You all know I'm a big proponent of New Era Scouting. While they certainly don't have quite the cache of Scouts Inc, Matt Miller and his staff put together quality work that is quite insightful. It's been quite helpful in much of the scouting reports I put together in preparation for the NFL Draft. And so with the NFL Draft mere days away, I want to let everyone know that the 2008 NES Draft Guide is now available. That link will take you to a page to download the guide as a pdf for free.
For those that don't want to download the 87 page document, here are some 49ers-related notes:
In the first two rounds of their 7-round mock draft, NES has us selecting Quentin Groves and Calais Campbell. I'm going to get some more research on Campbell, but he definitely seems like an impact player who could do some damage. Of course, one odd note is that they say he's best suited as a 4-3 defensive end. Nonetheless, I don't see why you can't work with a 6-8, 280lb badass like Campbell and make it work in the 3-4. The most interesting comment from the NES scouting report on Campbell:
NES also goes into a discussion of each team's needs. For the 49ers, they include:
- Wide Receiver (Starter)
- Safety (Starter)
- Guard (Starter)
- Outside Linebacker (Starter)
- Defensive End (Depth)
- Offensive Tackle (Depth)
- Return Specialist (Starter)
In addition to the draft guide, New Era Scouting is having their own Mock Draft Contest, where the winner gets $25. Considering I'm not offering any money I probably shouldn't be plugging it, but I figure it won't kill me. You have to sign up for the NES Forum but that won't take much time. Just a heads-up, but there's a link to the Forum within the description of the mock draft contest. If you decide to sign up, don't click on that as it needs to be corrected. Click up top above the article where it says Forum.