When it comes to the upcoming draft, there's only one player that perfectly fits a position that's quickly becoming one of the most important in the NFL. Yet that same player comes with question marks of work ethic and conditioning that has him scaled much farther down draft boards than he should be -- a perplexing situation that might play out much differently than anything we're projecting come draft day.
The position? The 3-4 nose tackle.
The player? Terrence Cody.
Before you assume you know what's coming, just go with me for a minute (because you know you have nothing else to do anyway). Think about the situation at hand. More and more teams are moving to a 3-4 defense with each season, making good tackles in the scheme very hard to come by. The few that might have been available this year were all locked up - from Vince Wilfork to Casey Hampton to Aubrayo Franklin. The ones that were available are either entirely unproven or have their best days behind them. Not a pretty picture.
But look at the draft. As absolutely amazing as both Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh will be in the NFL, neither one are the behemoth point-of-attack player that the 3-4 nose tackle calls for. Neither are Tennessee's Dan Williams, UCLA's Bryan Price or Penn State's Jared Odrick. All of these are predicted as first-round talents around most mock drafts, but all seem best suited in the 4-3 coming into the NFL. And as Chiefs fans, we've seen what happens when you take a great DT in college in Glenn Dorsey only to watch the shift take place before your eyes. Many of us love Dorsey, but we can all admit the debate has raged on for two seasons.
More after the jump:
Back to Cody. He's huge. We've all seen the photos of the 370 pound weigh-in. Jokes were made. People knocked him to the second round. Some have even hoped for lower-round talents to fill the spot at nose tackle rather than even use a possible second rounder on Cody. And that's not surprising given the lack of conditioning displayed early on in the off-season.
But what about now? Most recently, Cody weighed in at
249 349 and he seems to be applying himself to be in "good" shape. If this is the case, you have to assume he's rising up draft boards. Perhaps no one wants to talk about it because they want him to be there when they draft. Or perhaps he's an overrated, overweight player who could get away with subpar conditioning at the college level. Perhaps he will get eaten up in the NFL.
Then again, the rare level of talent at the position certainly makes Cody worth a look, right? I think if the Chiefs took Cody with the top pick, fans would riot. At the same time, I have a hard time believing the guy will last until the second round given the scarcity at the position.
So what do you guys think? First round? Second round? And if he could go in the first round, do you think it's worth the Chiefs trying to trade up back into the first round to get him?
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