ASJ, Kasen Williams and Bishop Sankey

Just curious which of these guys you think will go pro after this season and which will come back for their senior seasons. My outsiders opinion:

ASJ: Pretty much a lock to go pro unless his finger injury, or something else completely ruins this season for him. Should be a top 20 pick, maybe even a top 10 pick, so he should go pro.

Kasen Williams: He's kind of an enigma to me. I know he was a big time prospect coming out of high school, and he definatly looks the part, but I've never been blown away by him. Seems like a good, solid player but not the star player that he was expected to become. I think he'd be smart to come back for his senior season when he can be the focal point of the passing game with ASJ gone (although I really like some of the young WR's the Huskies have coming up as well who might push Kasen. That seems to be the position that UW recruits best the last handful of years).

Bishop Sankey: If he has the junior season that he is expected to have I think he'd be smart to go pro even if he'd only be a mid round draft pick. IMO, RB is the one position where you should leave as quickly as possible just because the shelf life is low for RB's.

Thoughts?

ASJ- I see it the same way, but I don't think he goes quite that high in the draft. I think he goes 15-25 range, and given some of his recent setbacks it is not unthinkable for him to reach the last pick in the first round. He is not an overly toolsy guy. He's big and tall, he blocks well, he has great hands, he runs great routes and occasionally he can beast through guys for extra yardage. He's more of a well rounded prospect with very nice measurables than an athletic freak, and lately the well rounded types have been slipping on draft day while the freaks have been getting overdrafted. I half expect Lyerla to get drafted before ASJ will.

I am not a huge Kasen Williams fan. To me, he's a poor man's Damian Williams. Williams was terrific route runner at USC that I really liked, but in the NFL he's been an average joe. Williams has a similar "solid but unspectacular" skillset who's fooled people into thinking he's a top prospect because of his physique, but in actual games his athleticism is short of spectacular. I think if Williams declares early, I won't even care that much, and I'd expect him to get drafted in rounds 4-6 unless he blows up the combine or something.

Sankey could definitely come out early, but I'm not sure that would be smart. RBs have never been more undervalued than they are currently, and it's completely possible that he could go undrafted even though he's a 2nd or 3rd round talent on paper. I think Cierre Wood and Chris Polk were equal if not superior prospects and both went undrafted. There are a lot of good college RBs right now and also a lot of good NFL RBs, so it's getting pretty hard to break into the league. Sankey is a bit undersized and should only consider declaring if he catches a wave of draft hype the way that Giovani Bernard did. I think Bernard or maybe Ray Rice are the best NFL comparisons for Sankey if you want to be an optimist. If you are a pessimist, I'd say Leon Washington with less speed. If Sankey doesn't get a good report from the draft committee, he should go back to school and hope for the best in 2015. If UW loses Sankey, I won't lose much sleep over it, even though I do think Sankey is turning into a very nice player. Seems like Sark can recruit and coach up RBs just fine.

ASJ is as good as gone

Williams, who really knows, I think he'll probably stay his full commitment

Sankey I hope doesn't, but I could see a situation where he does leave early. I really like Sankey too, so it'd suck for me, his name is also pretty bad ass.

ASJ would love to get a suspension about now so he could start working out for NFL clubs. Goooodbye.

Williams isn't good enough yet. He should be, but he isn't.

If Sankey has the same year as he did last year? I could see him going, you have a short career in the NFL as a RB and it's not like he's going to be a #1 pick. If he thinks he's going to be a 3rd rounder next year, he's gone.

Good topic...

This will be unpopular, but I don't see ASJ as a top 20 pick. He's a fantastic player and reminds me of the age 30+ Tony Gonzalez. That said, he's going to run a really poor time. His blocking is pretty sub-par too, despite his massive frame. I think he's going to be a good pro for a long time, but I think teams will be scared to pull the trigger when he runs a 4.75-4.85 at the combine. I would take him as a Seahawk without hesitation. I just don't buy him as a Elite, top 15 TE type of talent.

I've never understood the love for Kasen Williams. I think he has some fantastic skills but he won't break a 4.7. He's very strong with great leaping ability, but he won't separate at all at the NFL level. Great college player, but a very limited professional ceiling.

Bishop Sankey is the typical, pretty good at everything, great at nothing type of RB prospect. His size/speed will do him no favors, but I can see him being a late round draft pick who sticks in the league for a few years.

The big dawgs to keep an eye out IMO are Shaq (obviously), Travis Feeney, and Marcus Peters. I think all 3 have top 50 draft pick potential. Feeney's health will hold him back, but he's a lot like Ogletree with his length and explosion. Feeney will run a better time (I think he's a legit 4.55 guy). Shaq is a new age WIL who can cover, blitz, tackle and has great size for that role. Peters is a freak show. Great length and shows tremendous upside. I think people will be shocked what kind of player Peters becomes.

I think it's safe to say ASJ will be lumped into the late 1st to 2nd round group of draft prospects.

