It's pretty bad when Looch's only criticism of Colin Simmons is that he doesn't think he is as good as Myles Garrett - who is only a top 2-3 edge rusher in the NFL right now.
Did the staff cool on Bridges? I do remember the early tea leaves being positive and then he committed to Arky kind of out of the blue (at least to me).
AAU does have some serious issues, but, to add to your point, players are showing up in the league with more developed skill sets and better defensive awareness than players ~15 years ago. Now that's not all attributable to AAU, but I think the crying about AAU's effects on American player development is overblown (the injury concerns are real).
Would be curious to see an analysis of AD Mitchell's playoff and national championship touchdown count compared to every A&M player in the past 80 years combined.
Not being able to use Looney in this series kills GSW. His minutes go to a bunch of subpar, mostly undersized wings. It's brutal for any team to match up with LeBron/AD playing 43 minutes each, especially when the matchup necessitates that you go small. I don't think there's a great solution on this GSW roster other than (i) run even more Steph PnR to wear out AD and keep him away from the rim and/or (ii) hope Klay hits shots.
My thinking was a few first-round type kids returning + the raw talent they've been stacking on that side of the ball + the floor for Saban's Alabama defenses has still been very good. Now that I'm looking closer at that roster, it does look like particularly linebacker and safety could be pretty green and they're oddly lacking high-end guys on the interior.
If Davis stays healthy, and that's a major if, I think LAL are likely favored in the second round regardless of who comes out of that series. What Davis is doing defensively is special. Will certainly be contrasting styles and a very interesting matchup either way.
Acknowledging the Alabama defense should be excellent next year, I think it's wild that they opened up more than a touchdown favorite. We're demonstrably better at every position group on offense and watching the QB play during their spring game reminded me a bit of the King/Johnson/Weigman disaster class from last spring.
That's Ari Wasserman's MO. He somehow landed a national job by writing story after story about the novel concept that teams full of 4/5 stars win more and then taking victory laps every year when Georgia/Bama/OSU win. The guy brings virtually zero knowledge of scheme and has no personality.
Not bemoaning the loss of Ovie. He was an exceedingly average P5 player, and we're better off with younger players getting his reps. However, there's no real indication that we'll get better production from any individual on this year's roster. The defense was very good last year - my point was that I expect it to be similar this year with weaknesses in late down situations.
Based on the various practice reports, it really sounds like the defense will be about the same as last year. I expect the secondary to improve but worry that even for all their shortcomings, linebacker and EDGE play will stay the same or even regress slightly with the loss of DMo and Ovie. Interior defensive line play should once again be high level. It could be huge if Catalon is healthy for even a few of @Bama, OU, @TCU and KSU. All this should absolutely be enough for us to play in the Big 12 CG.
This is one of many things that I don't understand about the rankings, a top 5 center will be ranked behind ~25 offensive tackles. I suppose the recruiting analysts say that they're ranking based on NFL draft projections, so it makes sense on that level - but I'd certainly rather have the kick-ass center on my team at the college level.