Appalachian State Mountaineers: Draft Blair and…
The Appalachian State Mountaineers will be sending one guy to the NFL for certain. Any others?
The Appalachian State Mountaineers had a tremendous season for their second year in the FBS. Now they are sending their seniors into the fires of the NFL Draft to see who or what comes out. If they play anything like they did last year they should be pretty good.
I had wanted to get to this article sooner, but then the NFL had to interrupt my Wednesday. Supposedly, I have a three way basketball contest between Duke-Wake-UNC to officiate and Hornets to buck up. Then came the dynamite when Philadelphia traded to the number two spot in the draft and then Josh Norman became a free man in a small pool.
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So Mountaineers got pushed to Thursday. In the related articles for the ACC and ECU, it was shown that other than Jeremy Cash, there won’t be a lot of early names called for those schools in the upcoming draft. Unfortunately, Appalachian State follows suit. Of six rated players, only two are considered to be draft worthy.
One of those guys is Ronald Blair. The fifth year defensive end prospect put on some muscle to get to 284 pounds and is projected to be a third or fourth round target.
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He is a player with a high motor and leadership skill. Both of those things will enable him to improve on his shortcomings as he adjusts to better competition. He would be well placed in a defensive end platoon where he could work his way into the lineup, not dissimilar from the Carolina Panthers.
Safety Doug Middleton is considered to be a seventh round pick. His nose for the ball should get him a look somewhere around the league. He is also stoutly built for the position.
Unfortunately that means that tackle Davante Harris, wideout Malachi Jones, wideout Bobo Beathard, and center Jesse Chapman will be finding their way to practice squads and training camps. Of that group Jones sticks out for the crazy plays that he can be capable of.
The draft is only a week away and there is still time for the NFL scouts to change their minds. Hopefully they do, because they are missing out on some hard working players.