Editors note: Billy Coogan makes his DLF debut and introduces a new series.
This is the first installment of my brand new “Rookie Reveal” series in which I will give my view on some of the notable prospects in the upcoming NFL draft. I will include findings from my time spent watching game film as well as a mini bio of the player that usually would not be found in typical scouting reports. Also, be on the lookout for my “2016 Rookie Report” with the help from some of the best members on the DLF Forum, will be out in March sometime.
Ezekiel Elliott – Ohio State No. 15
July 22, 1995 (21 years old) 6-foot-0 – 225 lbs.
St Louis, Missouri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Elliott
Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last year and a half you probably can guess who the unanimous No. 1 running back in the 2016 draft class is, if your guess is Ezekiel Elliott then you are correct.
Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott’s coming-out party couldn’t have come at a better time. He couldn’t have picked better timing, a pick a bigger stage or a tougher opponent, the No. 1-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. With the whole country watching Elliott compiled a crazy stat line of 20 carries for 230 yards and two touchdowns, he also added one reception for 13 yards, impressive as his numbers were the fact that he did it in the first ever College Football Playoff against a Nick Saban led defense was the icing on the cake. If you didn’t know who Elliott was prior to kickoff that evening he made sure that you wouldn’t be forgetting his name any time soon.
It’s no surprise that this young man is the top ranked running back in this class. He has excelled in several prime time games against elite competition with the whole country watching and has a college highlight tape that rivals that of some NFL Hall of Famers.
[inlinead]His running style reminds me of a mix between Arian Foster and LeSean McCoy, are you excited yet? Elliott’s great footwork and balance are his greatest tools. He can kill you with the jump-cut, spin move, run through you or around you and once he gets even with you there’s no sense chasing him because you aren’t gonna catch him, he’s Forrest Gump fast once he gets up to speed. During his time in Columbus under Coach Urban Meyer they ran a shotgun/read option scheme and he often had big holes to run through which made his runs look easy at times, but when he found himself behind a wall he kept his eyes up, his head down and his legs driving, I’m sure NFL scouts and general managers will love that trait.
Every time he touches the ball he has the talent to score from anywhere on the field with his ideal size/speed combo and if you give him an inch he will take a mile. He runs hungry and wants to get every yard but he also shows awareness to make sure he gets what he needs to get on short yardage situations most of the time. The young man from St Louis shows good patience most of time but he also likes to dance a little too much when things aren’t there and he loses yards because of that, but hey…so does Adrian Peterson.
He displayed good hands when called upon and looked natural running routes out of the backfield or slot. He also isn’t afraid to get dirty laying down blocks on run plays or when protecting the quarterback in the pocket. Elliott has dominated the NCAA and Big Ten teams for the last two years and is easily my No. 1-rated running back in the 2016 class.
The few weaknesses in his game that I took note of were
1) He needs to trust his blockers a little better, sometimes he became impatient and bounced plays to the outside before running lanes opened up
2) He isn’t afraid to take on larger defenders, which often leads to a higher chance of injury
3) He doesn’t have elite acceleration through holes like he does when attempting to change direction or move laterally, but don’t worry- not every great NFL running back does either.
I am expecting Elliott to go in the first round of the NFL draft this April. I have seen him going anywhere from No. 10 (NY Giants), No. 18 (Indianapolis) or at No. 22 (Houston). As of right now your guess is as good as mine, but if I had to guess I’d say he’s be going to play with Andrew Luck & Co. in Indianapolis. In dynasty rookie drafts I don’t think there is any way he goes after 1.02. Personally I have him ranked as my top prospect.
Notes and accomplishments:
- 2014 College Football Playoff National Championship
- 2015 85th Sullivan Award (annually awarded to the nation’s top amateur athlete)
- 2014 & 2015 Academic All-Big Ten honors
- 2014 Sugar Bowl MVP as well as MVP of the College Football Playoff title game
- Ran for 149 yards and four touchdowns against Notre Dame in the final game of his college career.
- Elliott’s father, Stacy, and mother, Dawn, both attended the University of Missouri as student-athletes. Stacy a football player and Dawn a member of the track and field team.
- During his senior year of high school he won four state championships at the Missouri Class 3 state championships ( 100 meter, 200 meter, 110 high hurdles and 300 hurdles).
- Attended John Burroughs School (grades 7-12) which has been recognized as one of the nation’s premier preparatory schools and holds strict entry requirements regarding academics and personal conduct.