Kasen is a good talent, but I think was a little overrated and overhyped coming in, maybe because of coming out of Skyline and how badly he dominated in WA? He was really hurt by Price's ineffectiveness last season, but I could see him having a semi-monster year in 2013. I think his chances of coming out early are extremely low. He just doesn't have the speed to be a top 2 pick, and he's not physically dominant enough for his size to overcome the lack of speed.

Sankey will have a tough decision to make if he has another great year. He's been relatively injury-free, and I think if he can get projected as a top 3 or 4 pick, you have to take the money as a running back. Can't see him higher than a 3rd rounder as a best case scenario, he's a very good player but not athletically dominant.

Shaq could be a top 5 overall pick in 2015 if he continues to develop. Phenomenal athlete.

What is really intriguing...and I'm not trying to project this by any means...but what if UW has another disappointing 6-win season or worse? Especially if it's due to continuing problems with talent/depth on the OL. Is Sark safe? Keith is gone, ASJ is gone and Kasen and Bishop could leave if they wanted to. Then they're left with still trying to build the OL, and bringing in completely new skill position players pretty much everywhere. If UW can't get to 8 or 9 wins this year, it'll be interesting to see if UW chooses to eat the buyout for the last 2 years of his deal. Most of my UW buddies hate Sark and think their ceiling is 8 wins with him as HC there, and that's not good enough by UW standards.

Knowing the type of recruits they brought in this year at WR, losing Kasen early wouldn't be crippling. Can't imagine Sankey leaving early with how undervalued running backs are right now.

I think Price's struggles weren't helped by the new OC. THe offense lacked an identity last year. Looking at what Nussmeyer(sp?) did in 2011 and then last year at Bama, perhaps he was a far more integral part to the offensive scheme and success than anyone thought.
This is kind of a make or break year for Sark, and I think he knows it. The team is loaded.

seahawk2k":1fgrfqc8 said:

Knowing the type of recruits they brought in this year at WR, losing Kasen early wouldn't be crippling. Can't imagine Sankey leaving early with how undervalued running backs are right now.

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IMO even though its an under valued position RB's should go as soon as possible. Yea, he probably wouldn't get drafted in the first couple of rounds, maybe not even in the first 4 rounds, but as a running back I think you want to put yourself in position for that 2nd or 3rd contract at as young of an age as possible. Its not like returning for his senior season would vault him up a couple of rounds in the draft either.

Mtjhoyas":3k4knpqt said:

This will be unpopular, but I don't see ASJ as a top 20 pick. He's a fantastic player and reminds me of the age 30+ Tony Gonzalez. That said, he's going to run a really poor time. His blocking is pretty sub-par too, despite his massive frame. I think he's going to be a good pro for a long time, but I think teams will be scared to pull the trigger when he runs a 4.75-4.85 at the combine. I would take him as a Seahawk without hesitation. I just don't buy him as a Elite, top 15 TE type of talent.

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Agreed on everything but blocking. Actually, I don't know about his pass blocking, but given that he was their #1 weapon last year I'm guessing he didn't do a lot of it. His run blocking has always impressed me though. But you would expect him to run block in a body like that.

JSeahawks":3k4knpqt said:

IMO even though its an under valued position RB's should go as soon as possible. Yea, he probably wouldn't get drafted in the first couple of rounds, maybe not even in the first 4 rounds, but as a running back I think you want to put yourself in position for that 2nd or 3rd contract at as young of an age as possible. Its not like returning for his senior season would vault him up a couple of rounds in the draft either.

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True, but going undrafted is a real possibility if guys like Polk and Wood can go undrafted. Seems like the league is leaning away from skinny/fast RBs these days in favor of Marshawn Lynch clones. Even quick RBs like Doug Martin are pretty beefy.

If he think he'll probably go undrafted after this year, he should hang around and see what happens. Maybe he has a huge season at some point and forces his way into the round 2-4 discussion. Given his body type and weight though, it's not going to be easy. Kenjon Barner is a great example of size bias from last year (he went 6th round). Sankey's a little bigger and maybe a little more talented, but it's going to be tough for him.

On the plus side, UW has an easier schedule this year and Sankey had huge numbers after a slow start last season. He really took off when Sark introduced the read option wrinkle.

I forgot to mention Danny Shelton. He's another UW guy who will have a decision to make.

The only decision Shelton seems to make is deciding whether to go back for thirds at the buffet.

Josh Shirley was getting some hype among scouts a short while back. His situation is a bit like Corey Lemonier's last year. Lemonier went in the 3rd round after declaring early.

Kasen had more receiving yards than all of UWs WRs combined last year. The QB play was absolutely horrid last year and Kasen was still pretty damned good. KP threw for just over 2700 yards last year and Kasen caught almost 900 yards.

I'm kind of surprised at some of the comments about Kasen in this thread. He's a lock for the NFL, imo. If KP is anywhere close to his 2011 form, Kasen is as good as gone because he will have a monster year.

I still have a hard time getting mad at Price for last season. That oline played like dog crap for a lot of the season, it is Price's fault he never snapped out of being shell shocked. But that oline was awful, like truly they would've been better off bringing out 5 more receivers instead of an oline, that's how useless them boys were.