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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Giants trade up from #130 for Steelers #123 pick near end of R4 and pick LB Brian Kehl

OLB 6'2" 242 lbs. BYU ...from NFL.com:

Brian is a natural playmaker who showed marked improvement during his senior year. An intense offseason workout program saw him shed more than 15 pounds of bulk, helping increase his stamina and quickness on the field. With his instincts and athleticism, scouts feel he could be a nice fit as a weak-side linebacker. With his field vision and quick reactionary skills, some teams are also looking at beefing him back up for a possible move to middle linebacker.

"Kehl is just a flat-out player. He is one of those guys who is always around the football and is a ball hog and makes a lot of plays," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "I have talked to some people out there and they tell me one thing about this guy, he is not only an athlete but he has got a mind that is absolutely unreal and football is important to him."

Kehl earned Salt Lake Tribune first-team All-State honors as a senior at Brighton High School. He added academic recognition with a 4.0 grade-point average that gained him a spot on the Academic All-State team.

3 comments:

Daniel said...

Does Manningham move immediately ahead of Sinorice Moss on the depth chart? Or do you think, since he, Steve Smith and Amani Toomer are all the same kind of receiver that the Giants give Moss another shot so they have a speedster to throw to sometimes?

Greg Hanlon said...

One would think -- Sinorice hasn't shown much. Either way, drafting Manningham will create competition and increase the likelihood that at least one of those two guys will be good.

Also, I'm not sure that Smith, Amani, and Manningham are the same type of guy. Smith and Amani (at this point in his career) are possession guys. Manningham, despite not having outstanding timed speed, is a home-run threat.

What I like about what I read about Manningham (on NFL and ESPN) is that he's an instinctive route-runner -- I know that Wonder disagrees -- who sets up defensive backs well. He seems like an instinctive receiver, which explains his production at Michigan. This is so much more important than anything the combine can measure, and can't really be taught.

Manningham's downsides are his 1) strength getting off bump and runs; and 2) tentativeness across the middle. His blocking -- which is SO underrated for WRs -- is also supposed to be indifferent.

But natural, highly talented receivers like Mannhingham don't grow on trees. Good job by Jerry grabbing the most talented guy on the board.

Andy F. said...

Wonder says not to give up Moss just yet. "You can't teach speed. Don't give up on him yet." I personally do not have as much hope, as all I see is a dope who takes gold (recpetion for a first down) and turns it into straw (4th down punts) when he tries for extra yardage and then gets caught back behind the sticks.

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