- Majored in marketing while at Ohio State University
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- Rookie Reveal: Ezekiel Elliott - February 4, 2016
Oh cool the most entitled poster on the forums got an article series.
Where is the article? This was basically a pregame intro for Elliott.. There’s nothing revealed! If this is how this “series” is gonna be, then you might as well count me out now. What a flop.
I am a little confused with your comment, in the very first paragraph I explained the theme of this article. Sorry for your displeasure.
I thought it was great and will look forward to more Rookie Reveal articles. Don’t worry about “Waiting for it?” He is a troll. Probably rarely satisfied with any article. Keep’em comin!
Thanks, Franklin. I just ran a poll in the Team Advice forum and the voters chose Devontae Booker for my next piece, it’ll be out sometime in the next 2 weeks!
Did anyone proofread this before it went to the press? The content wasn’t as bad as some think, but I found myself confused and re-reading quite often.
Thanks for the feedback, this was meant to be written more as a scouting report rather than a typical article.
nowhere in the scouting report is it mentioned that elliott avg. 1.0 < YPC than carlos hyde in the same offense in thier final season in columbus, even though he had the benefit of 2 `1st round OL and 4 that may play in the league.
seems like the sites owners know this poster is among the most controversial on the site and are after click bait perhaps. so we now have our very own skip bayless or jason whitlock for DLF. hooray !
You are trying to compare two different offenses. In 2014 under Urban Meyer, EE’s average rush was only .4 less than Hyde’s in the previous year on nearly 60 more carries. Due to extra carries that is a wash to me.
Also, just a personal observation Hyde while talented falls into the big back mold that doesn’t translate as well to the NFL as do backs with a more svelte frame and better quickness.
I was stunned by the lack of emoticons
Awesome! This is just what I was hoping to see when I saw you guys talking about this on the forum. Are you going to do some of the “sleeper” type players that are lower in the rankings?
Hi, Marcus. As I go along I will be covering more and more players down the list of rankings and getting into some of those late-round “flier” type of guys.
Always happy to see a new article series! Keep it up!
I know I am probably the last person you would think to defend bcoogan. But give the guy a break. I agree the article reads rather rough and needs some heavy editing, and the content doesn’t exactly light the world on fire. But it’s his first shot, and how much is there really to reveal about a consensus top 2 rookie dynasty pick? That all said not a stellar article.
Thanks for the feedback. Bear with me as this was the first article I’ve ever written like this, I was more focused on putting my thoughts onto the paper rather than the whole flow of it, that is something I will try to perfect going forward.
I’m with pokerface40, cut the guy some slack. I didn’t exactly expect to see anything exclusively news worthy on such a high profile prospect. Maybe next time you feel like an article isn’t up to par, how about you yourself provide an angle or aspect about the prospect you felt should have or could have been brought to light. Jerks….
Thanks, JohnnyBlaze. I welcome all honest feedback from the readers, I think it can help me to learn what the average subscriber/reader on this site prefers.
Obviously not much to reveal when we are talking about Zeke. Once you start getting into guys ranked probably 1.03 and after, that’s where your going to get to talk about your view of their strengths and weaknesses and where you rank them and get some posters on here to start arguing with you in the comments haha
Thanks for the feedback, the next prospect I do won’t be such a unanimously loved guy like Elliott, but he is my 1.01 this year so I wanted to start with him.
Not going to complain about the content, anything to pass the long hours of the offseason is welcome. However, I must agree that was a little tough to read. A lot of run on sentences, poor puncuation, ect. It definitely makes it feel less professional, more like a blog than an article almost.
Thanks for the comment. This was meant to be written more like a scouting report rather than like a regular article, sorry for the confusion there… I tried to keep it to mostly just facts and notes from my tape analysis with more “meat” and less fluff around it.
Yea, I don’t think he’s really “confused” about what your intentions were. But he’s absolutely correct. This was written at roughly a fourth grade reading level. I’m not expecting perfection, but this was pretty bad.
Matt, as stated above this wasn’t meant to be written as a novel, it was more so written as a scouting report with more “meat” to it and direct without extra words and fluff. I wanted to give the readers as much of my analysis and information as possible without turning this into an essay. Thanks for reading!
Great write up loved it, it helps us dynasty players that aren’t into college
Thanks, I don’t get to watch a lot of college football myself during the season because of my work schedule so I enjoy catching up with all the prospects during the NFL draft season.
