July 30, 2010

Rookie Bio - Eric Decker


Hey guys and gals, it has been a busy week with all the rookie signs and the start of camp. And with Tebow now signed that just leaves Demaryius Thomas before training camp starts in a few days. Thomas will be signed in the next few days. But on to this article, I thought it was time to do a bit of a rookie bio. And I decided to start with Eric Decker, I think there is something special about him and I wanted to do a bit of a bio and research into this guy.

Eric Decker was born on March the 15, 1987 in Cold Spring Minnesota. He is the Son of Tom Decker and Sue Meyer. Over the next 23 years Decker grow into a 6 foot, 3 inches and 217 pound man. And a cute one at that, at a charity bowling tournament he told Glam girls "If you could date one celebrity who would it be?, ED: Jessica Biel, without a doubt." And to be honest this dude probably has a chance unlike some of us.

During Deckers early years he attended Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota, where he was a three-sport athlete. He was selected to the SuperPrep Midwest Team, ranked as the 14th-best receiver, named to the PrepStar All-Midwest Region Team, was a first-team selection on the 2004 Minnesota Associated Press All-State Football Team, two-time all-state, all-conference, all-area and all-section performer, named Rocori’s team MVP as a junior and senior. He caught 62 passes for 1,017 yards with 15 touchdowns last season. He had 2,156 receiving yards with 28 touchdowns for his career and was also all-conference, all-section and all-area in both basketball and baseball. He also was a member of the National Honor Society and all-state academic team.

After high school he attended the University of Minnesota, his home state, where he played for four years. He was a two sport athlete at his time at Minnesota. In his time at the University of Minnesota he put the following numbers together playing football:




Year

Team

G

GS

Rec

Yards

AVG

LG

TD
2006 MIN 13 12 26 378 14.5 39 3
2007 MIN 12 12 68 909 13.6 59 9
2008 MIN 12 12 84 1074 12.8 75 7
2009 MIN 8 8 50 758 15.2 53 5
Career -- 45 44 228 3,119 14.0 75 24

2008 Season
Decker finished his junior season with 84 catches for 1,074 yards and seven touchdowns. He either sat out or played with leg injuries in several games.

2009 Season
Decker began the season with the consistent, elite play that had been a hallmark of his Gopher career. Through 3 games, Decker is 6th in the nation in receiving yards, averaging 124.8 per game. Sports Illustrated columnist Stewart Mandel declared Decker the 3rd best wide receiver in college football, behind Oklahoma State's Dez Bryant and Georgia's AJ Green.

On October 27, it was announced that Decker was going to miss the rest of the season after suffering a sprained foot against Ohio State.

Baseball career

Decker played outfield for the Minnesota baseball team. He was selected in the 39th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and the 27th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft by the Minnesota Twins.

After impressive showings in college, and after dominating the Big 10, Decker was believed at the time to one of the top wide receivers in the country. And a possible first round pick, but a ankle injury would cut his final year at college short and hurt his draft status. Because of the injury Decker could not then work out for teams or participate in drills at the scouting combine, which would cause his draft day slide. I personally am not sure for this slide, I think it could have been issues with his injury history or his speed. But I don't think his speed was a problem, nfdraftscout.com has his speed listed as: Low: 4.45 sec, High: 4.65 and a 40 time of 4.54. So about 4.5 secs, which isn't bad, he is not a blazer but has above average speed.

Due to these things Decker would slide in the draft and he was finally picked by our beloved Denver Broncos. Decker would be picked in the third round (87th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. NFLdraftscout.com had this to say about the Decker pick:
"Wide receiver Eric Decker: He should have gone much higher in the draft, but a season-ending foot injury set him back. If he gets healthy -- and he said he hopes to be fully ready by training camp -- the Broncos might have got a steal in the third round.
A closer look at the Broncos' picks: Round 3/78 -- Eric Decker, WR, 6-3, 217, Minnesota, Decker is big, smart, can make plays and has fantastic hands. Once he recovers from a foot injury, he could be a good player for the Broncos."
Because of a foot surgery, Decker sat out the Broncos Rookie Mini Camp and OTA's

In an interview with BroncoZone, Decker was asked this:
"BZ: You wore #7 in college, but that number is obviously not available, as the Broncos have retired the great John Elway's former number. What number are you looking at getting?
ED: I do want to keep 7 in the number, so if I could get 17 or maybe 87 that would be great. I am leaning towards 87, because I idolized Ed Mac growing up and I was picked with the 87th pick... maybe it's a sign"
And this is exactly what he did. He chose 87, he even asked Ed Mac if he could use that number and Ed Mac sent him back an autographed jersey saying that was cool. This has made all Broncos fans making comparisons between Ed Mac and Decker, it could be true, Decker could possibly be Ed Mac 2.0. But for now he is Decker 1.0, let him make a name for himself.


I think Decker could develop into a solid number two receiver. He has the size to be a solid possession receiver and be a bit of a deep threat. If he can stay health he will be a solid receiver this year for the Broncos. He may catch 50 balls this year if he can beat out Gaffney which would not surprise me.

Final word, in that interview with Glam Girls Decker was asked this:
"One thing you're most worried about as an NFL player? ED: Definitely the altitude in Denver. My biggest worry would be passing out."
If his biggest worry is passing out, I think he will do just fine ~ Aussie Out!

A few YouTube links:






23 comments:

  1. Reposting this:

    Hey this is for Jazzy, I want to know how to kept players from last year in the keeper league but can't find where to do it or know how to do it for that matter.

    Wondering if you can give me some points on how to do it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. First thing to do is go to our leagues home page where it shows all of the teams. If you look towards the middle of the page, you will see something that says "Season: 2010". Change that to "Season 2009". And that will pull up our league from last year. From there, you will see a couple of selection options on the the top of the page, and the two you need to use to determine your keepers are "Final Rosters" and "Draft Results". You may only keep a player who was on your final roster. And you don't have to be the team that drafted them, they just have to be on your final roster. Once you decide who you want to keep, look at the draft results to see what round they were drafted in and use the "one up, ladder rule" which is explained in the commish note on our league's home page.

    Now for the selection of the keepers.

    Your final decision for who you want to keep is due 3 days prior to the draft. All you need to do is message me and let me know who you are keeping, and I will take care of the rest. Remember you can keep 2, 1 or none, it's all up to you. You can submit your keepers anytime from now until 3 days prior to the draft, but once you send them in to me, it is final, no changing. The only way I will except a change is if a player goes on IR from a pre-season injury.

    ReplyDelete
  3. also, if you have any other questions, just go to the email league tab on the fantasy homepage, select my name and ask away. If you do it that way, it gets sent to my email address which i get right away on my phone. Makes it easy for a prompt response. And just do the same thing when you decide who you want to keep.

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  4. That Decker TD pass was sick!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. So whats wrong with Jamal Williams?

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  6. Great article Aussie and yeah that video of him throwing a TD pass was awesome. He can catch AND throw. Who knew?? lol I hope he can really come through for us starting in TC and give Gaffney a run for his money. I'd love to see him do the #87 justice. Oh and Decker is VERY cute! haha ;p

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  7. Found this on nfl.com... great article on our newest Bronco to be a Hall of Famer. Nothing says Denver Broncos like Floyd Little.

    Floyd Little

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  8. Sweet thanks Jazzy, and I knew Princess would think Decker is cute haha.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We traded RB J.J. Arrington and a conditional draft pick in 2012 to the Eagles for Joe Mays ILB?

    Now that seems odd, anyone know Mays?

    ReplyDelete
  10. hmmmm,
    nope, dont know mays. interesting. So do you know who you are gonna keep Aussie? 80? Samoan?

    I must investigate mays....

    ReplyDelete
  11. they say he is very physical and is a great special teams tackler. Don't quite get it. Maybe this was to save some money. I wanted to see what JJ offered. But maybe we had him mainly for return abilities. Maybe with cox, sydquan, royal and whoever else, jj became replaceable.

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  12. Yeah I think you are right Jazzy, JJ was just an extra body we didn't need. Not sold on mays though.

    As for who I will keep, I want to have a look at my team first.

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  13. did my instructions help you to get the info you need?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Haven't tried yet, will after football training, catch you later Jazzy.

    ReplyDelete
  15. haha, of course I think Decker is cute... look at him!! Those muscles, mm mm good! lol

    And that trade for Mays is just plain weird. I was kinda hoping to see what JJ could offer the Broncos but I guess not. What was the point in getting him? He's been with the team for how long and he's been given no chance? Too weird. I don't even remember how we acquired him. What did we trade to get him? So confused over here. lol Anyway, I wasn't crazy excited to have him on the team like I am about Tebow but like you guys I've never even heard of Mays. Once again, very confused over here.

    ReplyDelete
  16. So,
    I think I have done pretty good this past month. I think I got the wife to agree that if we have a boy, we are gonna name him Elam. And today, I convinced the wife to let me buy our puppy a broncos collar and leash. And I got a sweet looking new broncos hat! I didn't have permission to do it, but I had to, it is so cool looking!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. lol, nice goin' jazzy. Sounds like you were pretty persuasive. I like the name Elam, would fit well for a first name. So what would the middle name be or would he have one? Also, out of curiosity what are you gonna do if its a girl? Oh and our dogs will match... I got my dog a matching Broncos collar and leash. The leash is better for smaller dogs cuz its pretty short compared to the ones we've had before. But hey, if its got Broncos on it, who cares right? ha

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  18. Oh Princess, stop drooling over your keyboard haha.

    And Princess we signed JJ as a free agent. And nice with the Broncos gear guys.

    And Elam would be a sick name.

    ReplyDelete
  19. For those interested, Joe Mays:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3stgMJhnuc&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3gwL69VhM4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfOdS1vbhGU

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  20. Jazzy sent you email about keepers.

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  21. So full name would be Elam Lee Martinez. My middle name is lee so thats where that would come from. If we have a girl, we would probably name her Abigail Martinez, not sure on a middle name yet. I thought Elam was a really cool unique last name. My wife googled it and found out that no one has named their kid Elam since the late 1800's. Which I don't know if I believe that. But regardless, I really like the name. We should make an article that has pictures of our dogs with their gear on, and any other cool stuff we collect that has to do with the broncos. What do you guys think?

    Got you keepers set Aussie.

    Also is there an easy way to make a hyperlink with Safari As my browser? I notice princess posts a lot of them and want to know how. Help?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sounds like good names choices to me. It is hard to believe that not one person has named their kid Elam since the late 1800s but either way it is still a very uncommon last name, let alone first name. I like it. lol and I think it would be funny to put up pics of our dogs with Broncos gear on. I only wish they made little bandanas for dogs. All my dog has is a Broncos collar & leash and a chew toy that's a big football but I do have A LOT of Bronco stuff I could put in the picture with her. We'll have to put something together and get up on here before the season starts.

    As for making a hyperlink... I'll try to make it simple. This is the link you use for this site.

    <'a href'="Your link here"> A name for the Link <'/a>

    Now when you find the web address you want to use, first you have to delete all 3 of the apostrophes. There's one at the very beginning of the link before the first "a"... the second is right before the equals sign and the last is at the very end after the left pointing arrow. I hope that makes sense, from there is easy.

    After you delete the apostrophes, you need to delete the words - Your link here - but DON'T delete the quotes. After that you copy & paste your web address in place of the words you just deleted and when you copy & paste make sure there are no spaces between the quotes and your web address you want to put there.

    Last but not least, you need to delete the words - A name for you link - and then you can type in whatever you want to call it. Sounds more complicated then it really is. Hope that helped?? lol

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete