Justin Blackmon

[chiefs_fan4life_2]

WR for the Oklahoma St Cowboys. What are everyones thoughts on him? I live in the midwest so I get to see him a lot. I think he has STUD written all over him but seems like he may have off the field issues that could make him stumble. I just drafted him in a league where we can draft college eligible players and I was wondering what the opinions of him are.

[Salty Dawg]

Stud if he can keep his mind right.

I just drafted him as well in the same type of draft you just mentioned. It was him or Trent Richardson for me. Trent Richardson went one round before I picked Blackmon.

Alshon Jeffery went the pick directly before I picked Blackmon I think.

[tstafford]

Couple thoughts:

First, here's a thread where you see a lot of comments on Blackmon. You'll see that I thought before the draft and more so now that he made a mistake not coming out this year but whatever. http://www.dynastyleaguefootball.com/dl ... on#p142946

It's tough to project what happens a year from now, but I too am very high on Blackmon. My guess is that Alshon Jeffery will go higher in rookie drafts. There are people here at DLF (e.g. Misfit/Lung) that know the college players far better than I. But it seems like we will have Richardson/Blackmon/Jeffery/Luck all as top tier guys. I'm not sure where Floyd fits into that but he looks pretty solid as well. I also want to keep an eye on Jeff Fuller (Tex A&M).

[the_lung]

Thanks for the kudos tstafford but I don't think I "know" college players better than those who post in this subforum. I certainly watch a lot of college football games, especially ones with the more talented players who are projected to be early round NFL draft picks, I play college fantasy football, and (obviously) I read A TON of articles written by scouts and NFL prospect evaluators. I try not to go with the "groupthink" and trust what my eyes tell me, but I'm quite the amateur at evaluating how well these guys project to the next level. The fact that I completely dropped the ball on Arian Foster who is now a top 5 player in fantasy football shows how little I know!

With that being said, there's no doubt Blackmon is a supreme college talent and likely someone to be very, very successful in the NFL. He's big, physical, is great at plucking disputed balls out of the air, and excels after the catch. Like A.J. Green, he also has deceptive speed in his route running and he'll be able to find those soft spots in coverage at the NFL level. Last year he led the nation with 148.5 receiving ypg, and also led the country with 20 TD catches and won the Biletnikoff Award for his stunning season. I also find it interesting that by mid-season last year, every team that faced OSU knew he was coming and yet nobody slowed Blackmon down. He torched some supposedly elite corners, including eventual first round pick Prince Amukumara: he caught five balls for 157 yards and two TDs against Nebraska, including an 80-yard bomb.

One the best scouts in the business, NFP's Wes Bunting, had the following recently:

Justin Blackmon: Oklahoma State (6-1, 208)
Watching Blackmon this past year I thought he would have been the number three receiver off the board behind only A.J. Green and Julio Jones. He plays with power and explosion in all areas of the game. Lacks great straight-line speed, but shrugs off defenders vertically, tracks the ball well and can highpoint throws. Will again be one of the most productive receivers to stop in the county and looks like a starter early in his NFL career because of his ability to create after the catch.