Good first piece, obviously there wasn’t going to be anything no one already knew about Zeke.
Some people are simply jerks. Seriously.
I appreciate the supportive feedback…But wait a second, you mean to tell me that you already knew he won 4 state track titles in HS and majored in marketing? 😉
Great write up! While I agree it possibly could have been spent on a lesser known player, it was a great way to pass the time while at work. I love all the people posting negatively about the grammar and punctuation as if they haven’t ever been on the forum. It’s fantasy football, not a Comp paper. Informative article, and I look forward to the next installment.
bcoogan nice to see you moving into article format. Zeke is a tough write up as many already know most of his attributes, pros, and cons. Keep up the good work and blame the proof reading on your editing team 🙂
Thanks for checking it out, Mtregoli. I agree that I could’ve started with a lesser known player, but I wanted to start off with a guy that everybody was familiar with…the Zeke vs Treadwell conversation has been heating up over on the forum and I wanted to feed off of that a little as well
Nice piece, Doug. Looking forward to the next one. Don’t listen to the grammar nazis
Really nice article! Didn’t realize how good he actually was in college, lol. I’d love for him to land with the Colts, playing with Luck & that young offense, Houston would be a nice spot as well, I think.
Great article, looking forward to the next one!
On point and semi even evaluation. I don’t like comparisons to current players because too many factors confuse the reader. Comparing AP, Foster and McCoy to Elliot muddies the evaluation. What I see in those 3 RB’s is not what everyone else sees. As well as picking out one attribute of each to build a base for Elliot isn’t fair or accurate.
Better to say what he does well and what he doesn’t. State facts and any incite into the player is best.
I hope this young man doesn’t go to the Colts. If drafted high hopefully he will go to a team with a O line that will give him opportunity and protection. But only the football gods know for sure.
Haters gonna hate. Putting yourself out there takes guts but hopefully you’ve got some thick skin and are able to pluck some of the more constructive comments out of the barbs above. The series will continue to improve with each of these you put out there, I’m sure. Keep at it (and on the free side).
Thanks, JJDubya and you’re right- Cam Newton scores TDs and then goes and hands every ball to a child and he still has haters 😉
I feel like if people didn’t know who the writer was, there wouldn’t be nearly as much hate.
Anyhow Coog, I agree with some people about the grammar and overall structure. However, it is your first article and I think people could cut you some slack. It takes time to develop into a seasoned writer, much like anything else.
Putting that aside, the content was good. I agree with the comp to Foster. Zeke & Treadwell are the only guys I’ve done a lot of scouting on and like you, I love Zeke’s upside. It would be nice for a little bit of a deeper analysis but part of me feels like the purpose of this series is not that, but more to pose an introductory scope to some of these players with a bit of scouting observations. Hopefully I’m correct.
All in all, ignore the people bashing you. Good start to a series and you’ll only develop as a writer as you go.
I think if you shamelessly self promote or campaign for writer priviledge then you must accept the criticism . Look at it like all of your “helpful hints” telling people where and how to post or making fun of them for having just a few message board posts . Since none of us ever watched football or posted on a message board prior to discovering DLF and that makes our opinions < than someone that blasts out 500 posts and 23000 emoticons a month .
Agreed Clarion.
This is the final nail in my DLF coffin. I will not be re-upping my script when it expires in a month or so.
Such a disappointment awaking to this.
As someone who knows nothing about what everyone is talking about.. I’m intrigued, lol.
By the way, this article was free, so re-upping your script or won’t make a difference.
By the way, this article was free, so re-upping your script won’t make a difference***
JRod – it has nothing to do w/ the cost or no cost of this article, not re-upping my script is my making a statement about DLFs business choices and my disagreements w/ them. The choice to give Coogan a ‘forum’ to write beyond the forum is my final nail.
Thanks, PhadedCN. You are 100% correct on the scope of this series and what I want it to be. It is my personal take from what I got when watching the player’s tape with a little bit about his time in school and a few notes about the person within the player.
Well, Coog, like others have said, style wise it needs some work. The best advice I can give as an occasional playwright is that the greatest skill in the arts is the ability to edit your own work without emotion or mercy. Whenever you write something, cut, cut and cut again until your end product is lean and mean. But congrats in putting it out there!
I really can’t see the Giants taking Zeke that early when there are so many superior pro prospects on the D side of the ball and on the O line. If they want him (even though you could easily argue the D is in need of more help than the RB position) they should trade back. I’d bet he’s not taken before the 20’s, which is still extremely high for a RB.
