2008 NFL Draft Links

Tusekan Raiders · January 13, 2008

The world famous annual collection (and occasional reviews) of the best free NFL draft information on the net. I don't include a site if most of their draft content is premium (e.g. ESPN)...other than the fine product Waldman has available exclusively on this site. The first post has general links and resources. The second has all-star game coverage. The third has Combine and Pro Day/individual workout coverage. The fourth has underclassmen declared.

NFL DRAFT LINKS

FFToday.com

Matt Waldman - Rookie Scouting Portfolio (Pay - sample)

Tony Nowak - 2008 RB class: preview

Tony Nowak - 2008 RB class: season update

Tony Nowak - 2008 RB Class: Pre-Combine update

Draft websites

NFL.com Draft Central

Draft information on the NFL’s official website. The Combine updates and Pro Day tracking by Gil Brandt are one of the best annual features. Lots of analysis and usually profiles, although they aren't ready yet (dead link).

NFL Draftguys

Premier ff draftniks Cecil Lammey and Sigmund Bloom began a site last year. The layout/navigation is a work in progress, but the content is fantastic.

NFL Draft Scout - while the best content on this site is pay, there is enough free for me to list here, including a frequently-updated player news wire and rankings (profiles are pay).

NFL Draft Countdown

For one-stop shopping of NFL draft information, Scott Wright has one of the better independent free draft websites. Nice layout, easy navigation, solid ranking, decent profiles, and Scott produces one of the better mocks every year. Also has a good blog.

Sports Illustrated Draft Central

SI.com has been the best in class of the big box brands, and continues to be free. Their ranking (link by position) are typically excellent and include video clips. Look for Tony Pauline stories (click here), he is one of the best guys out there covering NFL prospects and the draft.

- Photo Gallery - Top 12 RBs

- UCF RB Kevin Smith feature

- Banks first mock

TFY Draft - Tony Pauline's new site

Yahoo! NFL Draft Home (still 2007 info)

John Murphy's contributions and video clips highlighted an improved big box offerings last year, but they haven't updated it yet. John left his own indy website (NextLevel Scouting) and stream-of-consciousness method for a regular Yahoo! column as their primary NFL draft writer, replacing Charles Robinson. Here are Murphy's archives for some good reads. John is plugged in and brings unique and interesting tidbits you don't find anywhere else.

- Rankings and prospect profiles (still 2007 rankings)

Draft Daddy

First turned on to this site for their undrafted free agent coverage, but they have all kinds of solid draft content. By far the best feature is their blog, the best one out there for a constant stream of draft info.

Football's Future

One of the more improved sites the last couple of years. Originally known for their mock draft links, they also have comprehensive and original profiles and team needs analysis. Also added a decent blog (although the blog hasn't been updated yet for 2008).

- Rankings and prospect profiles

New Era Scouting

A new addition this year, Bloomn turned me on to this site and I was an instant fan. Solid rankings, in-depth profiles with original content (still growing) and some other good stuff. It appears they just started some reconstruction 1/20/08, so a lot of stuff is stripped away right now. Watch for them to return soon in full.

Dallas News NFL Draft Home - featuring Rick Gosselin, one of the most respected newspaper draftniks.

Gosselin rankings

- Gosselin archive

- Dallas Morning News college football blog

Great Blue North Draft Report

Best feature of Canuck Colin Lindsey’s site is the running news updates on the main page. Another nice feature is the frequently updated Junior Scoreboard, tracking the status of underclassmen.

Pro Football Weekly NFL Draft Home

Nolan Nawrocki and this site grew on me for the first time last year since the Joel Buschbaum days. Free content is a little more robust. NOTE: also prospect talk in the College Notes and College Football Extras sections.

Rivals.com NFL Draft home - some great free articles and all-star coverage. Frank Coyle, who I'm not the biggest fan of, is the main contributor to the rankings, though.

ScoutNFLExperts.com - part of Scout.com network. In-depth stuff and profiles are not free, but rankings and enough good articles are.

War Room Report

Pro Draft Guide - new addition this year doesn't have much content, but youtube gallery of prospect videos, which is nice direct links on prospects name to youtube.

