National Football League

'The Panel' Q&A: Former players talk prospects, modern draft process; more

Published Mar. 18, 2015 7:24 p.m. ET

Cory McCartney

FOX Sports South's Emmy Award-winning original series 'The Panel presented by Hyundai Equus' returns Sunday, March 22 at 9 p.m. ET.

This season, former NFL players Dre Bly, Tim Couch, Clinton Portis and Marcus Stroudt put draft prospects Vic Beasley (Clemson), Sammie Coates (Auburn), Jamison Crowder (Duke), Randy Gregory (North Carolina), Denzel Perryman (Miami) and P.J. Williams (Florida State) on the hot seat.

But first, the The Panel sat down with FOXSportsSouth.com for a discussion on players, being part of the draft process and more.

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FOXSPORTSSOUTH.COM: Overall, when you look at this draft class, who have you been most impressed with?

TIM COUCH: You look, at the top two (quarterbacks) in Jameis (Winston) and (Marcus) Mariota. Those guys are really interesting guys and everyone wants to know how their style of play is going to translate to the NFL and all that kind of stuff.

I'm impressed with what Jameis can do physically. Just watching him, watching him throw the ball and drop back and he looks like an NFL quarterback. His size ... I think he has some really, really good qualities about his game that will translate pretty quickly to the NFL.

Obviously the big question is if he can handle himself off the field. Especially you talk about taking a guy with the No. 1 pick in the draft and giving him $30-40 million and can he handle that? That's a big 'if.' Teams are going to have to make sure on that.

A guy like Mariota, the way the NFL is going, with the more athletic quarterbacks and more mobile guys, dual threat kind of guys -- the Russell Wilsons, Cam Newtons, Colin Kaepernicks, those types of guys -- we see his game translates better now in the NFL than it ever has or ever would if he had come out at an earlier time.

I think right now is a perfect time to come into the league because there are so many of those types of systems now, where coaches are looking for those types of guys where they are trying to stretch defenses, open up the offense, going four- or five-wide, getting quarterback run game going and those kind of things.

I think both guys have wonderful opportunities and it's just a matter of going to the right teams and getting the right staff around them.

CLINTON PORTIS: I think when you look at this draft class, I like the receiver position. I think the receiver position is loaded.

Two guys in particular that I think are sleepers, DeVante Parker out of Louisville and Phillip Dorsett out of Miami.

Of course DeVante Parker was injured and he came back, but you really don't recover in the middle of the season.

I think when you look at DeVante Parker and Phillip Dorsett, going to the right situation in the NFL, could turn out to be two of the most explosive or better receivers in this draft, not mention you have Amari Cooper and (Kevin) White and those guys.

STROUDT: I'm biased, so I'm always going to go with my guy from Georgia (Todd Gurley).

Coming off his injury and everything, I still think he's going to be a top pick, or a top second-round pick, at least. If he's not they're crazy to pass on him.

Other guys I like, Amari Cooper, definitely. I think he's one of the most dynamic players in the draft. I'm hoping my Jaguars pick him up with the third pick.

Defensively, out of the guys I watch, I like Vic Beasley. He's a freak out there on the field. His first step is great. He's a natural pass rusher. He needs to put on a few pounds, but I think he has a chance at being a dynamic player as soon as he steps on the field.

DRE BLY: Just looking at some of the guys coming out of the ACC, I followed Jamison Crowder.

I've really been a fan of his ever since he's been at Duke. He's a smaller guy, but he plays with a big heart, a tremendous amount of confidence.

I like the work ethic he brings to the field. A lot of guys don't give like that the benefit of the doubt, but the work ethic and the way he plays the game really excites me.

He's a little man and nobody expects (much) from the little guys. In today's time, it's all about the big guys and he's a little man playing like a big buy.

FSS.COM: When you look at the guys we have on 'The Panel' this year -- Vic Beasley, Sammie Coates, Jamison Crowder, Randy Gregory, Denzel Perryman and P.J. Williams -- what struck you when researching them?

COUCH: We've got some really good guys, guys that can get after the quarterback. Watching the video of these guys and seeing the natural pass-rushing skills of some of the guys we have is pretty phenomenal.

There's some really interesting guys. Sammie Coates is a guy that we really get into some of the issues he had at Auburn, some of the question marks people have about him.

Can he run routes? Can he really get into an NFL playbook and run all the routes that are asked of him? At Auburn, they just said 'Go deep.' He ran go-routes and deep ends and screens and really, that was it. In an NFL system he's going to have to run every route on the route tree.

Can he catch the ball consistently? He makes freakishly athletic plays at times and other times he looks like he's not a natural catcher of the ball.

PORTIS: With this group, I think all the guys are interesting.

