A small look at the trio of wide outs

Hakeem Nicks

In the middle of the week between the first/second round and the third/fourth round of the NCAA Tournament (aka March Madness) I thought I mix it up a bit by finding some articles and posts about the trio of wide receivers from Chapel Hill heading to the NFL Draft. I think I found plenty about ex Tar Heel wide receiver Hakeem Nicks. Plus I also found another site where it ranks all the wide outs that will be in this year’s draft, and along with Nicks they have Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster in the Top 30. But be warned, there is also an article that puts a very negative light on all the top receivers.

In WalterFootball.com’s web site it has the 2009 NFL Draft: WR Rankings. Hakeem Nicks is ranked fourth in the list, and the site says he is either a first or second rounder. Just like all the other sites or articles I have read about Nicks, the consesus is that he helped himself greatly at the NFL Combine. The surprise, at least to me, is that the site has Brooks Foster as the second of the North Carolina trio, coming in at the 25th spot, and seen as a 5th/6th round pick. One thing that stood out for Foster is that he did 27 reps of the 225 bench press. Last in the list is Brandon Tate, ranked 30th in the list, and thought of as a 5th through 7th round pick. Walter Football says that the drop off might be because of the lost weight Tate has had, having dropped 12 pounds since the injury.

WalterFootball.com also has a NFL Mock Draft with four rounds in it. They see Hakeem Nicks as a middle second round pick going to the Cleveland Browns. I have to say that I disagree with this, and there is a blogger from the Colts that agrees with me. The Stampede Blue believes that Nicks is the way to go for his team, and I have to say that either Indianapolis or the New York Giants is where I would see the wide out from Chapel Hill going in this draft. However we seem to be in the minority, because looking at New Era Scouting the junior receiver is again being projected to be a second rounder, more precisely, a middle second rounder. The site also believes that Nicks could be as good as TJ Houshmandzadeh or as bad as Jericho Cotchery.

And lastly, and let me remind you again, do not get mad but this link isn’t going to make anyone look good, here is a story about how the top WR didn’t do well in the wonderlick test. This is what the post on the FanIQ page said of the receivers from this class:

Seems the wide receiving corps is especially stupid this year. Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech scored a 15, Darrius Heyward-Bey of Maryland scored a 14, and Percy Harvin of Florida scored a 12. Not real good. But don’t worry, there was someone who was worse. Hakeem Nicks of UNC wowed everyone with an 11. A score of 10 suggests a person is literate, so at least all of the receivers can read this, I hope.

I am not a true believer of this (or many other tests), but I do find it interesting that most of the top wide outs going into the NFL this year are all scoring pretty low. On the other hand, I do not believe that this test is going to lift anyone if they do well or drop anyone if the do not do so well. I think that teams look for talent and integrity in a player and I firmly believe that Nicks has both of those things. As the draft comes closer and closer there will be more articles/blogs/mocks and I will make sure to get them on here for all to read.

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