theinstrumental

No you’re right, tight end is a tough projection and a slow-developing position. Bowers is really the exception to the rule. If there’s any recency bias here, it’s because the way that the whole offense runs through Warren reminds me of Bowers. He’s simply the best athlete on the field.

I’m curious about how he’ll weigh. These guys are never as heavy as the schools say, but if he’s really 255 then he’s absurdly loose and coordinated for a dude his size. Natural ball carrier, lines up anywhere. Good blocker. Just seems useful in ways that, for example, Eric Ebron never had a shot to be. Has another dimension to him than most tight ends. Schools with two NFL-caliber backs aren’t usually anxious to put tight ends in the backfield, you know?

I know defense is the bigger need, but if Warren ends up being the pick at 8, I won’t be mad at all.

Cocker? I barely know her!

We have spent every conceivable resource on the offense lately; I don’t know what else you expect.

Just bring Ev back. Get good players and stop making it so hard to build something consistent. I understand this board’s fetish for a 4-3, we had a bunch of great defenses running one, but nobody ever had a good defense under any scheme with a roster this bad.

Horn and Will Johnson would be so fun together.

We're already adding an elite run stuffer by getting DB back. Also, interior defensive linemen take as long to develop as any position in the NFL. Throwing a rookie at it isn't going to immediately solve the problem, so we might as well just grab a developmental run-stuffer later in the draft. Use premium picks on premium positions.

Grand scheme, there are worse things than a year like this. Bryce has every tool he needs to succeed. The defense will be bad. If the offense is great, we’ll have a mid-round pick to use on the defense. If the offense is terrible, we’ll have a high one to use on Bryce’s replacement.

Saw some ideas that these safety/linebacker tweener types might become a little more valuable given the return of the kickoff. Looks like a great coverage player and locker room guy. You can do a lot worse in the 7th.

Grabbing a real NFL defensive lineman in the sixth feels like a win. Nice work.

If things ever get so bad that we have to get excited about a sixth-round QB pick, we should all just find a new team.

lol just saw the pick: completely adequate athlete and I've never thought anything else! His game speed's better than his timed speed, etc.

He's slow. And he's small. Not a lot of good tight ends who are small and slow.

That is fair but I think everyone's remembering how bad things looked for Bryce last year and forgetting that there's a whole other side of the ball. Starting corner > backup center. Ditto safety and any dream of a plan at edge rusher.

I don’t get the urgency to invest in center after signing $150M worth of guards with Corbett still around. Lots of centers convert from other positions. Why would everyone have been cool with it if, say, Barton converted coming out of college, but it’s a problem now that Corbett’s doing it in the NFL?

There's probably not a receiving tight end here who's an immediate upgrade over the guys we have, unfortunately. Just not a good draft for that position. Cade Stover's cool, but that is a converted linebacker, not a natural receiver. And yes, I know about JT Sanders, but he's not the caliber of athlete that our FO targets, or frankly the kind that usually ends up succeeding at tight end. Athleticism concerns probably knock out TJ Tampa, as well, unless they see him converting to safety. I'd love Malik Washington but it seems like one of Legette or Mingo can be a dynamic big slot. Honestly, I could talk myself into five or six receivers--it's a really, really deep class--but after spending pretty serious assets at every single starting position on offense except tight end, we can probably chill on offense. Jaden Hicks looks nice. Dorlus is a legit NFL defensive linemen and there are never enough of those. Any pass rusher with a pulse would be cool. Khyree Jackson is the kind of long corner that they might like, even though he will be a 25 year old rookie. It's the fourth round. Lots of solid players, nobody really exciting.

That's long been the MO of the Seattle front office that the Fitterer/Morgan network graduated out of. Unlikely to change.

First pick of the 3rd round will happen later tonight.

OK time to win some shootouts.

Gave up 52, 142, and 155. So both fifths to move up in the second.

It's Jaycee and nobody at corner so I can see a double-dip. But I'd really prefer to get Kneeland and have some kind of future plan at pass-rusher and try to get a corner in the third.

Yeah, you kind of have to hope the injuries have just been bad luck. We're not going to gain anything by messing around with trying to get him back cheap.

Ekwonu ran a sub-5.0 40. 97th percentile for all offensive tackles. His athleticism is his best trait. He’ll be fine in any run-blocking scheme ever devised. It’s the other kind of blocking that gives him trouble.

They have not done that at all. Ekwonu, Moton, and BC were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round picks, respectively. Corbett was a premium FA. Bozeman's the only relatively low-cost signing of the starting five, and we've grabbed Mays and Zavala in back-to-back day 3's.