Shorts and Frazier - SEC Caliber Talents?

It’s hard to know. In 2018 we took Badara Traore and Damien Lewis. One was a good backup, and the other is punishing NFL defensive linemen.

Linemen from HS are very hard to evaluate. They also generally take longer to develop than other position groups. Linemen who have made it at the college level are much lower risk.

Both these guys will be day one starters. This year’s group will do better than our 2021 group.

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What’s the expectations for these two players in the SEC? Are they talented enough to compete on this level?

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People will say “of course they are!” in the moment, and I get the optimism.

The reality is that you don’t know for sure until you see them hit the field. It’s hard to evaluate linemen in high school because you don’t know how they’ll develop physically, and you don’t see them against equal competition.

When you’re talking about FCS guys you would think the physical part gets easier - they’re older and have been in a college S&C program. And they have been playing against much better competition than they saw in high school. So yeah, the floor should be higher. The ceiling is probably lower.

But I think it’s a little presumptuous to act like any of these guys are can’t-miss prospects, which I’ve seen a lot of recently. There’s still risk and you still don’t know for certain how they translate against SEC competition until they actually do it.

I’m not saying that to be dismissive of our transfer class - I think it looks great! I just think people need to relax a little bit, otherwise everyone will talk themselves into ridiculous expectations and start calling these guys “Giles 2.0” if they don’t pan out.

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I see these two transfers are coming from much smaller schools. What’s the expectations for these two players in the SEC? Are they talented enough to compete on this level?

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Did you watch any of the Chiefs - Steelers game?

Here’s a few of the Chiefs offensive players that played that night.
Tyreek Hill - he went to West Alabama
Travis Kelce - Cincinnati
Patrick Mahomes - Texas Tech
Jerrick McKinnon - Georgia Southern
Byron Pringle - Kansas State

Do you think these guys from non powerhouse programs are talented enough and can do well in the NFL?

I agree that risks are lower with college linemen transfers than with high school signees. To extend the logic, risks should be even lower with NFL draftees than college transfers.

But risks remain whenever the level of competition changes. On top of that, injuries, personal issues, motivation and such make this an inexact science.

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We will find out if Brad Davis is worth the big bucks with this new crew on the OL . He has to develop them at warp speed let’s hope they are fast learners .

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On the bright side, he’ll have a hell of a lot more time to coach them up before this season than he did last year.

It’ll be interesting to see how the guys he evaluated pan out. Although that might take a year or two to really judge.

A few weeks back a bunch of people had Campbell and Jones penciled in as day one starters on the Oline. How bout we let them go through this offseason workout regime and spring practice before deciding anything.

three of these programs are not like the other two...I mean come on.

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n 2018 we took Badara Traore and Damien Lewis

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and the other is a punishing NFL defensive lineman

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Defense huh



ETA: Derp my bad