major networks covering college football and his sports content is provided throughout the sports industry through the internet’s premier sports content house, The Sports Xchange. His reports are presently featured on CBSsportsline.com, USA Today, Fox Sports, USA Today’s Sports Weekly, and NFL.com and the premier draft web site in the industry, aptly called NFLDraftScout.com.


And for a guy with a first name as unique as Dave-Te', I somehow didn't expect him to look like this:

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/users/photos/000/153/363/HEAD_SHOT2_crop_150x150.JPG?1260485000

:lol: (hope that doesn't make me a racist ;)).

[Chadman]

He certainly makes for interesting listening, if you have a spare hour to kill.

The host kept asking him about specific players, he'd answer then throw a couple of names back.

Of interest is that he noted that the Steelers spent a lot of time on Robert Turbin out of Utah- good player if true.

[hawaiiansteel]

some very interesting insights...

thanks for posting Chadman! :Cheers

[RuthlessBurgher]

He certainly makes for interesting listening, if you have a spare hour to kill.

The host kept asking him about specific players, he'd answer then throw a couple of names back.

Of interest is that he noted that the Steelers spent a lot of time on Robert Turbin out of Utah- good player if true.

Plus, as BigRob noted in his adsfadsfadfadsf draft, Turbin is green. :mrgreen:

[Jooser]

Very interesting insights Chadman, thanks for posting.

[SteelBucks]

Won't trade down- more likely to trade up. Will draft more 'need' areas this season due to the players released.


Interesting. Kiper has DeCastro falling to the Bengals at #21. If the draft falls into place, I wonder what the price tag would be to move up four spots?

Sorry...I'm not giving up on the dream and I don't want Hightower. ;)

[calmkiller]

I like how he talked about both WVU players I have in my mock. It reinforces that they are good players and are being looked at because of their skill and not because I am a homer. I like to think that I can see some talent after watching these kids for 3-4 years and it not be all homer-vision. I am completely off on my round selection of Keith, but i wanted him on the mock. I just couldn't put him higher, although he is a 4-5 round talent.

[steelblood]

Lots of praise for players I like there...

Silatolu, Tandy, Hemingway, Wolfe, Brandon Brooks.

Not so sure about Casey Hayward at FS. He has excellent ball skills and instincts, but he is not the most physical guy and would be undersized (190 pounds) for the position (not a great combination).

[grotonsteel]

Interesting Insights. Thanks Chadman.

"Nick Perry- likes him alot, Worilds to ILB? Only pick him if Worilds moves inside."

If that is the case then i don't think Steelers will take Donta Hightower in Rd 1.

[BigRob]

Plus, as BigRob noted in his adsfadsfadfadsf draft, Turbin is green. :mrgreen:

Yes!, asdfasdfasdfasdf, very green!

[hawaiiansteel]

Interesting Insights. Thanks Chadman.

"Nick Perry- likes him alot, Worilds to ILB? Only pick him if Worilds moves inside."

If that is the case then i don't think Steelers will take Donta Hightower in Rd 1.


I personally don't think Worilds is the answer at ILB, a position he has never played before...

[focosteeler]

Myron Rolle- went through the motions at college- academics held him back. Carnell Lake is the the guy that could re-ignite him.


I really hope so, it would be great if we could get a solid back-up/future starter safety this year without having to draft one!!

[Oviedo]

I really hope so, it would be great if we could get a solid back-up/future starter safety this year without having to draft one!!

I watched Rolle alot in college. He didn't go through the motions. he is a liability in the passing game. At FSU he was essentially a small LB. Very good against the run but not so good with the ball in the air. Hopefully Lake can work a miracle, but IMO that is what it will be.

[hawaiiansteel]

I really hope so, it would be great if we could get a solid back-up/future starter safety this year without having to draft one!!


Myron Rolle will most likely be competing for a roster spot with Will Allen, Damon Cromartie-Smith and a rookie draft choice, his best chance to make the team will be by being a special teams standout in pre-season.

Rolle's other knock against him besides his academic commitment was that he ran the 40 in a relatively slow 4.59. hopefully he's been able to focus his training on becoming faster since then.