WhoKnows

No Lawrence and no Overshon and they are destroying the OL.

I know we have Brown but I’m high on Graham as well. Pearce was supposed to be the top edge guy in this draft at the start of the season but when I watched, I wasn’t really impressed either. I think the edge guys this draft seem really risky. Graham was on the top 5ish list in this draft since the earliest 2025 mocks which makes me less concerned because he was thought of as a top 5 pick at the end of his sophomore and junior years.

Since 2017, which was a much better draft. It’s progress in that we didn’t just waste picks on guys who had no business being drafted, but it doesn’t even have a marquee guy like Burns, Moore and Brown (for the drafts since 2017). Brooks was the only guy until this week that we weren’t sure about in terms of maybe elite. Losing two years and not knowing what he’ll be makes it a bad pick. The best value we got was Coker and we really do need to do better this draft. It’s nice we’re competitive but if we actually want to be a playoff team, we need better drafts.

A 3rd rounder this year is likely a 4th, maybe even 5th in 2025. Deeper class so there should be some good RBs in the 4th. That's where the year in year out good teams do better. They go value. If you draft the strong and deep positions you should (on average, always exceptions) be getting better overall draft value every year. You have above average drafts every year, you keep winning. We don’t and haven’t done that as far back as I can remember. Our results speak for themselves. Some people get so emotionally involved in picks that they defend mistakes like Brooks. It’s simple logic to say drafting Frazier at C this year in the 2nd and a RB in the 4th next year is way better than Brooks in the 2nd and a C in the 4th of 2025. Cs were pretty solid this year and RBs solid next year.

100% agree. We are down to Chuba and that’s it. I just hope we pick a guy early in day 3. There’s a handful of day 3 2024 draft RBs who would have been perfect as a 2nd RB splitting carries with Chuba. If Brooks works out in 2026+ then a day 3 pick isn’t a big deal. Brooks is still going to be an injury risk when he comes back.

Huh? The guy we wanted who was available at Brooks pick is starting for the Steelers. He would 100% be starting over Cade Mays and taken over the future for Corbett who’s a FA. Weird take on this considering Steelers fans love Frazier and we loved Kalil. Frazier would be a fan favorite and lock down the position for years and potentially be a pro bowler. Yeah, backup center indeed. Not a good post at all. How about the reality of maybe we draft a 10 year stud center or we draft a complimentary RB who doesn’t play for 2 years. Think of how good the second RB will be in 2026 since he missed 2024 and probably 2025.

The draft was prior to the 2024 season when center was a big need to create an amazing OL for years. Sorry, but that will always be important. Before 2024, Mays was absolutely just a backup and Corbett hadn’t played center in forever and was (and still is) a major injury concern. It's not an obsession, it’s just another recent case of the huddle fans wanting to resolve a key hole and almost universally picking the right player while the GM picks a different player that doesn’t work out.

Yep. We are 4 games behind Tampa so they’d have to lose out and us win out just to get past them. Atlanta is 4-1 in the division already and they beat us so we’d have to win out and they have to lose out as we can’t tie. I could see one of Tampa or Atlanta losing out but not both. Atlanta also plays the Giants and Raiders so they have an easier schedule.

This is a terrible take. Frankly, everyone in the draft threads talked about the need at C. C was one of our highest needs and we liked a lot of the prospects. You obviously weren’t in the pre-draft threads. Mays has looked just OK, center position is not covered. Corbett is a free agent and has played 9 total games in 2023 and 2024. Corbett looked OK as well but hadn’t played C in years and also was coming off a season where he missed 13 games. We seem to count on a lot of injured players. It’s funny how you say C is covered and that Pittsburgh wasted a 2nd. There’s a reason why we have been shitty for years and they don’t have a losing record in a decade+. Pittsburgh wisely used their 2nd on a stud C. We did not and we are in now way better off for it.

Yep. If one day we decide to draft the strong/deep positions more and play the value side we could be ok. C/G is great for day 2. Same with LB and TE. Lower value positions that go after T, QB, CB, WR, etc. you are drafting the best C/G early to mid second like we always draft. Get the 2nd or 3rd best C (Frazier or Humphrey) instead of the 12th WR or 1st RB in a weak ass class. It’s so simple and it’s why the good teams stay good for a while.

It’s a deep 2025 RB class and a lot of day 3 RBs have contributed this year so there should be some really good value in day 3 RBs. I wouldn’t want to pay a FA either. Grab a cheap complimentary RB in day 3 who can be insurance if Brooks doesn’t play at all next year. We’ve got a lot of day 3 picks.

This. DJ Moore was a bit raw as well but he didn’t turn 21 until a couple weeks before the draft. Legette turned 23 a few months before the draft. Moore also contributed as a freshman. Right away. It took 4 years for Legette to have as many yards as Moore did his freshman year. Raw is OK if you are 21 at the draft and still had some decent college stats. Raw is too risky if you turn 23 before the draft and only have 1 year of college stats. We’ve taken way too many risks in our recent drafts and we are doing it day 1 and day 2, not day 3 where players with multiple risks go (older, raw and injured).

Reminds me of Hurley taking Will Grier to beat the Patriots and left Maxx Crosby on the board. We actually had Crosby in as one of our 30 private visits but we took Grier. Fitterer got Mingo before the Cowboys did and I remember the discussion about getting TMJ before the Saints could. Gotta love how we fall on the grenades for other teams.

I haven’t seen anyone say it’s career ending, just that you can’t compare him to one of the fastest and best recoveries, if not the best, ever. We’ve already lost 2 years since he got hurt a month later this time and barely got any touches before getting hurt again. Peterson only missed 4 games due to the ACL before he had his 2nd significant injury at age 29. Brooks is likely to miss almost 30 games by 22. Comparing them is apples and oranges. We always talk in here about not paying RBs their second deal because it’s the lowest shelf life position. That’s also why taking an already injured player early makes no sense. It’s too risky. Projects are too risky. Old rookies that aren’t fully developed is risky. If we just avoided those the past few years we’d have lucked into a much better team right now. It’s so frustrating as a fan to see the team actually play well knowing how little talent we’ve added in the draft for the last 5 years.

He might not even get a touch next year. It took him a full year this time. The thing that hurts is all the day 3 rookies who contributed way more this year and weren’t starters most of the year.

It is and I do feel bad for him. Doesn’t mean I liked the pick before or after, but personally that really sucks for him and for our team because we can’t get the pick back and he’s basically on the shelf for 2025 too.

Damn, you are normally a level headed poster. No, we aren’t GMs but we don’t need to be to express our opinions. Just go into the pre-draft threads. None of us were banging the drum for a RB in round 2. We also were split on WRs with McConkey probably being the top guy due to wanting an Edelman type clutch, always open guy. Very similarly to what Thielen has been this year and last year. Sorry man, it’s looking like the draft wasn’t good at all. If we had taken McConkey and Frazier, we’d be pounding the drum for Morgan. The universal best loved pick was probably Sanders in the 4th. We’ve had some doozies of bad drafts since 2017, especially outside of 1st rounders like Burns, Moore and Brown. Morgan has not blown away Fitterer yet and he needs to otherwise he should ask for advice. Also, your post makes you look bad. No need to go there with the insults.

Adrian Peterson was a freak of nature who also came back from the ACL tear way earlier than Brooks. Using Peterson as an example for anything is crazy. Brooks isn’t Peterson.

There’s a handful of day 3 RBs in the same draft having decent seasons.

This makes no sense. We don’t celebrate the loss, but we aren’t sad that we had almost won a game no one gave us a chance to win and we also stayed in a top 5 pick. Brooks getting hurt is good because Chuba’s been a strength already so Brooks wasn’t winning us games with 3 carries. Brooks also isn’t “back next year” if he tore his ACL. He got hurt in November of 2023 and he has 8 carries in 13 games. He just got hurt in December of 2024, do you actually think he’ll have a significant impact on next year? Based on the last recovery timeline, he might be off IR and getting eased into the lineup in week 14 next year. People are upset that we had a stud C available who’s helping Pittsburgh have a great year and we took a RB that is effectively missing his first two years as a 2nd round pick. Winning by losing a very close game and Brooks being hurt again are two completely different things.

I kind of get it. His stats haven’t been impressive so I would also wonder a bit. He’s clearly playing with confidence and making throws in the past 5 games that we have not ever seen him do last year and to start this year. He’s leaps beyond that guy. That said, our D has played very, very well, especially in getting drive stops. Tampa and Philly are solid offenses and we held them both to around 20 points. KC’s offense has been meh this year but their D has been solid. I’d love to see Young in a Baltimore/Cincy or Detroit game where he’s having to put up 30-40 to win. That interception before half cost us the game against Philly as much as Legette’s drop. Game went from maybe a 6-10 point halftime lead to down by 4. That was his worst throw in his awakening and I’d want to see him tested more like that where we have to come from behind by 10-14+ and he has to carry the team. The D and running game have been solid for the most part and we’ve been tied/had leads most of the last 5 games.

He was? We got 9 carries for 22 yards this year from him. How was he anything to Hubbard? But he didn’t and last time he tore his ACL it was November. Now it will be December, so if it’s bad, we basically will have gotten nothing for years 1 and 2 and he’ll be an even bigger injury risk the next time he steps on the field. It was a bad pick, especially considering the deep 2025 RB class and the number of RBs from Brooks’ draft class that have done better as day 3 picks.

2 years older but a valid point. XL is almost 24 here in his rookie year, not the age you should be working on fundamentals. Most young studs who go into the draft after their 3 college seasons are in year 3 at 24. They’ve already been molded. We tend to draft projects, older players and injured players and unfortunately we draft them where they’d go if they worked out. Sometimes we draft a player in 2 of those 3 categories. Here’s to hoping he turns it around fast because after this draft, we were supposed to have our future #1 WR and RB. We even got a nice surprise in Coker and in Thielen looking like he has plenty of gas in the tank and here we are talking about using our high 1st round pick on yet another WR and I’ve seen people suggesting a 4th on another RB, which was a very wise call for the teams who waited in this past draft to take a RB in the 4th.

It did. Not even close to getting the onside kick.

Joe Brady is a moron. Don’t care how well you’ve done this year, you just called a play that means you have a 3% chance at an onside kick. Makes no sense to call that. Basically took away any chance to win.