If we want a NT- look no further than Dontari Poe

[pantherj]

Just spoke to my best friend in Memphis about Poe. He has had season tickets at Memphis since the early 80's and says Poe is not worth a top 10 pick. He is objective and has watched him play every game he has played at Memphis. Good information from an objective fan. Granted, he is not an NFL scout. Just wanted to provide some objective info from a Memphis fan who has no agenda and has watched Poe play live during his career at Memphis.

Well finally we hear the opinion of a fan who has actually seen Poe play football. Unfortunately that was not the opinion I wanted to hear, so I'm going to ignore it, j/k.

[panthers55]

It is funny that you say this about Poe but when it came to Stephen Hill you told me there was a reason no one had heard of him and it was because he wasn't that good.

So if I understand you correctly a guy like Poe who was a second team all conference guy in Conference-USA needs the combine to be compared to other players that are more well known. However, a receiver that was handicapped by playing in a flexbone option doesn't get the same right to compare against better known wide receivers at the combine because he only had 28 catches at GT. :p

I am intrigued by Poe but the only truly good competition he played against was Miss State and he was supposedly on the ground the whole game. It is hard to know how good he can be because he didn't play against elite offensive linemen. Normally being from a smaller conference doesn't bother me EXCEPT when they are on either side of the line. Doesn't mean he won't be a really great player, after all Jordan Gross is really good, but it is harder to evaluate them when you watch them because the talent level in the trenches isn't the same.

I was very impressed with Poe today though. He was a beast and was incredibly athletic for his size.

What is funny is that you make things up to try and prove a point distorting what I said completely. What I said what that I didn't agree that he was a first round talent and that he didn't bring anything to the table that we didn't already have in David Gettis or could find with Streeter who is a fourth rounder or fifth rounder. I also don't think you can compare a skill position like receiver where every team seems to have a big fast receiver with a 350 lb DT who benched 225 lbs-44 times and ran a 4.87 in the combine. That was only 5 reps short of the all-time record. In fact I can't remember anyone that big running that fast, can you???

But this thread isn't about rehashing Hill who we will not be drafting but about a DT who we could be drafting and is in an area of need. Poe is a junior and he isn't from an elite team nor was he on a very good team. So it is true that he hasn't played against elite competition nor has he had tons of experience. That is why the combine was so important for him. Should we draft him automatically based on just these numbers? It depends on whether you are willing to develop him or not. Will he come in and start? No. Could he develop into a starter and be a big time talent?Possibly maybe even likely. But unlike Hill we don't have a talent anything close to what Poe brings to the table. If Kris Jenkins were still here than I wouldn't want Poe just like since we have Gettis I am not interested in Hill.

[frash.exe]

No, that is not it at all.

It is a combination of the 19 reps, his speed, and the fact that he was not a great penetrater in college. Put all that together, and to me it says he will probably be a nice run-stuffer, but that is about it.

lol you started your post saying it has nothing to do with his speed and then you immediately went and said "...his speed and other things"

besides his bench and 40 time, which are the two least comprehensive drills in the combine, he didn't do terrible

[Cat'sGrowl]

Not one person wants to talk about the fact that besides the useless crap (40. Time on a DLmen? Lol) Poe had a pretty average day.

He showed average lateral agility in the on field drills, he showed sloppy technique in the dummy drills, he was predominately average and yet here we are.

[LinvilleGorge]

Poe had a pretty average day.

:smilielol5:

[BeasonBeastingBacks]

Not one person wants to talk about the fact that besides the useless crap (40. Time on a DLmen? Lol) Poe had a pretty average day.

He showed average lateral agility in the on field drills, he showed sloppy technique in the dummy drills, he was predominately average and yet here we are.

well..... Brockers has a nice beard

Poe should grow a beard so we can see how they compare

[panthers55]

I only dislike him as a top 10 pick. He isn't good enough to go that high.

What's the point? Point is only you were talking out of your tail. You can't name a game where he displayed the play on the field to support the claims people are making that he is now worthy old our 1st round pick.

but I am done here, I am not worried about Hurney drafting him in the top 10. He would have to trade down to justify that pick.

