Titans picks?

Um...

In 2005 he played RDE, earned first-team All-Big 12 Conference honors (not All-American) and team Defensive MVP (not player of the year for his conference). He had 43 tackles (26 solos) and led the conference with 9.5 sacks (15th nationally). He also had 17 stops for losses, 21 pressures, 3 pass deflections and 1 FR.

While those numbers are very good, I would expect them to be better than a guy who's 32lbs lighter, weaker, but a bit quicker (Gaines Adams).

Adams this year, comparatively, was All-American and ACC First team, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and had 62 tackles (42 solos), 12.5 sacks, 17.5 stops for losses and 26 pressures. He also had 6 passes deflections and 2 FF, 3 FR and returned one FR for a TD.

And that's comparing Carriker's best year (2005) to Adams this year.

Basically, a 292lbs supremely strong DL who runs about a 4.8 should be able to demolish nearly anyone in college. The fact that he COULD beat almost anyone at the Senior Bowl is testimony to that. So how come he didn't kill everyone this year? And don't tell me they told him to take on the entire OL by himself. It doesn't work that way. Maybe you want to 2 gap him or align him to force more double teams...but not on 3rd and long when you want heat on the QB, right? There are only maybe 2 or 3 OT's who should be able to handle him and that doesn't mean shut him out. So he should have brought heat in virtually every game. So how come his numbers aren't better?

And THAT is what concerns me about him moving to the NFL. He has the size/speed/strength to dominate...even in the NFL...but he wasn't nearly as dominating as he should have been versus lesser talent in college.

I'm NOT saying Carriker is a bad player. I'm just wondering why he hasn't been destroying everyone this season...especially with his added size this year. I suspect he might be slower at this bulk than before. If yes, then he'll need to either bulk a bit more to play DT or drop some weight to play DE (might depend on what team selects him - 4-3 DT or DE vs 3-4 DE). If not, then he simply can't translate all those measureables to the field.

I wouldn't be crying if we ended up with him, but he's less of a sure thing than most people think. I don't think he'll be a bust per se, but may fall far short of any lofty expectations (ie...he might ONLY become a decent player or he COULD become the next Richard Seymour). Because of that, he's a bit of an underachiever (compared to his potential) so I label him a gamble on greatness pick.

Gut