Thanks for the advice, Dook, I’ll keep the editing thing in mind. Between you and Phaded I now have had 100% of my Canadian buddies read and comment on here haha.
I agree about NYG probably not taking him there, but I saw it on a mock site that I frequent so I figured it was worth mentioning as a possible landing spot.
The fact that there are 36+ comments alone makes the article a success. Practice makes perfect, and as Dave Gettleman once said to a journalist who was bashing Cam Newton early, how many articles were you proud of when you first starting writing. Maybe with continued effort & practice we will have a Cam Newton of DLF on our hands.
Maybe, hopefully he won’t have to go through a car wreck to get to that point.
Thanks ArrylT, hopefully every time I write a new article I get better and better. Brett Favre’s first pass was an INT 🙂
Congrats on the article! I know it was something you were working towards. It’s nice to see someone who is highly committed to the forums getting a chance to publish articles. Looking forward to seeing info on some lesser known prospects.
Hey, Jcc6fd, I’m glad you liked it. Every time I’m ready to start another article I’m going to post a poll in the Team Advice forum so you guys can vote and decide on who my next one will be about… Devontae Booker is leading the poll right now.
Just so you know posting which player your going to write about next in the “Dynasty Team Advice” section isn’t where it should go.
I am fully aware of that, Pablo. I answer about 20+ posts a day for others in that forum myself. The forum members in that particular forum area are the ones that I enjoy interacting with the most on a dsily basis and they are the ones who I would like to have a say in the player that I cover next. I hope you enjoyed the article
How ironic that people who feel they have been slighted by you in the forums feel entitled to slam you mercilessly on here. I can feel their self-righteousness all the way up here in Canada.
People really do take themselves way too seriously sometimes.
Good luck with the series and keep providing your honest and straightforward opinion on the forums.
Thanks for the comment, Groppler. I can’t get caught up in their negativity and attempts to get under my skin in the comments on here, for every 1 negative or non-related bad comment I get there are 5 good ones and about 2 PMs to my forum inbox from guys saying something good things like you did here… Thanks again!
I think the article is sweet and to the point! I liked it! Big deal on grammar,punctuation etc. Seems like a few people on the site have nothing better to do than be critical about an article that someone took there time and effort to write to the best of there abilities. It’s scary putting yourself out there for everyone to see! You guys are the ones probably still living in moms basement having her cut the crust of your PB&J after a hard days work at the comic book store! Going nowhere! This guy is atleast trying and succeeding in my opinion! Nice article Coogan!
Wow! I was going to join this site. Perhaps I won’t.
Was there something in particular in this article that you didn’t like scj55? Your name wouldn’t happen to be Shawn Carter would it?
No not at all, I enjoyed it and don’t care about grammar issues lol.I was looking for a new site to get premium info from and there seems to be a bit of infighting here. My name is Steve by the way and I have no clue who Shawn Carter is. Good luck on your future articles.
With respect,
Steve
when you put someone like Coogan in a featured role. Sure, you’ll get some clicks, but those clicks will be accompanied by comments. And, the comments will highlight Coogan’s history, and put doubt into a perspective customer’s mind. As a company, your goal is to make money. It’s much easier to make money when people don’t doubt you.
Coogan, we all know I was talking about your forum history. Don’t play dumb.
Regardless of your intention the grammar and spelling is terrible. That should be peiority… Making it readable. You can call people grammar nazis or defend your idea, but that doesn’t change how quickly I wanted to scan through this after the first paragraph.
Your boner for EE showed from start to finish. Best piece of advice would be to out it away every now and again. I believe you made five cultural relations references when describing early on. I understand “fast” and “shifty” can be rwptitious and boring, but Forrest Gump? I remember him moreso as a distance runner not an elusive speedster.
Clean up your format and this article will do fine on a website like this. Maybe more time editing will keep you from being a dbag forum diva.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=billy%20coogan
Thought I’d just leave this here.
I love all the pusses who talked sh*t but yet they couldn’t put their actual name or forum username…what abunch of cowards
Tsk Tsk, that’s is HARDLY language befitting a legendary DLF columnist! All the time you spend correcting people on the placement and format of their forum posts, and you can’t even correct your own spelling and grammar? I would think you’d be able to withstand a bit of criticism considering how much you dish out on the forums!
This is actually pretty good for a first article, I give the guy credit for giving something like this a try and putting his thoughts out there!
