Skull Session: Dwayne Haskins' Father is Unconcerned, Leaked Wonderlic Results, and Michael Jordan As a Draft Sleeper

By Kevin Harrish on April 23, 2019 at 4:59 am
Garrett Wilson is ready to go in today's Skull Session.
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The best thing about Tuesday is that it ain't Monday.

Survive and advance, baby!

ICYMI:

Word of the Day: Griffonage.

 WHEREVER HE GOES. I've given up trying to speculate where Dwayne Haskins is going to be selected on Thursday, and it sounds like his family isn't too worried about it either. 

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune:

Dwayne Sr. isn’t bothered by the speculation about his son dropping, saying it’s a “conversation piece … I haven’t really looked at TV for the last 12 days. People who support me give me updates, but we will be happy wherever he goes. It’s about the fit, not the number.”

...

Asked if they believe Dwayne will be nervous, his father replied: “I think he will be calm, cool, collected and poised, like in the fourth quarter of a football game.”

That sounded similar to what Dwayne Sr. said over breakfast on the morning of the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis: “He is not your average college football player. He does not get overwhelmed. He is emotionally intelligent. He is built for this moment.”

...

“I’m just happy he is a prospect,” Dwayne Sr. said. “If he goes 15, if he goes 22, I will be excited. If he goes 6, I’ll tell you what, it will be special.”

At the end of the day, he's guaranteed to go in the first round, and that's a win. Anything else – including a selection by the hometown team – is icing.

 WONDERLIC LEAKS. Wonderlic scores aren't officially shared publicly and there's some debate about how applicable and useful they even are, but that sure ain't gonna stop us from freaking out about them online when they're leaked.

The heroic Bob McGinn, formerly of the Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel but now working out of his own premium site, always seems to get his hands on them every year (or at least does a damn good job of making them up).

As is the online circle of life, those scores were then published on the Denver Broncos message board RangeMane.com, and I am now harvesting the Buckeye scores from there and posting them here for your consumption.

Defensive Linemen
  • 39 Chase Allen
  • 36 Zach Allen
  • 31 Khalen Saunders
  • 31 Jerry Tillery
  • 31 John Cominsky
  • 23 Trysten Hill
  • 23 Nick Bosa
  • 20 Ed Oliver
  • 20 Dre'Mont Jones
  • 19 Christian Wilkins
  • 18 Jaylon Ferguson
  • 17 Dexter Lawrence
  • 14 Jeffery Simmons
  • 13 Olive Sagapolu
  • 11 Quinnen Williams
  • 11 Gerald Willis
  • 9 Rashan Gary <– Tied for the worst of all the leaked scores, though a timed test with lots of reading is not friendly to those with learning disabilities like dyslexia, like Gary (shoutout for the heads up on this, comments). 
Quarterbacks
  • 43 Ryan Finley (re-test; scored 28 the first time)
  • 42 Gardner Minshew
  • 37 Daniel Jones
  • 32 Easton Stick
  • 32 Clayton Thorson
  • 31 Trace McSorley
  • 30 Will Grier
  • 28 Brett Rypien
  • 27 Jarrett Stidham
  • 26 Drew Lock
  • 25 Tyree Jackson
  • 25 Dwayne Haskins
  • 22 Sean McGuire
  • 20 Kyler Murray

I really don't buy that this has anything to do with a player's success as a football player, but it's somehow become probably the second-most talked-about metric to measure and rate players, behind only 40-yard dash times.

I'm sure one reason is that someone behind a computer can actually take one of these tests right now and probably score higher than a good number of these future NFL players, and that's satisfying to you (especially since you can't touch their 40 times).

So go ahead, give it a shot – show up those future millionaires!

 AAF STARS. The Alliance of American Football may have folded before it finished its first season, but that doesn't mean it didn't help give players a platform while it existed.

A couple of former Buckeyes – Tracy Sprinkle and Chase Farris – aren't bitter the league folded, they're just happy they got to play football for a few months.

From Scott Petrak of The Chronicle-Telegram:

“At the end of the day I was playing football, I was getting paid to do what I wanted to do,” Sprinkle said. “It was a huge blessing, I was very successful, I was the top defensive tackle in sacks. So I had a very good experience.”

The AAF filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, ceasing all operations. Despite what Sprinkle referred to as “bumps and bruises” in the operation of the league during its existence, Farris was glad to be a part of it.

“It was just a great opportunity for guys to get picked up and prove to themselves and to these other organizations that they are capable of playing good ball,” he said. “So it was a good experience, sad to see it go so soon, hopefully they can regroup and possibly come back and get it going again.”

...

Sprinkle ranked tied for fourth in the league with five sacks. He had one each in five games.

“Exactly what I wanted to do in that league I did it,” he said. “I can’t complain. I wanted to go out there and express my pass-rush ability and express that I can still be stout in the run, and I felt like I did it.

“So it’s time to see how the table’s going to fall coming up soon here in the next few weeks, and hopefully I’ll be back in the National Football League.”

It seemed like every time I watched, Sprinkle and Jalin Marshall were making plays. I think at the very least, those two guys will get a shot.

 DON'T OVERTHINK THIS. NFL teams love overthinking their draft selections and talking themselves out of obviously talented prospects.

It's a tale old as time: a player could dominate for three years in college, have tape to back it up, and then slip in the draft because he didn't test well at the combine, or he's undersized, or because he played in a specific system.

It happened to Jamarco Jones last year. A two-year starter at left tackle for Ohio State, who was one of the most consistent pass blockers in the country, slipped to the FIFTH ROUND because he was undersized and didn't test well at the combine.

You'll be shocked to learn that he had a real chance to start as a rookie before suffering a season-ending injury in the preseason.

Chris Low of ESPN is pleading NFL teams not to fall into this trap, listing 10 players that are going to fall in the draft but shouldn't. Michael Jordan is one of them.

Michael Jordan, C/G, Ohio State: The 6-7, 310-pound Jordan played center and guard for the Buckeyes and was an enforcer in the middle of that offensive line. There will be several offensive linemen who go higher in the draft than Jordan, but he's going to play a long time in the NFL.

It's especially wild to me that playing center in his final season probably hurt Jordan's draft stock. If he would have just played guard and dominated again, there's a solid chance he's one of the top interior lineman prospects in the draft.

God forbid he try to show some versatility.

 SELF OWNS ARE THE BEST OWNS. Lately, you don't even have to make fun of Michigan, they do it for you.

They really chose to highlight the play where he made a freshman who runs like C-3PO look like Braxton Miller.

Never change, Michigan.

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