SmokinwithWilly

Schoen reminds me of Matt Rhule as a GM. Throw poo at the wall and see what sticks and when it doesn't play dumb.

The only way it does is if they're not happy with the QB prospects this year and are looking to next. New coach, new QB.

I consider it a bad draft for a different reason. When Sewell went at 7, I thought for sure we were going to go with Slater at 8. Anyone who watched his film could see he was an elite LT prospect. Footwork, balance, bend, hands were all good and he had dominated against elite college edge talent. We haven't had a cornerstone LT since Gross and still don't. For me, this was such an easy call here. My first 3 picks I had wanted were 1st: Sewell/Slater - I had them 1a and 1b 2nd: Creed Humphrey - we needed a center and he was the best in the draft 3rd: Nico Collins - That was more of a Michigan homer pick and I was about 60/40 he would translate to the NFL level, but I still considered him a good WR2/WR3 if he did. Even I've been surprised by his success. I would have considered Slater/Humphrey a home run even if no one else had worked out.

Remember how the huddle knew we were drafting Will Grier and even the spot we were taking him a month before the draft? Yes. We're that bad.

We were still better than Scott Fitterer.

Too bad we can't move on from owners who haven't performed quite as easily.

I don't disagree that we do need someone with some speed that can be our version of Tyreek, I just want them to be able to catch the damn ball. We have drafted so many guys for traits while ignoring their actual skills. 4.3 speed is great, but if the ball isn't in your hands, it's pretty useless. I'm not saying I want Tet, just that he checks of the most important part of being a WR for me. The ball hits his hands and he's gonna catch it. Hands are my #1 skill for a receiver before speed. Only point I was really making.

I've gotten over the 40 time. I know straight line speed is important, but guys like AT aren't the fastest yet can consistently get open and their hands are glue. I'd rather have a Brenton Bersin than a Clifford Franklin any day of the week. Guys like Tyreek Hill that have hands and high end speed are an exception, not the rule.

Seems like the prototypical Panthers pick. Lots of upside. Very raw. Likely to be cut or traded before rookie contract expires.

That 30 year old wall for RB is only 2 years away. Probably closer to 1 after he was run into the ground here.

I think our GMs have gotten caught up in the hype instead of the basics. XL coming out of college didn't have great hands. First and foremost, you gotta be able to catch the ball. Brooks is coming off an ACL tear and we're drafting him to play on turf, which has a proven higher track record of injury. To me, that's just a bad move. Can they tackle? Can they block? How fast do can they recognize a play? Can they catch? These are just basics that we've seem to have gotten away from in the pursuit of developmental players with RAS scores we like.

I think there's quite the difference between initiating the phone call vs receiving it. Making the call indicates a position of weakness, fielding it indicates a position of strength. If someone is willing to drop a small fortune in your lap, you have to consider taking it, especially with as many holes as this team has.

Fitterer was the worst GM we've ever had at actually reading the flow of the draft. It's like he never actually sat down and looked at where certain positions tend to have the most success relative to draft position or figure out how to be at the beginning of the positional run instead of panicking at the end. DJ Johnson comes specifically to mind for this.

I don't disagree with doing what you have to do to be great. I guess it all really depends on what he was being asked to do. If he was being asked to be primarily a blocking TE, great. Pay him like one. If he was being asked to become our next Greg Olsen, then there's a lot of work to be done, but he's also got to be used that way regularly on game day. I'm not sure what they asked him to do or become, but that contract has Ian Thomas vibes to me.

