Bear Hands

Will say, as I've dug into things, Mike Green is absolutely legit. There are only 3 appropriately-sized guys in this class with over a 20% PR win rate, 99 percentile PR skills: Abdul Carter, James Pierce, & Mike Green. All 3 of those guys are 3-4 molds, but not undersized or poor in run-d grade by any means. Will say, Pierce would not be a bad option at 8 if Graham IDL & Johnson DB are gone. Those 3 are the top. I find it hard to dispute. Gillette arguably falls into this category, but his run-d isn't at their level or else he'd be viewed much higher in this class. Then comes the appeal of Jalon Walker who's this offball/edge hybrid. Overall, just a stud football player. But the guys floating around 10% PR win rates that aren't necessarily stud run defenders, I just don't want much part of. Mykel, Shermar, Kennard are the types that worry me. Now, the pass rush specialists, give me those guys like Princely (stud), Donavon Ez in R2-4...instantly insert them into our sub packages, PR downs and let them cook. Some really interesting options.

lol what have I done

I don't know, I don't see who's stock could realistically rise this draft. These guys just aren't that good of prospects and the tape ain't great either. Milroe is a bit more like a Kellen Mond for me. Not as physically imposing as AR. Has the dual ability, athletic traits, arm, but really no feel as a QB (okay, some similarities lol). All the essentials like pocket awareness, anticipation throws, seeing the layers of live play, it's just not what you want as a QB. Zone-read skills, but no consistency and hasn't really shown he can be that field general. Lower than expected adjusted percentages, SUPER low pressure grades. Just a toolsy-QB IMO. Nix was way more consistent his final year than Ewers and is way more accurate with his deep balls. In addition, Ewers does not have the agility Nix has. Think they're quite different. Something just hasn't clicked yet with QE. He never found his go-to "guy" in school, really had a problem finding and staying in rhythm. And for having so much talent around him, he just never produced what you think he should have. Nix on the other hand was able to go bonkers with Tez, Bucky & Franklin at Oregon, also just had excellent mechanics and good velocity that could trick you to thinking his arm's more powerful than it is. Kyle McCord could be a guy to watch. But at highest, he could rise to R2. I just see Ward & Sanders at the top, but I'm unsure I'd even classify them as 1sts. Many speculated (Brugler, Sando, others) before decisions were made last year that Ward was viewed as a 4th rounder at best developmental...and that was after 2 really positive seasons at WSU. This may not be common sentiment, but I wouldn't take Ward or Sanders over Penix or Nix.

Yeah I should have noted they aren’t listing Walker as an Edge defender on their site but he can totally play there as well as offball.

The draft season shakeups are starting to begin on ranking boards. PFF now has 7 ED ranked in the first round. Albeit that’s relative to this draft class, not necessarily 1st round grades. https://www.pff.com/draft/big-board?season=2025 Notable: Position/Overall Ranking/Name 1/2 Abdul Carter 2/9 James Pearce (somewhat surprised) 3/11 Mike Green (surprise, high climber) 4/18 Mykel Williams (fell) 5/20 Shemar Stewart 6/22 Jack Sawyer (climbing) 7/25 Nic Scourton (fell) 8/33 Donovan Ezeiruaku (climber) 9/38 Landon Jackson 10/39 Princely Umanmielen (surprise/slight fall, but high upside) 11/44 JT Tuimoloau (personally, I like him for us R2)

I quite like the Blackmon idea - he’s a good DB

Counter to the assumed notion, the value of RBs is actually increasing but was at its lowest dip in its history a few years ago, so its still pretty damn low. The best of the best could start getting better contracts but that lowest valley was around 2021/2022. Teams that have infrastructure to comfortably add that high-quality sparkplug can get studs higher. We are not one of those teams....(will be interesting to see who pops for Jeanty- Bengals? Cowboys?) And the problem is Brooks isn't just that bit. What I found interesting was that most/if not all the higher mid rounders like him (IR), Corum, Benson, & Lloyd didn't quite show up. Yet you had Bucky Irving, Tyron Tracy, & Ray Davis finding roles without major injuries ahead of them. He wasn't in that gamebreaker class. So, it's not that RBs shouldn't be selected in the 1st/2nd type argument, it's more the expectation of what that type of R2 selection should be adding to your team. He just didn't make sense for us. Guys like Frazier or Sainristil did. Unless it's generational, that sweet spot is R4-5 IMO for RBs. Heck, we have the 8th-11ish best rated RB in 2024 on this roster and he was a 2020 4th.

Could be the year of Barkley & Henry squaring off in the big game... Stafford played his butt off. Felt bad for Limmer, he did really well today and then botched that assignment at the end. Solid game.

Limmer is really holding his own

Luvu had the open market he wanted to test, and honestly, it seemed like he was preferential to elsewhere even if the money was similar. Chinn was the 2020 runner-up DROY. His type of talent doesn't just not fit but I guess the 2 high shell isn't optimal - we just couldn't use him the way Snow did. He's a fit with the now more hybrid-Cover 3 defense Quinn deploys.

We'll see. I think it would be hard to slow down WAS right now. PHI/Kellen Moore can call duds and Stafford has shown his age (although they've had great flashes). At full strength, I still feel BAL is the best team, but you can't deny Mahomes. He's like damn Brady in his prime. The BAL/BUF game is gearing to be THE game this season.

WAS could very much win next week, be it LAR or PHI. I don't think this is an abberation. Also, think the more entertaining SB scenario out of teams left would be WAS v BAL/BUF. Potential MVP vs. ROTY.

https://atozsports.com/nfl/detroit-lions-news/hendon-hooker-could-potentially-be-leaving-with-lions-oc-ben-johnson-according-to-an-nfl-insider-what-the-lions-could-get-in-return-and-their-next-step-at-qb/ Who knows, rumors are rarely valid…. Ben Johnson may be favoring LVR because he could start from scratch (and bring Hooker with him who knows his offense) Wild idea, doubt it’s credible though but never know.

There is usually one annual glaring perceived need that we ignore for the most part. But I think the defense’s performance was poor enough to warrant a pretty major overhaul sans Brown & Horn. Trevin should hopefully stick and Jewell+Wonnum should still be here, but the rest is pretty much up in the air. Futures of Tuttle, Robinson, Woods, Jackson, & Shaq are unsure even considering some contracts. Seems like a decent IDL FA and draft to add from.

Yeah they'll be tough to beat. I'm excited to see the WAS matchup. Detroit has the defensive personnel to make Daniels frustrated, even if they aren't consistently getting pressure. I really wish they had Hutch back, he would be so much fun to watch in the playoffs against a QB like Daniels.

Feeling a bit confident in this assessment right meow

I'm a bit iffy on Mykel. He has a high ceiling but I thought he miss-timed a lot of snaps, didn't have the best awareness with reading plays, and isn't a closer. I may be alone here, but I have him as a late R1 at best. He'll test well, but he needs time to develop.

Yeah he's a dude. Everything I've read on him sounds like he's ready to make noise in the league too. Seems like a real grinder. Team captain too.

If your beef is about us taking Brooks over him, then I can get that. I'm explaining why teams were likely hesitant with him. Great talent.

Not speaking positionally. Every position group is represented in the list. And I'd say their value aligned much better with their selections and this current class is a bit thin overall. Some decent edge rushers, sure, but I think Carter would have been ED3 or 4 last year. I'd love to hear a good argument for him vs. Verse, Turner, or Latu as prospects. I feel he's quite behind them from the standpoint of awareness, run defense, and actual pass rush moveset and technique. His upper body technique is really spotty. He's better than his predecessor in Chop, I'll give you that. This draft has maybe 12-15 R1 grades IMO.

I'd argue Wilson's risk is inherently different given he had a reconstruction & revision on his knee, he also had surgery on both shoulders and was an older prospect at 24. Teams were hesitant, and at their own detriment, because he's balling out. And he was still a top-100 guy so it's not like some Trey Smith type fall.

The size thing doesn't get to me. I feel many still are looking through the 3-down 4-3 lens. This basically IS the prototypical modern EDGE size minus the outliers who can play all schemes and are 6'4+, 260+. Miller, Parsons & Mack examples aside, just look at the younger blooming guys right now: Anderson Jr. 6'4 243, Bonitto 6'3 240, Tuli is 6'3 265, Byron Young 6'2 250, Highsmith 6'4 242, Huff 6'3 255, Verse is 6'4 260, Herbig 6'2 240.... Even TJ Watt's playing weight is in the 250s. It's about playing strength. Taking from that list above- PIT has 3 main rotation pieces at the edge that are 255, 242, & 240. That being said, I'm still really lukewarm about this kid.

Solely to anger the Wolfpack contingent lol

Responding to some - I'd say it's less about classifying a player as a boom/bust and more understanding the level at which rookies are thought of and trusted by organizations around the league. These are the best teams in the league and they're putting decent trust in the big moments with less experienced guys, whether due to an injury or genuinely earning their playing time. We've had a tendency to look a bit longer term with a lot of picks in hopes the upside can be hit. Which is fine I guess, but our track record is getting really bad so maybe we should stop lol. Thing is, you have a guy that fell who could be a great boost (Ladd, Newton, DeJean, Lassiter, etc.) and we stick with the guy we love and have a bit of tunnel-vision for. It seems to be a trend here...getting too locked in on "our guy" and not seeing how the chips fall. I often wonder if the Fit/Morgan era years would have taken Star when he fell to us in his draft. The funny thing with this last draft is that I feel like we struck a good pick with Trevin & Sanders. But XL and Brooks really did feel forced. Morgan was predetermined to get both by whatever means. My hope for 2025: we fall in love a bit less with prospects and are able to assess in-the-moment a bit better.