NFL Draft Watch - good all-star coverage

hR mock draft links - Nice compilation of mocks, bills themselves as the largest such resource on the net.

Consensus Draft Services

NFLfans.com (formerly The Draft Exchange)

Quirky site whose brutally crowded layout is a sensory overload. Look on the left for prospect rankings and profiles. Forums seem to find some unique and hard-to-find information, especially during the Combine and workouts.

Fantasy Football Toolbox Draft Index

Busy site with a lot of adds and occasional pop-ups, but a lot of content, especially mock drafts from their writers and around the net. Rankings with a lot of profiles, but some lacking content and/or out-of-date.

Fox Sports Draft Central - currently a dead link

New entry last year didn't have much news for a big box, but their partnership with CFN.scout.com linked in some good stuff, like Pete Fiutak's articles.

KFFL Draft Central

WalterFootball.com - decent new edition, not too in-depth, but solid rankings and quick bios for 2008 and 2009.

The Z Report - Houston Chronicle blog - new Chronicle draft/ff blog writer Lance Zierlein has sporadic, Texan-focused coverage.

NFL Draft Bible - new addition this year with brutal navigation (whatever article you click on appears in the center window...don't keep waiting for the page to change or a new window to open) and unspectacular content, but John Murphy from Yahoo! appears affiliated. If he will be providing any exclusive content, it becomes worth visiting for that.

AOL Fanhouse NFL prospect blog entries - AOL blogs filed under 'NFL prospects' keyword

AOL Fanhouse NFL Draft blog entries - AOL blogs filed under 'NFL draft' keyword

NFL Draft Dog - still a puppy, new addition this year.

Rookiepedia - the wikipedia model applied to draft. Very interesting concept, but needs more work to be good material.

About.com NFL Draft home - hit or miss quality, as you know if used about.com to ever find any kind of info

Rob's Scouting

I’m usually not a big fan of his rankings and the site is a little rough, but Rob McCartney is one of the original internet draftniks, does his own scouting, and writes his own in-depth profiles. If nothing else, he deserves recognition for that. Content continues to decrease each year, including no updates on the blog he started last year.

NFL Draft Forecast - meh, turned into a blog this year and now best feature from 2007, video highlights links of various top prospects, is gone. Pass.

The NFL Draft Site - new blog last year that focused on small schools, not as active so far this year.

Draftboard Insider - pretty sparse, some video on top prospects in thier profiles

theHogs.net Draft Section

Washington fan site isn't Redskin-centric with their draft information, but has little other than a news wire and promise of Combine coverage.

Sportsnutz.com - mediocre rankings and content. "Team Needs" section was once good, but they haven't done it since 2006.

Football.com and Draft Stock

Two D.J. Boyer vehicles which mean mediocre quality and sporadic updates. Allen Trieu appears no longer involved with football.com, so that doesn't help.

CBS Draft Home - not really much of a draft home, just a Top 100 prospect list they soure from NFLDraftScout.com. They also have a list of declared underclassmen and you can obviously find some articles in their NFL news, but the coverage is embarassing for a big box.

Houstonprofootball.com NFL Draft War Room - no 2008 content yet

Draft news

ProSportsDaily.com NFL Draft News

Google news on NFL Draft

Profootballtalk.com Rumor Mill - infamous rumor mill has been known to break stories before the mainstream media. This is all NFL news, but I've found interesting draft stuff on here too.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS

College Football News.com

I'm rather disappointed collegefootballnews.com mergered with scout.com (now cfn.scout.com). The content is more or less the same, the best college football website on the net. However, the layout suffers from merging with the crowded scout.com format, as well as their pop-ups. Although almost all the content remains free, scout.com is fee-driven, so we could be losing another great free site soon. Look for articles by Pete Fiutak who covers draft stuff there.

College Sports TV (CSTV)

USA Today conference reports

TSN D-IA Coverage

TSN D-IAA Coverage

College Sporting News (CSN)

Top D-IAA football website. The former I-AA.org merged with them.

