I love the NFL offseason. The media hype and speculation about which teams got better or worse and which rookies will make an nfl impact, which rookies are over or underrated and so forth. recently I read the book 'Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell. If you have not read it, it is all about success and the background causes of it. the basic premise is that there is not such thing as genius or talent and that success is solely derived from hard work and opportunity. He discusses everything from mozart to the NHL to bill gates.

I was considering this in lieu of the NFL and the recent draft. this leads me to wonder what sets up a rookie for success. How come these rookies have a 50% bust to boom (or bust to solid pro) ratio? teams invest huge dollars searching players backgrounds and probing into their past (see: Ireland and Dez Bryant), yet so many players don't make it. Obviously the ones with a questionable work ethic rarely succeed unless they are put on a team that has a coach who can light a fire or a vet (ray lewis) who can inspire the youngsters.

Basically what I am saying is that most if not all NFL draft picks have good, if not great work ethic and really want to have success and make big money playing the sport they love. so how come the 50% chance of making it. This leads to the second part of success according to gladwell, Opportunity. But the problem is what is a good opportunity? To be metaphorically tossed to the lions (real lions, because the ones from Detroit are not all that scary) and being thrust into the starting lineup to sink or float (what seattle plans to do with Okung), or to be brought along slowly ( as the cardinals do). I think both are valid and yet they are in a sense specific to each individual player. what might work for player A, may ruin player B. What if we would have started DRC instantly, he might be talked about in the same sentence as revis and Nnamdi, or he might have screwed up, fallen out of favor with the coaches and be waiting for his first career int.

I now pose this question to ROTB, is the way we bring along rookies good? do you think we do a good enough job as a franchise tempering opportunity with patience? and are/ should there be an exception to the rule. Most of you are probably like me and almost pissed your pants when we got Williams and Washington in the draft. should Williams be a starter day one? How long until Washington should get an opportunity to play over lenon?

just something to think about until OTA's

And as usual, comments? concerns? rebuttals?