Greetings, StormCloud!

I apologize for being away for a bit. The last couple months have been a bit of a blur for me personally- it’s pretty crazy to say this, but as of April my wife and I have managed (since January!) to get pregnant, experience a miscarriage, and promptly got pregnant again and are entering the ninth week of said pregnancy. We’ve gone through the whole gambit of emotions, and being a proper steward to this page took a backseat for some time. So I want to start this post off by apologizing for that, and reiterate a couple of things.

Even when I’m not able to be as present on our page as I’d like to be as I navigate being a new dad and growing my family, the page isn’t going anywhere. We recently hit our one-year anniversary, which means the site was re-upped for another full year. As always, I’ll always be available to try and troubleshoot things you “tag” me on, and I’m ALWAYS going to come back around again and be active on the page, but there are definitely going to be times and phases where my full attention will be on the family. I know you all understand, but I also always want to apologize when my “output” isn’t aligned with what I’d like it to be.

Also – I always want this to be a page for our members, by our members. If there is anything that I can do on my end to help any of you contribute something you’d like to add to the page, I’m always available to chat about any ideas!

Now that my personal stuff is out of the way, I’d like to share what I’ve been working on recently.

StormCloud Draft Content

Ryan does an incredible job at scouting each year’s prospect pool, and it’s been a goal of mine to take his impressive work and build out our own StormCloud Big Board. It’s peak-fandom for me personally to have our own conceptualized idea of what Joe Hortiz and his staff are looking at on draft night, and it’s my goal to use Ryan’s impressive database of scouting reports to create a Big Board, position board, and digestible Scouting Reports for all of you to see.

This year, we are starting off a little slower as I just recently conceptualized how we could make this happen. I know nothing about web site design and have very limited Google Sheet capabilities, so I didn’t know how far we could expand this thing, but had a breakthrough when toying around with AI recently and was at least able to get us to a starting point.

Here is what we have for a Tight End and CB scouting board thus far.

You’ll notice each player name has a link which you can click on to view the players full scouting report.

Important Note: you’ll notice “Joe’s Ranking” as a column on this page. This is incorporating Joe Hortiz’s “5.5-8.0” ranking scale, which is his and the Ravens’ way of scoring prospects instead of assigning them a draft round value. Here is a quick breakdown on some tiers within the scale:

• 7.5-8.0: Elite, generational prospect. HOF potential, nearly flawless player.
• 7.0-7.4: High-end starter, Pro Bowl candidates
• 6.5-6.9: Average to above-average starters
• 6.0-6.4: Solid backups and role players
• 5.5-5.9: Developmental and fringe players – 5.5 is a “UDFA” talent, anything up-to 5.9 is considered a priority UDFA

Also Note – I put together Joe’s Grades quickly and on my own based on Ryan’s notes – don’t expect them to be very well-tuned this early in the process.

Tight End Board

Cornerback Board

Progress, and Where We’re Headed

First off, special thanks to Tau for pointing out the formatting was not transferring over to the forum properly. If you click any of the player names above, it will open up their “Scouting Report” as a basic template that we’ve started with, but the formatting won’t carry over to the forum so we’ll leave the individual reports as separate articles for now (remember, you can still comment on the bottom of those).

Below is the best I can format the reports (for now) in a way that transfers over to the forum, but click here for a preview of how they look as Articles on the site (again, these have comment functionality, but just doesn’t transfer to the forum). We might just have to leave the reports off of the forum and include them as clickable links from the table. Even the tables look much cleaner on the article page, but at least the ones above are functional here.

If you do want to see how they look on the website, here is the Tight End Chart and the CB Chart.

We’re under a pretty tight timeline now, so I’m not sure if we’ll hit all positions and the full Big Board this year, but Ryan and I have found a “starting place” for our inputs and outputs that will make this much easier and more efficient next year. I’ve already worked on what expanded grades and information could help us build out, and love what we have so far.

For example, we are going to aim for scouting and grading individualized skills at each position, and use these skills to come up with player grades for different roles within a position group. For example, would Colston Loveland make a better Y-TE, F or H back, or Joker? I put this report together as a test-run using my own weights and measures, and here is what it came up with:

Colston Loveland

Physical Attributes

• Height: 6-5
• Weight: 245 lbs
• RAS: Incomplete
• 40 Time: 4.7

Skills

* 6.5 = Average NFL Starter Level

Rankings

• Consensus Position Rank: 1
• My Position Ranking: 1
• Difference in Ranking: 0
• Tier: 1
• Projected Round: 1

Jim Harbaugh Ties

• Recruited by Jim Harbaugh: Yes, Signed.
• Notable Game vs Michigan: Colston played for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan — plenty of ties there.

Games Watched

• Texas ’24
• Indiana ’24

Ryan’s Notes

• Texas: Fantastic in-line blocker with detailed technical skills. He has a solid knee bend and keeps his weight in front while playing with a straight back and wide grip.
• Michigan trusted him against edge rushers in ISO — says a lot about his blocking trust level.
• He was targeted early with two straight concepts — took a short arrow route for 12 yards, hurdled a low tackle, and exploded past the sticks with long strides.
• Fumbled on an easy angle route catch.
• Never stops blocking — re-establishes leverage until the whistle. Shows tenacity and finishing ability.
• At 08:36 on the tape, you see his Brock Bowers-like ability to eat space, stop on a dime, provide a scramble drill option, and finish with a fearless catch over the middle.
• Even when beaten on leverage, he recovers and eliminates the defender from the gap.
• His blocking sense stands out — especially when flexed out wide.
• Possible concern: ignored a “sit” signal from his QB and instead went vertical — resulted in a pick.
• Shows natural ball-carrier instincts. He can feel defenders and adjust his path without looking.
• Route speed is impressive — carries speed through cuts like a slot WR.
• Indiana: Contact balance is elite — uses contact to gain momentum.
• Employs veteran push-offs with elite acceleration to separate.
• Loves climbing to block — consistent effort.
• Impressive production considering QB/OL issues. Missed yards due to misfires were frustrating.
• Has a nice habit of cutting off the opposite foot of defender leverage to flip their hips — adds nuance to his burst.

Ryan’s Summary

Loveland is more of a traditional Y tight end whose transition to the pros should be seamless. His blocking is outstanding, but he also moves and catches like a wide receiver. I’m a big fan of the details in his route running. He has that Bowers-like ability to eat up ground with powerful yet low-action strides that help him unlock key zones while providing three-down impact. His senior numbers weren’t eye-popping due to poor QB play and a young offensive line, so those should be overlooked. His ceiling is most certainly as a TE1 in the NFL. Loveland is a rare dual-threat tight end who immediately improves a team in both phases. He should go in the first round — and I’d be ecstatic to see him in powder blue if Harbaugh wants the reunion.

I hope you guys find this stuff as entertaining as I do! I’m going to keep plucking away and trying to make these as useful and interesting as possible, so if there is any information you think would be interesting to include, please let me know in the comments!