As Darren Pama heads to his prospect bowl location of Brooklyn, where he will stay for the next few weeks, this reporter caught him on the plane on the way there.
"I don't really know how this is going to go. I've done the research I needed to, but that really doesn't mean much. The prospect bowl won't be a very good representation of how good we are as prospects, I've heard that straight from a bunch of vets. Almost nobody takes the bowl seriously, at least as far as draft position goes. That being said, this is very important to me, because I've been waiting to play Football again for an awfully long time."
It's been a couple of weeks since I last talked with Pama. What had he done in the intervening time?
"Training, talking with veterans, Domine has really helped me out with what to work on, and how to make my impact felt in the league. I really got to thank him for all the support and help he's given me so far. Rusty Rucker as well, he noticed my webpage was poorly made and would get passed over by the league, and he gave me some technical advice. I also have to thank some of the GMs and high up staff in the league for introducing me to important people for interviews and again, what to work on. And then I trained some more after getting all of that done. I don't think I've ever been as good as I am now."
I then asked Pama how good he thought he would perform at the prospect bowl himself, as well as how good his team would be. "Truth be told, I have no idea. There's a whole lot of luck involved, 4 games is not a lot and better players can easily lose out to worse players over that period of time. Also, I don't think any of us are truly ready for the game. We've had 5 days of Training Camp, we're not fully ready yet, we can't show our full potential. This is maybe the least important event of the entire preseason, but it's the one I've had my eye on since declaring for the draft."
Pama, who is one of the top Tight End prospects in this draft class, has been pretty outspoken about how he feels about many things: His upcoming position in the league, how good he thinks other prospects are, the draft process, and then this, his tempered excitement for an event which technically is important, yet isn't at the same time, and is still massively exciting to new prospects who will see the bright lights of professional football for the first time, albeit in a preseason game.
"I think my team could do well but, well, as I've been told this entire prospect bowl is a bit random. That being said, I feel like there's a couple of teams I'd pick to do very well if this was a full strength game. I think we're maybe the 3rd or 4th best team, but I think we'd be a bit of a ways behind the Tokyo Drifters and the Tiburon Landsharks. Simply put, they're the only ones with good QBs, and the Landshark's offense is disgusting. Like, I think a majority of their offensive players are in the higher tiers of the draft. They also have 4 great blockers, and two great safeties. Meanwhile, the Drifter's defense scares me in important places. Ruschmann will tear through the worse blockers in the league, and they have what I think are the 2 best cornerback prospects of the entire draft. And then also their TEs and OLine are full of studs. McJimmerson, Skiiiup, Swantavious, and Roth are all among the best at their position in terms of the prospect pool.
As for other teams, we on the Brooklyn Atlantic have a pretty strong receiving group. Alex Reed as a waiver wire guy is one of the best, and Callous is pretty good as well, and I think I'm one of the better prospects in the league. That and our DLine has a couple studs on it in GOAT TANK and Raylan Crowder. The Amarillo Tumbleweeds have a great pair of safeties, and a couple good players on the Oline. The Liverpool Llamas have the best secondary, I'm pretty sure, I seem to recognize all but one of their names as being high quality. As far as weaknesses go, the Landshards have only one guy I'd even consider passable in their linebacking core, and neither of their corners are good, they'll be relying on those great safeties for a lot. We're not much better on the Atlantic, with one good Linebacker and one good Cornerback, and while our safeties are good, they're not as good as the Landsharks. The Tumbleweeds do not have an offense. It is held together by the legs of Mike Rotchburns, the hands of Zach Crowley, and a couple good Olinemen. The Drifters have managed to miss out on getting any studs at Linebacker in a class filled with stud Linebackers. And the Llamas have one guy who's half decent at catching passes, out of 5 prospects who are Wide Receivers or Tight Ends."
I noticed that one team was missing from his previous breakdown, but before I could ask him about them, Pama told me about them himself.
"And the Cavalry would be hopeless in a game at full strength. As far as I can tell, they have 2 top of the line prospects, a couple guys in other places who can perform well, and then a whole lot of nothing. They have one good Wide Receiver, a decent running back, and then their QB is terrible. Their O and D lines have a total of ONE GOOD PLAYER. They have a Linebacker who hasn't even put in the work to improve from college!
Of course, since these aren't full strength games, now that I've said this, the Cavalry are going to win all their games."
