[Remember to check the '2010 NFL Draft' section for all stories relating to the draft.]
You're in good hands with 'Phillips, Rolle & Rolle.'
Could that be the motto for the New York Giants safeties in 2010?
Well, if Kenny Phillips arthritically-challenged knee cooperates, the Phillips part is covered. We know the first Rolle part is covered by the splashy free-agent acquisition of Antrel Rolle.
The second Rolle in the equation is a little murkier. That depends upon whether or not the Giants will be the team to draft the apparently too smart for his own good (at least according to NFL types) Myron Rolle.
The Florida State safety is the subject of today's Daily NFL Draft Prospect Profile. I know this is one many of you have been waiting for, and we are going to dispense with the usual format today. Mostly, as you know, because Rolle is the most unusual of NFL prospects.
Rolle, of course, is a Rhodes Scholar who spent the last year studying at Oxford rather than making tackles and interceptions at Florida State. He hopes to be a neurosurgeion. If you are one of those who studies the draft process, you know this whole Rhodes Scholar thing has NFL execs and analysts all flummoxed.They just don't know what to make of a guy who, before he has played an NFL down, knows that the most important things he will do in life will have nothing to do with football.
Check out this video from NFL.com to see what I'm talking about. Brian Billick and Steve Mariucci almost manage to make Rolle sound like a bad guy for thinking about and planning for something other than football. Sorry, but Billick raising a "character" concern with Rolle is sort of ridiculous. Because he's smarter than you, Brian, and he wants to do more than Coors Light commercials? Yikes!!
Rolle is a 6-foot-2, 218-pound safety who -- had he played his senior season at Florida State -- would almost undeniably be off the board within the first two rounds of the April draft. Read often scouting reports and in some of them you will see the phrase "first-round talent" attached to Rolle's name.
Consensus Draft Services sums up Rolle this way.
Talented athlete with prototypical size and speed for the safety position. ... There has never been any question about the talent or the physical tools with Myron. Can fill the enforcer role when his mind is right and he hammers people when he has the clear shot, but knows when to wrap. Can cover pretty well too. ... Many question his commitment to football as a result of him giving up his senior season to study at Oxford.
In its profile of Rolle, NFL Draft Scout hits on the concern many seem to have about Rolle when it says "He's still trying to convince teams he really wants to play football.
The National Football Post gives Rolle a sort of back-handed compliment when it says he "has a lot of untapped potential. It's scary to think how good this guy could be if he focused 100 percent on football."
What do you guys think of Rolle? Are NFL execs fussing too much about Rolle's academic endeavors?
Is he worth all the fuss? His ball skills have been questioned, and his 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine (4.67) was slower than all but three of the 23 safeties who ran?
Ultimately the big question. Would you like to see Myron Rolle in the Giants secondary? And how early is too early to take him? Of late, most projections I see shown him as a fifth-round pick or later.
(E-mail Ed at bigblueview@gmail.com. Follow Big Blue View on Twitter.)