You look at Gregory, to be a top-five pick at 240, playing (defensive) end. That says a lot about him.

You look at Vic Beasley, he's a unique talent. Denzel Perryman, another guy I think was out of position or didn't have the help around him.

I think these players still have a great upside, because if you look at Vic Beasley, their defense in a year went from one of the worst defenses in college football to one of the best.

Denzel Perryman, at the University of Miami, not really having any defensive linemen in front of him, playing the middle linebacker position.

You look at Sammie Coates, a guy that has a lot of potential, just needs some adjustments. He's coming into the NFL kind or raw.

You look at Jamison Crowder and what he brings as an athlete. I know his size is underrated, but what he does with the ball in his hands as a punt returner, as a playmaker.

I think the sky's the limit for this group of guys.

STROUDT: Gregory, I see him being an outside linebacker somewhere. He's a guy that has great natural pass-rushing skills. He's a little thin, also, I think he has the type of talent where he can go out and dominant also.

It's hard to go out and find pass rushers like that with natural pass-rushing ability, like (Beasley and Gregory).

You have Sammie Coates, who is a dynamic, big-play receiver. The past two years he was in top average per catch.

It's a talented group we've got here.

BLY: (Beasley and Gregory) obviously are going to be high on everybody's list.

Beasley, just what he was able to down at Indy at the combine ... just freakish numbers, running a 4.5 (40-yard-dash) and he's 250, lifting 225 (pounds) almost 40 times, having a 40-inch vertical.

Those are things you see skill guys doing and it's a defensive lineman. When you look at guys like him, I would love to play with a guy like him because it would make my job easier.

FSS.COM: You all had your different draft stories. What's the information you wish you would have had or something you wish you would have known during the draft process?

COUCH: There's so much, looking back, that you just didn't know. I think there's more information for these guys now than when I was coming out in 1999.

There's more agents and guys getting guys ready for the process of going through the combine and getting guys ready for their interviews and talking to teams and getting them up on the chalkboard.

It's just so specific now and they dig down deeper. It used to be where you would just show up and workout the best you could or go out and show them how you could throw the ball or run as fast as you could. Now it's more, how you speak to these teams and how you speak to these executives and how do you handle yourself in these meeting rooms.

That's one of the things that I would have worked on a little more, but we didn't know any better. It wasn't like a big issue.

We see these kids come in and I'm always impressed with how these kids handle themselves. Especially sitting across the table from four NFL guys, they really handle themselves well and they're well spoken and really knowledgeable.

We get into it with them, talking about the systems they ran in college. ... These kids are really impressive, how much they know about the position already. They definitely have a leg up and are more versed than we were about those things back in the day.

PORTIS: I didn't know anything. I came out and we won the national championship and I didn't consult with anyone, I didn't talk with anyone.

The media wasn't the same when I came out. These guys, through social media, through different media outlets, (have so much) to take advantage of and get so much information that we didn't have access to.

The best thing for these guys is you have so many opportunities to talk to former players, access to former players.

Doing 'The Panel' alone gives you access to Marcus Stroudt, who was a great D-tackle for a long period of time, Dre Bly, who played the cornerback position at a high level and Tim Couch, to be the top pick in the NFL draft, myself to have the opportunity to carry an organization. So you have access to guys.

STROUDT: As far as playing football, I want the guys to realize their rookie year is going to seem like not only a season, but it will seem like an entire year.

The rookie year is very, very long. You have to learn how to take care of yourself. You have to learn to be a professional. The things you could get away with in college, you're not going to be able to get away with on this level.

You have to learn to become a student of the game. This is actually your job. This is how you're going to survive, so take it like that and take it that serious.

BLY: A multi-time All-American coming out of college, I experienced everything you can experience.

I want to every All-American show. I made every All-American team. I did it all, so going into the last year of my college career, I was projected as a top pick, the No. 1 cornerback. Then things didn't go as I would hope or planned during the season.

I fell in the draft and I knew that and I had another year of eligibility left, but there was really nothing left for me to do. So I took a chance on coming out taking a chance knowing I would a late first-round or second-round pick. That's what they were telling me.

I could have left with the other guys. We had three guys taken in the first round the year before I came out (1998), Greg Ellis, Brian Simmons and Vonnie Holliday. I choose to come back to school, because, one: I wanted to get my degree; and two: I wanted to do more things.

Charles Woodson had just won the Heisman, so I wanted to go both ways, play offense/defense. I took the chance and my stock kind of fell, but the good thing was coming back to school I was able to get my degree.

But everything happens for a reason, so I tell these guys 'I fell in the draft, so no matter where you go, you have an opportunity to do great things.' That's the way I look at it.

Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney