Monday Golden Nugz: Mitch Leidner in the NFL Draft and more

This is an older article but a good one where ProFootballTalk breaks down Mitch Leidner.  TLDR...he's not a first round pick, but he may be draftable with a could improvements.

First, here's what stands out.

The first thing that stands out is you have the size, you have the look like I said. There are actually a lot of things to like on tape. He had a high percentage of what we call "big-time throws," which is simply our higher-graded throws because we’re grading every single player on every play. Our higher-graded throws are downfield throws, extremely accurate, into tighter coverage, and (Leidner) actually had a really high percentage of those.

Leidner’s best plays look really good. He made a few really nice throws under pressure and he made a lot of really nice throws on the run. As far as a tool standpoint, that stands out in a positive light.

And what needs work...

I’d be willing to take a late-round flier on him and hope that he develops from a decision-making and timing standpoint, and hope that you can coach that out of him. Like I said, I don’t know if there have been that many cases of guys improving that greatly in that department.

But he’s more of a late-round type of guy, certainly not in the first-round mix at this point based on what we’ve seen.

I think we are all looking to see improvements in timing and accuracy.  Significant improvements and he moves way up draft boards (while the Gophers rack up a lot of wins!).  Cannot WAIT for football to start!

• This is a few days old but Mark Coyle spoke with Pioneer Press about his first 6 weeks on the job.
• Oregon State lost a couple of key reserves to career ending injuries.  Back-up RB Damien Haskins and OL Leo Fuimaono will not be playing this Fall.
• The ESPN blogger duo take a look at their projected win totals for the Gophers.
• Star Tribune's All Metro Baseball Team. Several high major players going places not Minnesota. North Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas State (x2) and Florida getting local kids.
• Syracuse replaced Mark Coyle with a new AD hire.  The Orange will now be lead by former ESPN executive and Syracuse alumn John Wildhack.