Signing: DT Cavon Walker (XFL)

And you think I give a crap about that, IIRC I admitted I was wrong about Harrison.

 

Look who's talking

 

Yeah you did and again I give you full credit for taking your lumps for it. I don't know how other members feel but I always know where you stand and can count on it being 100% belief since you are always adamant about your opinions.

 

Duh, in my alerts it had you qouting me that's why I responded, although you were qouting your cuddle buddy Stone .

 

It has never been easy to find them yesterday or today. Just have to be lucky enough to see it. Usually that's done from a total luck perspective, in that someone get's hurt and fate hands it to that person or some other unforeseeable scenario. I don't think the odds have changed much in find "that one", when you really get down to it.

 

The Steelers and a handful of other teams had a huge advantage in that area. Nobody is able to build that kind of advantage today. There is just too much information available.

It really is that simple. Technology has changed things to the point that it is much less likely for a great talent to go unnoticed. You even have the occasional high school athlete getting national attention now. That isn't brand new. I remember seeing a highlight of LaVar Arrington when he as at North Hills on ESPN, but that wasn't happening in the '70s. The general public just has so much more information available to us at our fingertips. That is even more true among front office executives, coaches and scouts.

I'll give you an example. Take the story about the Steelers "misplacing" film of John Stallworth so other teams wouldn't see him. I'm not even sure it is true, but it was at least possible in 1974. Such a trick wouldn't work now due to the way information is recorded, stored and shared.

 

And yet, right now there's an incredible mind blowing talent out there still undiscovered! Right Now! All the information in the world doesn't notice what has not yet happened. 50 years from now they'll be saying what you're saying and 50 years from that, it goes on and on... And, on top of that, I think they still scope and hide talent, yes even in the internet age. There are ways. There always will be.

 

Nobody said that there are no unknowns out there. The point is that there are far fewer, which makes it far less likely to find one.

The key isn't looking for unknown talent. It is doing a better job of evaluating someone everyone knows about. Everybody knew about Tom Brady coming out of Michigan. The Patriots just did a better job of seeing his potential. Every team knew about James Harrison. The Steelers were the ones who were smart enough to give him another shot and allow him to develop.

 

We don't need no stinky draft ... we have the XFL