Appreciate the response. It’s not just the production, but the underlying athleticism as well that caused me to feel that way. Not saying you’re ultimate eval was incorrect or that he’ll definitively be a success, but just why my opinion of his weakness is different, and that I think he has a better shot than you were giving him credit for.

At this point though, my team didn’t draft him, so I don’t have to worry about it! We’ll see how he does.

The expression, “See you in three Years” was meant as a way of answering your original question. If I’m correct about Andre we will know in three years. He will either live up to his production at the college level or live up to my profile.
You see the same issues that I see when you look at the film. I’m not any more of an expert than you are, I just put more time into it. I notice the false steps but for me the question is not the false steps, but why does he take those false steps and can that be coached out of him. I don’t care how many sacks this kid has at the college level, if he takes those false steps at the NFL level he will never get to the QB.

As I see it, you agree with me about Andre and really are questioning his stats, but for some reason you do not have enough faith in what you see to be positive about your thinking. We are programmed to think that stats cannot be manipulated. Coming from a political background I know just the opposite. I know Stats are collected for the sole purpose of manipulation. Stats are collected to convince the non believers because the people who believe are not interested in stats. They believe already.

This production/ stat /play on the field, question comes up all the time. It came up for me this year with a very highly rated LB Luke Kuechly Boston College. I really like this kid and he makes a lot of tackles but is he effective? Does he get his team off the field? Making tackles can be in the eye of a statistician along with sacks etc. I saw Aaron Mayben get credit for 2 sacks in a game and he was on the other side of the field at the time. I can’t tell you how many times I hear an announcer call out a name and it is the wrong player and not until the slow motion, is it corrected.

Andre has good numbers and there are some who say that numbers never lie. I’m a little different I say numbers never lie but they don’t tell the whole story. You and I have a date in three years to see were Andre Branch is in his career. Deal?

What doesn’t make sense to me, and apparently to you either, is a person who you characterized as so limited in his ability being as productive as he was. I watched some tape on him as well, and came away with the impression that for some reason he would take a deliberately slow first step to gauge what play the offense was running, and his resulting responsibilities. Obviously this is a detrimental thing to do, and should have been addressed/corrected by his coaches (if it could). It seemed to me that when he wanted to he could have a devastating first step, and that he did that very well when coming from a two point stance.

Well that’s just my thoughts, and I’m certainly not the talent evaluator you are. There’s a reason I’m a member here!