|
Center Profiles By: John McMullen Center Update: 2/11/98 Boston College's Damien Woody remains the clear cut number one center in the draft and will be an upper echelon NFL center fairly early in his career. However, as mentioned earlier NFL teams tend to not draft centers highly. The belief whether correct or not is that the position doesn't require unique athletic ability but smarts. Most believe a center can be drafted in the middle rounds and then developed and they will take smaller, quicker college guards with a lot of smarts and try to convert them to center. Jeff Christy of Minnesota who has become the best center in the NFC is a perfect example of this. He was originally a fourth round pick at guard by the Arizona Cardinals. He didn't have the bulk to play guard so the Vikings got him, switched him to center and the rest is history. That said, NFL teams have to remember that the Jeff Christy's of the world don't come around very often so if a can't miss center prospect like Woody is available, using a first round choice should not be dismissed. As for the other centers, Arizona State's Grey Ruegamer continues to drop but with his versatility, I don't know why. South Carolina's Jamir Nesbit and Clemson's Jason Gamble are the biggest climbers but the bottom line is that after Woody, there are no sure things at center. Ben Kadletz of Washington is the only newcomer cracking the top ten. Here a look at the new ratings:
For profiles on all these players check out John's last update. |