Future TE for the Patriots, a young Gronk

[patsfaninpa]

Revis, Ditka, Marino, Kelly, and Montana just to name a few came from PA. Pennsylvania does have good Football. It doesn't engulf the entire state but there are certain pockets that turn our really great players. California gets a bit more credit than it deserves. I'd put PA and CA on the same level, maybe give CA a slight advantage.

I would also add some more current players like; Matt Ryan, Chris Snee, Dan Koppen, Sean Lee, Paul Posluszny, Jonathan Baldwin, Henry Hynoski and Jared Odrick off of the top of my head. Not as many as Calif. But, comparable to Louisiana and Mississippi for sure.

Here's an article listing NFL players by State. Pa is 7th.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/sh...s-California-and-Texas-produce?urn=nfl-272416

 

[patsfaninpa]

Anyone else still curious about who the hell Ochmed was talking about??

Ochmed is talking about Andrew Szczerba - TE - Penn St. OTG mentioned it. You must have missed it. He's an in-line te 6'5" 260lb. I either go to or watch every PSU game. He's a free agent at best. Wouldn't draft him. Our qb play was horrible. But, he didn't do anything exceptionally well and has a long history of injuries.

 

[fester]

Revis, Ditka, Marino, Kelly, and Montana just to name a few came from PA. Pennsylvania does have good Football. It doesn't engulf the entire state but there are certain pockets that turn our really great players. California gets a bit more credit than it deserves. I'd put PA and CA on the same level, maybe give CA a slight advantage.

I don't know much about California football, but there are about a dozen high schools in Western Pennsylvania with at least one current alum in the NFL, including several All-Pros (Gronkowski and Revis off the top of my head). Woodland Hills High School (my school district) had the most current alumns in the league during the 2012 season (Gronk, Polite, Mundy (Steelers), Breaston (KC), Jason Taylor (Miami), Shawntae Spencer (SF), Darren Walls (Atlanta), T. Johnson and W. Bodie)

Yeah, Western Pennsylvania is not Florida, and it is not Texas, but it still produces a disproportionate number of high end college and NFL players.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Cory Harkey? He is from UCLA, will run slow, and is probably the best blocking TE in the draft. In my 2nd mock I had the pats picking him up in the 7th because he was he was ranked #235, now for some reason he is ranked #112. Thats too high for me to want to pick him. Egnew at #133 would be awesome though.

Yes, Harkey is the guy I was thinking about. Really good blocker in college.

A guy like this is like a third OT on the field and he could really improve our stretch running plays.

Szezecba from Penn State is another free agent type that I thought might be able to block, but the tape is not that great.

 

[Off The Grid]

It is the TE for UCLA.

He has a funny name Ezebebca?

Yes, Harkey is the guy I was thinking about.

WHAT???

 

[manxman2601]

WHAT???

All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order.

Morecambe & Wise with Andre Previn - YouTube

 

[Off The Grid]

All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order.

Morecambe & Wise with Andre Previn - YouTube

 

[manxman2601]

That my friend is classic British humour.

 

[BradyBranch39]

the thing that struck me was:
he runs way crisper routes than he needs to. Often, he cuts like Revis is 5 inches from him, when really, nobody's within 4-6 yards of him.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Revis, Ditka, Marino, Kelly, and Montana just to name a few came from PA. Pennsylvania does have good Football. It doesn't engulf the entire state but there are certain pockets that turn our really great players. California gets a bit more credit than it deserves. I'd put PA and CA on the same level, maybe give CA a slight advantage.

That's one guy from the last 30 years. Recent CA players include the last two MVP's Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jared Allen, Troy Polamalu and Logan Mankins.

Not that they ever had the full NFL level of success expected of them, Carson Palmer, David Carr, and Alex Smith were NFL overall #1 picks in this millenium who played high school ball in CA, Reggie Bush was a number 2.

Pennsylvania doesn't sniff that.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

I would also add some more current players like; Matt Ryan, Chris Snee, Dan Koppen, Sean Lee, Paul Posluszny, Jonathan Baldwin, Henry Hynoski and Jared Odrick off of the top of my head. Not as many as Calif. But, comparable to Louisiana and Mississippi for sure.

Here's an article listing NFL players by State. Pa is 7th.

I can't re-post your link, due to my low post count.

The link you published actually proves most of my points: it states that Louisiana and Mississippi (1 in 76,883) rank first and second respectively, in the highest per capita rank of population to NFL players. Thus, the quality of their HS football is probably pretty good. While Mississippi might be negotiable as a Pennsylvania comp. (although I don't think it is), you would be hard pressed to say that Pennsylvania football is in the class of Louisiana football. Despite having less than half the population of Pennsylvania, Louisiana according to your link has more NFL players (68 - 56) and better NFL players:
Peyton Manning, Matt Forte, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ed Reed and Reggie Wayne

Seriously, just look at the talent on LSU. LSU became a great program again when they kept their best players in state.

As to my initial point, Texas, Florida and California are the top notch hs programs, and that Pennsylvania isn't in that class. Your link simply my point a solid data set to underscore my premise:

State NFL players
California 211
Texas 181
Florida 177





Louisiana 68

Pennsylvania 56


Edit to add: I appreciate the thoughts and link in the original post in the thread and enjoy seeing great football on any level.

 

[Off The Grid]

the thing that struck me was:


he runs way crisper routes than he needs to.

Often, he cuts like Revis is 5 inches from him, when really, nobody's within 4-6 yards of him.

Umm...

Try running that route that extra 4-6 yards, as Brady throws the ball to where you were supposed to be...and see what happens.

 

[upstater1]

Did I say Pennsylvania is the best football state in the nation? No.

They're ranked 7th out of 50? That's what I was referring to. It's one of the top football states in the country.