quote:
Recruiting rankings are entertainment to make it through the long off season. People let them set false expectations though.

Devonta Smith
Tyron Johnson
Malachi Dupre
Speedy Noil
Jarvis Landry
Travon Reed
Ruben Randle
Deangelo Benton
Early Doucet
Duke Williams

All were 5 stars and only Landry produced on that level. I'm probably missing some other 5 star WRs from LA.

It's ridiculous to think that many 5 star WRs all could come from Louisiana in such a short period.

I know grown men that swear by them. They always show percentages of 5 stars making it to the league, anything to justify putting stock into them.

Professional scouts have unlimited resources, access to practices, college game tape, the combine interviews, and the Senior Bowl etc. They still can't properly project 21 -23 year olds that have been somewhat developed. The draft is always horrible when they go back and see what players panned out. 1st rders bust and undrafted players become pro-bowl or all pro caliber players.

There is no way possible some guys who run a website can properly rank thousands of high school kids. There is no possible way to discern the talent difference the #9 Wr and the # 3 MLB, but one player will be ranked 60 spots higher than the other.

It's all ridiculous.

This is correct, but you'll get a bunch of downvotes from guys who base their teams worth on "stars". They aren't completely useless, but not far off.

There is a certain group of kids every year who have very obvious elite athletic ability but it's small. 40-75 maybe. After that it's nothing more than a crap shoot and development is far more important than signing a bunch of "stars". Then of course you have the group of players who end up being great in college and turn pro who weren't on any recruiting sites radar and even fall through the cracks with coaches.

There are a few schools who have the recruiting clout to get enough of the obvious guys that they can play that game, but after that identification and development become the determining factor.

As you said, it's hard for even pro scouts to project a lot of these guys with a whole hell of a lot more to go on than any recruiting website has.