I'm not a fan for a couple reasons. You have to nail your 1st 2 picks, especially when you're lacking as much talent across the board as we were and you traded away the number 1 overall pick. Barring injury, they need to be immediate 4 year starters, and on this team, that's a pretty low bar to hurdle. I also really hated the FA strategy building up to the draft, particularly the guards, and the draft strategy itself. A strategy that focused on building around a QB that was so terrible he had no business being on the field. It was clear to pretty much everyone, BY wasn't ready to be an NFL starter. We dumped everything to build around him in the hopes he would become what we drafted him to be. And while the end of the year started showing some promise, we still don't know going into year 3 if he's going to live up to the hype. Dumping all your resources to build around a single player (and hope for the best) isn't as important as building a complete team. If there's any certainty in drafting, it's HQ interior linemen are found in rounds 2-3, and even 4 pretty regularly. Dumping a ton of FA cash into those 2 spots didn't make sense when we have so many holes. Draft guards, pay tackles. It's one of the staple principles of oline building. XL was always a project. He didn't have years of consistent high end performance in college. His hands are bricks, he body catches a lot, and he looks more like a 4th round receiver than a 1st. Maybe he improves, maybe not. He looked extremely raw as a rookie and we can only hope he might develop by the time his rookie contract expires. I'm always a fan of drafting guys that actually have hands coming out of college. Who cares if you can get open, or fight for the ball, when you can't actually come down with it consistently. Then we get to Brooks. Taking a RB with a torn ACL who may or may not see the field in 24/25 over Zach Frasier, who already looks the vet at a position we've been severely deficient at since pre-injury Ryan Kalil. Relying on Corbett, coming off injury, to move from guard to center is never ideal, and the injury bug bit yet again, and we were scrambling trying to find someone to lead our 200m offensive line. And the worst part, we traded up to do it giving up 2 5ths to take Brooks when we're lacking talent everywhere. Wallace, meh. Sanders looked good before that neck injury. But now we're into day 3 where expectations aren't extremely high for making the roster, unless it's the Panthers, but you can find some position players and rotational players to start plugging the Swiss cheese roster. I give him credit for getting Coker as an UDFA and the trade for Jackson, but if that's the highlight of your draft, there's some serious problems with your drafting. If we had saved the FA money spent on the guards, drafted JPJ and Frazier, and still been in pretty close to the same spot, better off cash wise (or spent on other FAs) going into FA this year. Coker ended up playing better than XL in less time. Brooks is Eric Shelton 2.0 right now. And we used 5 picks in the 1st 2 rounds, if you count those included in the trades. That's too much given up for a team that won 2 games the year prior. JMO, but I think the whole offseason strategy last year was flawed from start to finish.

With 3 coaches in 3 seasons, I didn't expect much development honestly. Coming out of college, he was always a project receiving tight end that was a very physical blocker. From what I remember, the thought was if he was able to develop his catching and route running, he could just truck people with the ball in his hands because he loves the physical contact. We've just sucked at developing talent for decades. Either guys have it when they get here or they don't.

At 6'3, coach is downright miserable on a normal flight. I'm sure these guys have more than the traditional 3" of legroom, but yeah, that would suck.

It's been a tradition of mine in FF I ignore the name of the RB and draft them based on the oline. For years, Dallas was the elite line. Now it's Philly. It's been plug and play behind those lines. Investing those day 2 picks on the interior line allows you to take a day 3 RB and get day 2 results.

So you want them to draft him then?

Juan puts as much effort into embedding tweets as Person does into quality reporting.

Actually it's getting harder to keep rank and file. You have to pay them more and give better incentives because if you won't, someone else will to get top quality employees. I get what you're saying and we'll just disagree, but I think in the next few years it's going to come to a head.

Doesn't matter. This is getting very similar to what happened with rookie salary caps. One player was making a ridiculous amount while others were getting chump change, comparatively speaking.

At some point I sense it's gonna create some hate and locker room cancer between these cap hogs and the rest of the players. When the top 6 or 7 players take 80% of the cap, the other 40 plus guys are gonna get pissed off, especially when they're still only winning 5 or 6 games. Why put everything on the line to play with guys who are only in it for themselves?

Maybe something like % caps could get by. Like no more than 60% spent to one side of the ball than the other. Unless individual positions were % capped, don't really see a way to make the rest of it work due to so many teams relying on those early rookie contracts to be competitive.

I think if we do go the extra 2nd and 3rd round picks, we need to be smart about who we take there. Offensive linemen, especially interior, are found right here and are about as certain a pick as you can get in this spot. We need to always be bringing in line talent, at least 2 players per year, one defense and one offense. If you can grab one of those top prospects, it's a no brainer. That way when the inevitable injuries occur, you're not trying to fill the gap with some late rounder or UDFA off the streets.