As promised, albeit it very late, here's the rant on Todd McShay.
McShay, often paired opposite the "King of the Coif" (Mel Kiper), has been covering the NFL Draft for ESPN for the past few years since becoming head of Scouts Inc. in 1998. McShay typically covers more college ball than the NFL, and he's pretty good at tht. Where he struggles and tends to get ripped on, by seemingly every draftnik and casual NFL fan is in his draft coverage.
Strengths: McShay is not very strong at creating mocks - he's not even in Kiper's neighborhood in that regard. He's also not good at prognosticating how players will do once they get into the NFL, though his claim to fame is calling Vernon Gholston a bust - and he rubs this in Mel's face every chance he gets, which isn't very often.
McShay, or McFraud, as I like to call him for various reasons which I will touch upon later, does do one thing better than Kiper in my opinion. That is to actually be somewhat in tune with what each NFL team needs, which I find odd as he typically doesn't cover the NFL all that often. I think he plays this to his advantage on the air quite a bit, often sounding arrogant when he and Kiper get into debates (I think Kiper is too into the player they're discussing and knows he's overstepped his knowledge of NFL rosters when he mixes it up with McShay). His list of team needs are usually pretty solid, and more often than not, those teams usually address his primary need, just not with the player he thinks they should.
Fake tanning. Where in the hell does this man go to tan? Seriously, he must hit some salon at least twice a day. The only person who legitmately looks more tan than McFraud is Washington Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan. I get the fact that it's impossible to compete with Kiper's hair, but seriously, fake tanning?
Weaknesses: I guess this is actually a strength, but thievery. McShay often takes other people's Big Boards, Mocks, picks, etc. and tries to spin them off as his own. For instance, Mike Mayock of NFL Network (one of the best in the draftnik kingdom) said that he liked Illinois Reshard Mendenhall better than Darren McFadden and that Mendenhall would have a better career. While that point is still debatable, McShay, a week later, said the same thing despite having McFadden at or near the top of his Big Board for most of the pre-draft process.
Secondly, I know several people who cover the East-West Shrine game, which Todd McShay calls on-air. I can't remember the exact player he was discussing in 2010, but the host of the segment asked about a particular player, and McShay went on bantering about that player and how good he'd looked in practice. Said player got injured that day and didn't participate according to the guys I know that were there. They also said McShay wasn't even in Orlando at the practice site...makes yo wonder how McShay got his information.
Lastly, he overrates just about any "inside info" (i.e. draft rumor that comes his way). He'll take it as fact, when often it's misinformation. Today, he laughed at the notion of Miami Herald writer Jeff Darlington's mock draft selection of Ryan Mallett with the 15th overall pick, saying that Mallett would be around come the 3rd round. I'd be willing to bet a pretty penny that Mallett's gone in the top 20 picks of the whole show.
If you hear him say something about your team, a particular player, where someone should go, etc. take it with a huge grain of salt and expect the opposite.
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