First of all how would you know what a top 10 pick looks like or not? Are you a professional scout or a message board poster? He was projected as a lower first round pick already and the 4th or 5th best defensive tackle on the board. So it is no big reach to find that he climbs up to top 15 or even top 10 with ridiculous numbers like he ran, jumped, and bench pressed. His 44 bench presses is 5 short of the all time record. His 4.87 has to be the fastest time ever run by a player weighing 350 pounds. His numbers were ridiculous so clearly moving up the draft makes perfect sense. If you think we couldn't draft Poe at nine you are sadly mistaken. This is what one site posted tonight specifically mentioning the Panthers at ninth in the draft.

http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=84013&draftyear=2012&genpos=DT

[Cat'sGrowl]

:smilielol5:

This translates to me as "I really don't have the mental capacity to formulate a counter response, but I do know that Poe can run 40 yards in five seconds, and that's what counts."

Why don't you share with us your evaluation of Poe's performance in the on-field drills, George? Why don't we hear your input?

[megadeth078]

Since we're all judging players on stupid sh*t (like having played imaginary difficult opponents, having played in an overrated conference that people think is NFL-caliber, 40 times for a DT, bench pressing cars, and Mike Mayock's mock drafts) have a go at this guys:

[BeasonBeastingBacks]

Since we're all judging players on stupid sh*t (like having played imaginary difficult opponents, having played in an overrated conference that people think is NFL-caliber, 40 times for a DT, bench pressing cars, and Mike Mayock's mock drafts) have a go at this guys:

">

[panthers55]

Not one person wants to talk about the fact that besides the useless crap (40. Time on a DLmen? Lol) Poe had a pretty average day.

He showed average lateral agility in the on field drills, he showed sloppy technique in the dummy drills, he was predominately average and yet here we are.

That is ridiculous. Everyone had Brockers as a top 10 pick. Poe beat brockers numbers in everything. Nothing about Poe was average today, in fact his numbers were ridiculous.

He is only a junior and weighs 350 lbs. He is raw for sure but you can coach technique. Anyone who thinks dummy drills are as important as a 10 yard speed drill obviously doesn't know what they are talking about. And his 10 yard drill was 1.7 which was not average and better than Brockers.

Even more interesting was the fact that at the combine, Poe had an unofficial 1.70 10-yard split, which absolutely speaks to his ability to explode off the snap and do really bad things to offensive linemen. Getting the numbers for that initial burst is very important -- far more important than the whole 40 -- when looking at linemen and linebackers who can explode off the snap. To put Poe's split in perspective, future endbackers like Nick Perry and Shea McClellin had 10-yard splits in the 1.57 to 1.59 range -- and Poe outweighs McClellin by about 100 pounds. Yikes.

After the run, Mike Mayock of the NFL Network raved about Poe's movement skills, opining that Poe looks a lot like Haloti Ngata of the Baltimore Ravens at the line, and especially in zone drops. Ngata has a rare ability to "get skinny" through blockers at 350 pounds, and there's tape of Poe doing the same sort of stuff.

Not bad for the fourth-heaviest defensive lineman to weigh in at the combine since 2000. At 346 pounds, Poe is bested only by Alabama's Terrence Cody (354 in 2010), Washington's Alameda Ta'amu (348 this year) and Texas Frank Okam (347 in 2008). A few more numbers: Ta'amu's 40 was about a half-second slower unofficially (he didn't run his second after suffering a hamstring injury), Okam shook the ground at 5.32, and Cody ran an official 5.71 at his combine.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/combine-notes-dontari-poe-runs-unofficial-4-87-175608498.html

[LinvilleGorge]

This translates to me as "I really don't have the mental capacity to formulate a counter response, but I do know that Poe can run 40 yards in five seconds, and that's what counts."

Why don't you share with us your evaluation of Poe's performance in the on-field drills, George? Why don't we hear your input?

Your reading comprehension sucks, that's for sure.

He showed very quick feet on the on-field drills. I don't care about his technique punching bags in drills that are simply there to show what type of feet they have.

If you don't think his 10 yard split (it was under 1.7) and 44 reps is impressive, then I'm not sure what to tell you.

His lack of production scares me, but the raw talent is off the charts.

[TopCat]

I don't like those balloons

5th rounder at best now

I happen to like the balloons, But what I dislike is the way he opened the door. 3rd rounder.

[BeasonBeastingBacks]

I happen to like the balloons, But what I dislike is the way he opened the door. 3rd rounder.

are you kidding me?

the only thing he did right in that video was opening the freaking door.

I'm lowering him to UDFA because of your post.