POSTED 10:32 a.m. EST, February 26, 2006
NEW AGENT COMING FOR VINCE?
In the wake of Vince Young's incredibly low score of six on the Wonderlic test, league insiders are predicting that Young soon will fire agent Major Adams -- or, at a minimum, add another more experienced agent to the team.
Adams has very limited experience in the agent business, and none when it comes to managing a guy who's likely to go at the top of round one. As a result, Young wasn't ready for the intelligence test that every incoming NFL player takes.
"The experienced [agents] will jump all over that," said one league source. "The next chapter will be interesting."
Still, the source predicts that Young won't go lower than fifth overall in the draft, despite predictions by other league sources that Young could drop out of the first round. "Teams that are interested will interview him and bring him in to their facilities to spend as much time as they can with him," said the source. "They will find out that he is okay."
Back to the test, there definitely are ways that players can get themselves in position to get their highest scores. Incoming seniors take the test in conjunction with their pro day workout in order to establish a baseline number. Then, they take it again at the combine. We've heard rumors over the years that some agents have access to one or more versions of the test, and many league insiders attribute significant increases in scores from one year to the next to the aggressive efforts of the agent to get the guys ready to take the test.
And even if there's cheating involved, we've heard in the past from management-side sources that it's no big deal. If a guy can memorize multiple versions of the Wonderlic, they've explained, the player will have no trouble figuring out the playbook.
In Young's case, he has only taken it once. At the combine.
Pro Football Weekly has a comprehensive look at last year's Wonderlic scores, which includes a comparison between the combine score and the score generated in the prior year. Some of the low scores included a nine for receiver Chris Henry, a nine for defensive end Eric Moore, a nine for defensive tackle Mike Patterson, a nine for cornerback Lamont Reid, and an eight for cornerback Cedric Williams. The lowest quarterback score was Brock Berlin's 13.
But Berlin more than doubled up on Young.
So that gave us an idea. We printed out the 15 sample questions that we posted on Saturday, and we asked Florio Jr. (who is in the third grade and whose class has yet to delve into the multiplication tables) to sit down and give the thing a try. We gave him five minutes, which admittedly is a slightly greater questions-per-minute average than the NFL types get to answer 50.
Florio Jr. got five of them right.
Five out of 15 for a third-grader. Six out of 50 for a guy who attended multiple years of college, without failing out.
One reader suggested to us that Young's low score suggests that he might have a learning disability. That's fine, but how does a guy with such a disability remain academically eligible at a major institution like the University of Texas?
Stay tuned. This thing raises a ton of questions, and we have a feeling that it eventually will mushroom into a far bigger story than it already is (especially since, you know, we're the only ones talking about it).
found link via homedog at OGD
NEW AGENT COMING FOR VINCE?
In the wake of Vince Young's incredibly low score of six on the Wonderlic test, league insiders are predicting that Young soon will fire agent Major Adams -- or, at a minimum, add another more experienced agent to the team.
Adams has very limited experience in the agent business, and none when it comes to managing a guy who's likely to go at the top of round one. As a result, Young wasn't ready for the intelligence test that every incoming NFL player takes.
"The experienced [agents] will jump all over that," said one league source. "The next chapter will be interesting."
Still, the source predicts that Young won't go lower than fifth overall in the draft, despite predictions by other league sources that Young could drop out of the first round. "Teams that are interested will interview him and bring him in to their facilities to spend as much time as they can with him," said the source. "They will find out that he is okay."
Back to the test, there definitely are ways that players can get themselves in position to get their highest scores. Incoming seniors take the test in conjunction with their pro day workout in order to establish a baseline number. Then, they take it again at the combine. We've heard rumors over the years that some agents have access to one or more versions of the test, and many league insiders attribute significant increases in scores from one year to the next to the aggressive efforts of the agent to get the guys ready to take the test.
And even if there's cheating involved, we've heard in the past from management-side sources that it's no big deal. If a guy can memorize multiple versions of the Wonderlic, they've explained, the player will have no trouble figuring out the playbook.
In Young's case, he has only taken it once. At the combine.
Pro Football Weekly has a comprehensive look at last year's Wonderlic scores, which includes a comparison between the combine score and the score generated in the prior year. Some of the low scores included a nine for receiver Chris Henry, a nine for defensive end Eric Moore, a nine for defensive tackle Mike Patterson, a nine for cornerback Lamont Reid, and an eight for cornerback Cedric Williams. The lowest quarterback score was Brock Berlin's 13.
But Berlin more than doubled up on Young.
So that gave us an idea. We printed out the 15 sample questions that we posted on Saturday, and we asked Florio Jr. (who is in the third grade and whose class has yet to delve into the multiplication tables) to sit down and give the thing a try. We gave him five minutes, which admittedly is a slightly greater questions-per-minute average than the NFL types get to answer 50.
Florio Jr. got five of them right.
Five out of 15 for a third-grader. Six out of 50 for a guy who attended multiple years of college, without failing out.
One reader suggested to us that Young's low score suggests that he might have a learning disability. That's fine, but how does a guy with such a disability remain academically eligible at a major institution like the University of Texas?
Stay tuned. This thing raises a ton of questions, and we have a feeling that it eventually will mushroom into a far bigger story than it already is (especially since, you know, we're the only ones talking about it).
found link via homedog at OGD
