45catfan

I wouldn't mind trading down if all 3 OTs are gone. My thought is if Willis or Pickett are still on the board when are back up, even if OT#4 is right there, the temptation to take the QB will be too great.

As good as we have done in FA, If we don't come away without even a viable option for 2023, we failed the FA game. Why? We are NOT extending Darnold as the starter, not even if he actually plays decent this year. As of right now, we have ZERO QBs for 2023. Easy...draft a QB this year, right? WRONG. There is a single play there...new QB comes in and is ready to go. That works out how often? Two of three scenarios says pigeon-holing with a QB this draft is setting us up for failure. The kid isn't good or needs time to develop. Again, data shows rookie QBs with success out of the gate is very limited. Maybe Pickett can manage games for us by 2023, but many of these guys will take several years to develop. Again, we need a veteran QB.

Since the Jags put a franchise tag on Cam Robinson, many feel like OT isn't the pick for them any longer, unless they go Ekwonu and put him at guard. Hutchinson won't make it mast pick two. The Lions and Texans have lots of needs so they will take BPA. Jets will go defense after investing heavily on the offense. If Ekwonu is still there, the Giants will take him as a guard. They HAVE to protect Jones. That leaves us with Cross. He is very scattershot on BBs. Some have him right behind Neal and Ekwonu while others have him as a mid-round pick...not that far ahead of Penning. Why? He's a good pass protector, but coming from a pass happy system doesn't have his run blocking chops yet. Given a deficiency in an OT, I'll take needing improve on run blocking over pass blocking 10 out of 10 times. Question being if the Panthers are like some of those BBs and think Cross is closer to a mid-round pick than a top 10 pick, do we take him or the QB?

No, my claim is Willis isn't that good and Liberty is an obscure football program. All power 5 teams aren't created equal. Yes, he beat a B-A-D Virginia Tech team. So what? You make it sound like he beat a Beamer team in his prime. Lance won a Natty, went undefeated--16-0 and threw ZERO picks that season as a true sophomore. He threw 28 TDs and rushed for 14 more. Lance will have a better career than Willis, I have ZERO doubt. My point with bringing up Edwards is you don't go drafting kids from smaller, non-pedigree schools just because they surprise a power 5 team on a bad day. I still contend he went to Liberty because he was a shoo-in as the starter and the familiarity with the staff was merely a bonus.

Burrow has Hayden Hurst to throw to now as well? All is good, we wrapped up Ian Thomas to a 3-year deal. lol!

I guess we should have drafted Amanti Edwards to be our QB since he beat Michigan in the Big House. We did, but as a WR. I mean, App State had no business beating Michigan either. Some small programs gain steam and join FBS, I get it, then mostly fade into the background. Coastal Carolina is probably the one of the few exceptions in recent years to make the jump and remain successful. Can Liberty sustain their little momentum, I don't know? We will find out next year if the program is actually on the rise and on track to be the next CCU or if it was in fact Willis that carried them the past two seasons.

Lance went #3 overall in a strong QB class and even had a team give up a small fortune to trade up to do so. Will Willis go top 3? I'm 99% sure it won't happen. If so, I will gladly eat a heaping plate of crow. However, I don't think it will come to that.

I got your angle dude. You are a Auburn/Cam fan and you want to relive the "glory years". News flash, Cam brought Auburn a Natty and was a much better QB, period. Willis had to transfer FROM Auburn because he couldn't win the starting job...whatever his excuse may have been and isn't the even best QB is weak-@ss QB class.

38-35 isn't dominating a game and a 5-6 Virginia Tech team was hardly the cream of the ACC crop that year. Carry on.

He had FBS offers, but all small-time schools. Lance figured the top FCS program is better than some no-name FBS school. It worked out well for him going #3 overall.

If true, great!!! I'm all about building this team the right way and less about throwing money away in FA to save Rhule's backside.

Yes, they are paying ONE power 5 school to come to Lynchburg. They play Wake, Virginia Tech, Arkansas and BYU this year. Four decent teams and then the powerhouse football teams of Southern Miss, UAB, Akron, Old Dominion, UMass, Gardner-Webb, UConn and New Mexico State. I mean you can't be a serious team and play all scrubs. Again, I get your Willis fandom, but this putting Liberty on a pedestal to make him look better is getting a little ridiculous.

Mormon is a Christian denomination, but yeah, they are typically very exclusive. There are plenty of Christian schools that have a more seasoned track record than Liberty who happened to just jump to FBS just a few years ago.

Next year's QB class is sooooooo much better, but you guys have the patience of a 3 year-old in a candy store.

True, let the GM be the GM...acquire the players and let the coach coach them. I think Fitts can do the first, but I'm not sure Rhule can do the later.

There are much better quality Christian schools, BYU for instance. Again, he may of had his personal reasons for going to Liberty, but they are not name brand school no matter how hard you try to make them relevant. Yes, small schools play big schools all the time because they get payed well to do so...even at the price of embarrassment. I get you're a Willis fan, but he's not that good and hyping up his school to make him look better is a little odd.

So he couldn't get the start over a mediocre legacy kid so he transfers to a no-name school? Most people didn't even know Liberty even had a football program before Willis started to get talked about. Who cares if it is FBS? It might as well be FCS. Heck, even Fields transferred to Ohio State. Sounds like a strawman argument. If you want to prove your chops, you don't go to some wasteland school so you don't have to compete for the starting gig.

Yet, plenty of teams do miss on their first round picks. HUGE difference between "potential starters" and franchise LTs. Yes, BC is our best option on our our roster currently, but that's not a ringing endorsement.

I am. Neal, Ekwonu and Cross are stacked #3, #4 and #5 overall on my favorite BB. So unless Hutchinson or Walker falls to #6, all those dudes are ranked WELL ahead of either Willis or Pickett. Also, you don't hang your hat on a 3rd round guy when a better prospect is there for the taking. Willis is #14 and Pickett is #30 on that site. But hey, we need a QB. For all of Marty Hurney's faults...and there was a ton of them, he stuck to this philosophy regarding first round picks and never missed.

I've never graded out higher in this mock simulator. Maybe a top 10 draft once before. This graded out at the #1 draft in the simulation.

Lol! A top 15 pick and the draft grade is a freaking C-!!! There's your sign....

So we want to waste maybe the one year Campen is here on an older, injured LT who has hit his ceiling versus drafting a LT and getting solid coaching from this dude before Rhule and staff are likely canned next year.

You draft until the answer is found and you also draft BPA in round 1. Both are truisms. If they feel Pickett or Willis is somehow better than Ekwonu, Neal or Cross, then so be it. However, most BBs I've seen (outside of Cross in some instances) don't have them stacked like that. So you are breaking cardinal rule #1 and committing cardinal sin #1, don't reach out of desperation. Running the draft off emotion never ends well.

Doubling down on stupid doesn't make it better. I can't see how drafting a QB next month makes this team any better. I know what they are hoping for; sit the rookie this year and start next season after Darnold departs. One problem, that's assuming the rookie amounts to something. I don't think they will. Not this year's crop.

Yes, but a rookie QB in a horrid class makes much better sense. Wait...we are talking about Matt Rhule, so in thinking bass-ackwards, it makes total sense!