Part of the fun of being a fan of the NFL Draft is comparing players in the upcoming class to those already in the NFL. We’re going to start doing that looking at one player on offense and one on defense every week. Just keep in mind that comparisons are often made on best-case scenarios.
2012 NFL Draft player comparisons: Michael Floyd and Alameda Ta’amu
Player: Michael Floyd, WR, Notre Dame
Comparison: Roddy White, WR, Atlanta Falcons
Player comparisons are often tied to size, but this one is not. Floyd is a listed 6-foot-3 and 224 pounds while White is 6-foot and 211 pounds. Where you can see a comparison is what the two players do after the catch. Floyd is often at his best when he's coming over the middle on short crossing routes and asked to gain yards after the catch. The same is the case for White, especially earlier in his career. Like White, Floyd also excels at playing vertically and making a play on the ball in the air. When White came out, he had to work on tightening his routes, which Floyd also has to do.
Player:
, DT, Washington
Comparison:
, DT, Jacksonville Jaguars
When a defensive tackle is this big, the expectation is that the player is an immovable object in the middle. Coming out of Temple, the knock on Knighton was that he didn’t play quite as strong as his size may suggest. The same thing can be said of Ta’amu. Also like Knighton, Ta’amu is a better athlete than you’d expect and gets off his blocks fairly easily. There is also some versatility in how they can be used. Coming out, Knighton played both one- and zero-technique, much like Ta’amu does at Washington.
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