Good point about the difference between rating highschool kids for recruitment, and college seniors (AND eligible juniors who declare) for the pro-draft: I only meant that it is often the same folks pouring over the data and publicly projecting their value and ultimate likely "landing places", based on the conclusions they reach after doing so. As for truly connecting the various awards and achievements of their college careers with the many (if elusive) skills and talents demonstrated weekly in on-field play, and boiling it all down in some numerical fashion to a ratings-system that might allow coaches and teams to more clearly and accurately, or at least more easily, evaluate the right guy for which position on a particular team, well, I doubt I'd trust such a "system" even if it came to exist. This all strikes me as more "art" than "science" (all the MORE so between college and the Pros--seemingly counter-intuitive with more time, empirical performance-based data, and maturity, but true, nonetheless). Even failing to acknowledge that is a problem, one that can and HAS resulted in the many annual "misjudgements" that in turn so often make "everybody's All American" a bust, while "that 6th-round guy nobody's heard of" ends up the dozen-year All-Pro that comes to be identified with a particular team, and the "class of the league", at a given position.
Not that Elam should be off ANYONE'S radar...I think we ALL suspect that anyone who gets him late in the 2nd round or after will be getting a bargain. On the other hand regarding Sturgis, few kickers are considered in the draft, let alone in the higher rounds--but, rare as it has been, whenever a FG-kicker's been successful enough to even enter the discussion, they've generally turned out to be worth it, ultimately (Btw, even more rare has been consideration of a given PUNTER--but on the one occasion that occurs to me when it's happened, THAT kicker, Ray Guy, taken IN THE FIRST ROUND by the Raiders back in the 70s, is STILL mentioned both for the rarity itself AND how well it turned out for that team).
Gilly is a tougher call all around--both in general predicting success at RB in the League, and in projecting how high he will go, SHOULD go, and/or to whom. Naturally, WE tend to feel he has the heart AND the physical skills to make it--but how everything about him and his career (unfortunately for him none of which he was allowed to publicly develop or display until his senior year) "positions" him for the draft (especially among the vast majority of non-Gator-aware pro-coaches who haven't followed us OR him that closely) is problematic at best...Remember, The Pro Draft is more like a high stakes poker game than anything else: The idea is NOT just to get the best players you can at "positions of need", but to get them at the lowest level you can get away with drafting them at and still GET them. In this case probably even more than all the others, performance at the Combine will likely play a huge role (ie. largest of the potential Gator draftees) in his ultimate rating and where he in fact lands on Draft Day.
