What Happened to Kennedy?

[arthurracoon]

Wasn't this guy supposed to be the #1 DT in the draft and a top 10 pick.

Suddenly Dwane Robertson has skyrocketed in front and in some mock's (Dennis's from CBS Sportsline) Kennedy is not even taken in the first round (probably a goof).

Is this just because Robertson is faster?

 

[Krangodnzr]

Originally posted by arthurracoon
Wasn't this guy supposed to be the #1 DT in the draft and a top 10 pick.

Suddenly Dwane Robertson has skyrocketed in front and in some mock's (Dennis's from CBS Sportsline) Kennedy is not even taken in the first round (probably a goof).

Is this just because Robertson is faster?

Well, yeah he is faster. He actually is a very good player, and I've believed he was the best tackle for months now (as well as others). Kennedy just doesn't do it for me. He doesn't have the penetrating ability that I would want in a tackle, and his work ethic has been questionable at times.

IMO, Robertson played a higher level of competition in the SEC, and with less help (Kennedy had Haynes, Adams, and some good young player up front). Robertson can anchor against the run, but also has the ability to rush the passer with his elite speed for a tackle.

He would make sense for us to draft, but Suggs IMO has more upside. My favorite 3 players at the top of the draft are Suggs, Leftwich, and Robertson.

 

[arthurracoon]

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

Kennedy will get picked before Robertson.The reason people are talking more about Robertson is that everything there is to be said about Kennedy is already known and there is less known about Robertson.It's like in college football recruiting.Your best player may commit in early summer but his impact is less noticed on signing day because there are some new,lesser,guys that have an increased value because of the urgency to get them.Kennedy will be a much better pro than Robertson as long as he doesn't balloon up.

 

[BACH]

Originally posted by Cbus cardsfan
Kennedy will be a much better pro than Robertson as long as he doesn't balloon up.

That's a pretty bold statement. I think it's difficult to compare the two players. Robertson is more versatile, which makes him IMO an overall better player, BUT if Kennedy is put in the right system, I have no doubt that he'll be just as successful as Robertson in the NFL. (Kennedy is a two-gap DT, and if you put him in a system where the DT are stuffing the run and taking up space, leaving the LBs to make the "big plays" like Chicago's or Marvin Lewis' systems, then IMO he'll be great)

 

[Russ Smith]

Originally posted by Cbus cardsfan
Kennedy will get picked before Robertson.The reason people are talking more about Robertson is that everything there is to be said about Kennedy is already known and there is less known about Robertson.It's like in college football recruiting.Your best player may commit in early summer but his impact is less noticed on signing day because there are some new,lesser,guys that have an increased value because of the urgency to get them.Kennedy will be a much better pro than Robertson as long as he doesn't balloon up.

It's certainly possible Kennedy has the perfect "frame" for an NFL DT, RObertson is shorter. The main problem with Kennedy is he's never played a full year in his life at his "ideal" weight. Early on he was way overweight. Then he crash dieted and actually got down something like 302 prior to the start of his junior year. He was getting manhandled in drills by his teammates and wound up playing that year at like 340. This year was 330-350 depending on when in the season. At 320-330 scouts love Kennedy, the probelem is he has trouble maintaining that weight. The only way he's been able to do it is dieting and that's why you saw him coming out of games so much in his career, he had a huge stamina problem from all the dieting.

Robertson is a much more natural player in that he seems to have little trouble maintaining a good weight. he's got better leverage, he was a track guy and a wrestler in HS and has tremendous balance and leverage.

Again, if I knew for a fact Kennedy was going to be in shape I'd say by all means take him. Problem is he likely won't be, he's reportedly working out 4 times a day right now and yet in his workouts(pro day, combine) he hasn't done well enough and in fact Robertson has moved past him on a lot of draft boards as a result. The speculation is all the workouts are leaving him too tired to perform well for scouts, but the problem is that makes the scouts think can we ever get him at this weight(I think he's at 318 right now) with enough energy to play football?

I have said for months Kennedy scares me for that reason alone, he simply has never been able to play at his ideal weight and that's a big factor. Look at Gerard Warren, very promising rookie year, got fat, now people call him a bust. Still has talent but can you get it out of him? Kennedy is a much better character guy than Warren but the kid was 400 pounds when he arrived at Penn State so weight has always been an issue.

 

[CardinalChris]

Kennedy has some huge endurance problems he has to overcome to be effective.

 

[JeffGollin]

I think 2 things happened to Kennedy:

1. Robertson skyrocketed up the charts.

2. Kennedy kind of got lost in all the predraft buzz.

Given the Cards' historic inability to stop the run, who in their right minds could not like a 330 lb DT like Kennedy. Yet there are concerns:

a. Kennedy's reported problems with endurance and tendency to gain too much weight.

b. If Kennedy was that dominant, shouldn't Penn State's run defense have been rated awesome last year? (It may have been considered better than decent but you never heard anyone speak of it as a dominating run stuffing "D").

Accordingly, I think a lot of pro personnel depts. consider Robertson more of a sure thing and less of a risk than Kennedy.

 

[Harry]

Kennedy played poorly in post season games and appeared to wear down in general towards the end of the season. He seemed to get handled by some of the better people he played. He also was surrounded by much better people than Robertson and those Penn State linemen actually played better than Kennedy in the post season. As scouts saw this they began to realize that Kennedy was not double-teamed as much as other players at his position.

That said, Kennedy has not dropped on all the boards and I hear Chicago is still strongly interested in him, especially since they were very disappointed in Leftwich's workout.