(1009 words. inb4 Cavalry win all their games. Also, if stuff about the prospect bowl counts as applicable for the 1.5x bonus, then this is applicable for the 1.5x bonus)
"I don't really know how this is going to go. I've done the research I needed to, but that really doesn't mean much. The prospect bowl won't be a very good representation of how good we are as prospects, I've heard that straight from a bunch of vets. Almost nobody takes the bowl seriously, at least as far as draft position goes. That being said, this is very important to me, because I've been waiting to play Football again for an awfully long time."
It's been a couple of weeks since I last talked with Pama. What had he done in the intervening time?
"Training, talking with veterans, Domine has really helped me out with what to work on, and how to make my impact felt in the league. I really got to thank him for all the support and help he's given me so far. Rusty Rucker as well, he noticed my webpage was poorly made and would get passed over by the league, and he gave me some technical advice. I also have to thank some of the GMs and high up staff in the league for introducing me to important people for interviews and again, what to work on. And then I trained some more after getting all of that done. I don't think I've ever been as good as I am now."
I then asked Pama how good he thought he would perform at the prospect bowl himself, as well as how good his team would be. "Truth be told, I have no idea. There's a whole lot of luck involved, 4 games is not a lot and better players can easily lose out to worse players over that period of time. Also, I don't think any of us are truly ready for the game. We've had 5 days of Training Camp, we're not fully ready yet, we can't show our full potential. This is maybe the least important event of the entire preseason, but it's the one I've had my eye on since declaring for the draft."
Pama, who is one of the top Tight End prospects in this draft class, has been pretty outspoken about how he feels about many things: His upcoming position in the league, how good he thinks other prospects are, the draft process, and then this, his tempered excitement for an event which technically is important, yet isn't at the same time, and is still massively exciting to new prospects who will see the bright lights of professional football for the first time, albeit in a preseason game.
"I think my team could do well but, well, as I've been told this entire prospect bowl is a bit random. That being said, I feel like there's a couple of teams I'd pick to do very well if this was a full strength game. I think we're maybe the 3rd or 4th best team, but I think we'd be a bit of a ways behind the Tokyo Drifters and the Tiburon Landsharks. Simply put, they're the only ones with good QBs, and the Landshark's offense is disgusting. Like, I think a majority of their offensive players are in the higher tiers of the draft. They also have 4 great blockers, and two great safeties. Meanwhile, the Drifter's defense scares me in important places. Ruschmann will tear through the worse blockers in the league, and they have what I think are the 2 best cornerback prospects of the entire draft. And then also their TEs and OLine are full of studs. McJimmerson, Skiiiup, Swantavious, and Roth are all among the best at their position in terms of the prospect pool.
As for other teams, we on the Brooklyn Atlantic have a pretty strong receiving group. Alex Reed as a waiver wire guy is one of the best, and Callous is pretty good as well, and I think I'm one of the better prospects in the league. That and our DLine has a couple studs on it in GOAT TANK and Raylan Crowder. The Amarillo Tumbleweeds have a great pair of safeties, and a couple good players on the Oline. The Liverpool Llamas have the best secondary, I'm pretty sure, I seem to recognize all but one of their names as being high quality. As far as weaknesses go, the Landshards have only one guy I'd even consider passable in their linebacking core, and neither of their corners are good, they'll be relying on those great safeties for a lot. We're not much better on the Atlantic, with one good Linebacker and one good Cornerback, and while our safeties are good, they're not as good as the Landsharks. The Tumbleweeds do not have an offense. It is held together by the legs of Mike Rotchburns, the hands of Zach Crowley, and a couple good Olinemen. The Drifters have managed to miss out on getting any studs at Linebacker in a class filled with stud Linebackers. And the Llamas have one guy who's half decent at catching passes, out of 5 prospects who are Wide Receivers or Tight Ends."
I noticed that one team was missing from his previous breakdown, but before I could ask him about them, Pama told me about them himself.
"And the Cavalry would be hopeless in a game at full strength. As far as I can tell, they have 2 top of the line prospects, a couple guys in other places who can perform well, and then a whole lot of nothing. They have one good Wide Receiver, a decent running back, and then their QB is terrible. Their O and D lines have a total of ONE GOOD PLAYER. They have a Linebacker who hasn't even put in the work to improve from college!
Of course, since these aren't full strength games, now that I've said this, the Cavalry are going to win all their games."
(1009 words. inb4 Cavalry win all their games. Also, if stuff about the prospect bowl counts as applicable for the 1.5x bonus, then this is applicable for the 1.5x bonus)
