Monday, April 27, 2009

The 2009 Autolic Test: NFL Draft Edition

I thought now was as good a time as any to go over this, mainly because I have a feeling that many of you are wondering. For each draft class we all pick our people. We go over the rounds and decide on a guy based on team, college, style whatever. I also know that many of you want to see an auto before you decide. Or, as I put it, whether or not the guy passes or fails your version of the Wonderlic Autograph Test (The Autolic Test). For those of you who are not familiar, the Wonderlic is a test given to all prospects at the combine to test a number of different things about their intelligence, football intelligence, etc. The Autolic test is one performed by many collectors to determine if the autograph has merit or is subject to the Morency quotient.

This year, I think we are ridiculously lucky as long as none of the players decide to pull a press pass and sign better when there are few cards to sign, and give up when there are many. Top QB autos have been very good the last few years, and Stafford is no exception. The guy is great, he should be hailed for his detail and penmanship. Nice job. Same goes for Beanie Wells, who has a great auto for his cards. Sanchez has a loopy swoopy graph, that I don’t mind, and Moreno's isnt bad either. Harvin and Crabtree have a nice visual appeal to theirs, as well, as both should do pretty amazing when you see them on better cards.

On the other hand, Josh Freeman is a jumbled mess. If I gave you this pic and told you to pick his out, you would really have to go through a few deductions in your head before pointing the finger in his direction. Heyward-bey isnt horrible, but it is boring to me for some reason, mainly because you could practically draw a line through his sig and hit every stroke of every letter. Like I said, not horrible, just boring.

You may think that I put too much thought into this, but I will give this fact as the reason for my use of the Autolic test. I hate give up autos, and I hate weird looking autos. If the player puts no effort into it, I will not keep any of their cards. I did not buy a single Chris Johnson card last year, mainly for that exact reason.

Im sure as the card season progresses, we will see numbers added and all sorts of changes as the cards transfer from on card to sticker and back on card. However, as of now, this class' graphs pass the test with flying colors.

THE 2008 AUTOLIC TEST CAN BE FOUND HERE


(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

7 comments:

  1. I don't know. I just saw a Brian Cushing auto on Ebay and it looks like he basically went BS in cursive. :P

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  2. I agree - nice group of signatures, especially Stafford. I'm going to be buying more football cards this year, especially Aaron Maybin. So when does the first real (not Press Pass or Sage) football product come out?

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  3. Have you seen Stephen McGee's auto?

    It makes CZ or CJ (Chris Johnson) look like a piece of absolute beauty?

    My 4 year old could do a better job and he doesn't even know cursive.

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  4. Not bad. Moreno's is my favorite!

    -wheeler281

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  5. Bowman Draft Picks in mid-May. Playoff Prestige somewhere in there also. Probably UD Draft as well.

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  6. Just took a look at McGee. That auto is WAY better than a plain text CJ.

    Oh and Dave, they come out in the very first week of may I think.

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  7. This is a little off topic but as many know Gellman and many others hate (including me) hate topps sterling's design and price
    I have done group breaks for it and have always had good Luck.
    I tried my luck by buying a signle nolan ryan box F/S of ebay no mystery pack

    this is what I got the box cost $95
    one of the most beautiful cards in the ugly set and yes fingers fit in the die cut windows that say something useful and yes the 1/1 is a vibrant blue not contrast silver....
    [IMG]http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww183/myuser3007/GetAttachment12.jpg[/IMG]

    thanks b.david

    payment for GB coming in soon!

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