D2football.com

One of the top websites covering NCAA Division II football reviews some dark horses. Pro hopefuls is their preseason review of top DII NFL prospects.

RESOURCES

DraftHistory.com

NFL.com Draft History

CBSSportsline.com Draft History

Wikipedia entry for NFL Draft

Official NCAA football statistics (all divisions)

2008 traded draft picks (courtesy of Draft Insiders' Digest)

2008 free agents (courtesy of The Red Zone)

2008 free agents (courtesy of Football's Future)

Official site of NFL Combine

THR Mock Draft scores (2007 ranking, obviously)

Mock Draft Muncher -basically a macro that sorts results of a number of mock drafts, explained in FAQ. NOTE - not updated for 2008 yet.

2007 NFL Draft Links thread

2006 NFL Draft Links thread

Dead links in 2008 (FYI to research later)

MSNBC 2007 Draft HQ - didn't see one for 2008, stupid catalog process for MSNBC (story numbers instead of naming links)

NFL Draft Showcase - currently dead, says 2008 coming soone, but I think Allen Trieu moved to writing on college football for Michigan on Scout.com

On The Clock (OTC) Draft - this guy was around for a couple years, disappeared this year

NFL Draft Dirt - we barely knew ya

Draft Database - tried to replace draftbook.com, now it needs to be replaced

Tusekan Raiders · January 13, 2008

ALL-STAR GAMES

Murphy (Yahoo!) - All-star stock watch

NFL Draft Watch - All-Star Bowls

Senior Bowl

Saturday, 1/26/08 4pm EST - NFL Network

Game stats and play-by-play

TSN Preview

Rosters

NFL Network coverage schedule

mlive.com Game Blog - updates and discussion during the game for those w/o NFL Network

NYT article

Google news search on "Senior Bowl"

NFL.com coverage

NFL Draft Countdown Senior Bowl HQ

AL.com coverage and Mobile Register (AL) stories

PFW coverage

Rival.com Senior Bowl coverage

GBN Report practice reports

Houston Texans - Senior Bowl standouts

Houston Texans - RBs in Mobile

NFLdraftguys

Early week notes

Glenn Dorsey v. Sedrick Ellis

Wednesday

*Podcast *Practice report

Tuesday

*Podcast *Practice report

Monday

*Podcast *South practice report *North practice report

Weigh-In

*Report *Excel s/s

Pauline

Pauline (SI) - Final practice risers/sliders

Final practice analysis - North

Final practice analysis - South

Team interests update Team interests

Wednesday

*North risers/sliders (SI) *South risers/sliders (SI)

*South practice (TFY) *North practice (TFY) *Buzz (TFY)

Tuesday

*North risers/sliders (SI) *South riser/sliders (SI) *North practice (TFY)

Monday

*Buzz (TFY) *North practice (TFY)

ESPN (free)

Notes through Wednesday practice

Marcus Smith profile - UNM WR

Heath Benedict profile - OT is only DII player at game

Owen Schmitt profile - WVU FB

Colt Brennan profile - Hawaii's record-breaking QB

Article on nine players from USC in game

East-West Shrine Game

Saturday, 1/19/07 7pm EST - ESPN2

Official website

Rosters

Rivals.com Game Summary (AP)

TSN Game Summary

TSN Box Score

SF Chronicle Niner Insider blog - first half notes

SF Chronicle Niner Insider blog - second half notes

Scout.com - Standouts from game

TSN Preview

Rival.com - Shrine Game Home (w/practice video)

NFLdraftguys.com - Day 3 Practice Notes

PODCAST - NFLdraftguys.com - Day 3

NFLdraftguys.com - Day 2 Practice Notes

PODCAST - NFLdraftguys.com - Day 2

NFLdraftguys.com - Day 1 Practice Notes

PODCAST - NFLdraftguys.com - Day 1

The Z Report (Houston Chronicle blog) - Practice Notes: Day 3

The Z Report (Houston Chronicle blog) - Practice Notes: Day 1

The Z Report (Houston Chronicle blog) - player discussion

Yahoo! - RB discussion

Houson Texans - Shrine Game standouts

ESPN search on "Shrine Game"

Hula Bowl

Saturday, 1/12/07 8:00pm EST - Versus

Aina (East) v. Kai (West)

Official website

Rosters

Hula Bowl Game Summary (AP)

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Game Summary

Honolulu Advertiser Game Summary

TSN Game Summary

TSN Box Score

NFLdraftguys - Post-Game Notes

prodraftguide.net - Post-Game Notes

TSN Preview

Cactus Bowl - DII

Friday, 1/11/07 8:00pm EST - Fox Sports Southwest

East v. West

Official website

Box Score

Tusekan Raiders · January 13, 2008

NFL COMBINE

Official Site of NFL Combine: http://www.nflcombine.net/

Official invite list

Previews

Collection of Preview stories from NFL blog on baltimoresun.com

Complete Coverage

NFL.com

TFY Draft - Tony Pauline

NFL Draft Countdown

PFW

Sporting News - Russ Lande coverage

War Room Report Combine coverage

theHogs.net

Google news on "NFL Combine"

Results

FFLiveWire Database

NFL.com Top Performers

NFL Draft Countdown

Sporting News weigh-in comments

Reviews

PRO DAYS

NFL.com Pro Day schedule

Tusekan Raiders · January 13, 2008

UNDERCLASSMEN

Dealine for underclassmen to apply - January 15th (then 72 hours to withdraw)

Draft early entries (53 - juniors, unless otherwise indicated) - alphabetically by position

QB (1) - Xavier Lee, FSU

RB (8) - Jamaal Charles, Texas; Felix Jones, Arkansas; Darren McFadden, Arkansas; Rashard Mendenhall, Illinois; Ray Rice, Rutgers; Steve Slaton, WVU; Kevin Smith, UCF; Jonathan Stewart, Oregon

WR (13) - Adrian Arrington, Michigan; Earl Bennett, Vanderbilt; Davone Bess, Hawaii; Ryan Grice-Mullen, Hawaii; James Hardy, Indiana; DeSean Jackson, California; Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma; Selwyn Lymon, Purdue; Mario Manningham, Michigan; Sean Penix, Arkansas; Darius Reynaud, WVU; Taj Smith, Syracuse; Devin Thomas, Michigan State; Mario Urrutia, Louisville

TE (2) - Martellus Bennett, Texas A&M; Jermichael Finley, Texas**

OL (6) - Branden Albert, Virginia; L.J. Anderson, UCF; Ryan Clady, Boise State; Anthony Collins, Kansas; Franklin Dunbar, Middle Tennessee; Chilo Rachal, Southern California;

DL (8) - Calais Campbell, Miami; Johnny Dingle, WVU; Jeremy Geathers, UNLV; Vernon Gholston, Ohio State; Letroy Guion, Florida State; Derrick Harvey, Florida; Phillip Merling, Clemson; Pat Sims, Auburn

LB (5) - Geno Hayes, FSU; Erin Henderson, Maryland; Josh Johnson, Marshall; Curtis Lofton, Oklahoma; Jerod Mayo, Tennessee;

DB (10) - Demario Bobo, Mississippi State; Brandon Flowers, VTech; Jack Ikegwuonu, Wisconsin; Justin King, PSU; DaJuan Morgan, North Carolina State; Lamar Myles, Louisville (LB); Kenny Phillips, Miami; Orlando Scandrick, Boise State; Reggie Smith, Oklahoma; Aqib Talib, KU

** - Sophomore

DII Carson-Newman WR James Banks (formerly of Tennessee) has also indicated he is entering the draft, but is not included on the official list released by NFL.com.

NFL.com List

CFN Review of Early Entries

Rivals.com - Review of impact of all players leaving

Rivals.com - Five Programs Help or Hurt by Underclassmen Decisions

ESPN - RB James Davis changes mind after declaring, will return to Clemson

Sporting News - More on Davis changing his mind

ESPN - Asked to move to TE, FSU QB Xaiver Lee declares

Ex-Vol WR James Banks to leave Carson-Newman Early

RB Branden Ore changes mind after declaring, will return to VaTech

More on Ore and VaTech CB Victor "Macho" Harris returning