Four round attempted quantity/quality with high upside that can be improved with good coaching mock based on our schemes

[Panthers Rhule]

I just did a mock with trade downs and ups. I tried to get picks but be aggressive for specific players. I really like some player that are late first to late second round picks so the plan was to get 3 in that range and recover 2022 picks for Darnold. All players should improve with coaching, fit our scheme, and improve areas we are missing. The objective was to get as much potential quality starters in the first 4 rounds as possible by trading aggressively. The idea being that when building a roster, 3 good players is better than 1 great player. Great players are usually found in the first half of round 1, sometimes and in this draft hopefully also later but you can get many solid players and potential early starters from picks 17- 64 too. So the idea was hit hit hard in that area and finsh rounds 2 and 3 with needs that could become starters soon. Here's how it went. 

 

First I traded down to 13 with Chargers for picks 13, 47 (Wyatt Davis G), 118. 

Pick 13 (traded to Cleveland for picks 26 (Greg Newsome II CB), 59 (Elijah Molden CB/FS), and 2022 2nd

Then traded up with Jax, offered picks 39 and 73 for 33 (Alex Leatherwood LT) and 106 (Drew Dalman C/G)

Pick 113 (Bobby Brown DT).

 

In conclusion:

26- Greg Newsome II CB -  Nice-sized corner with a terrific feel for coverage. Feisty, mixes it up with receivers, and competes defending the pass. Quick flipping his hips in transition, fluid pedaling in reverse, and rarely challenged by opponents. Quick to read and diagnose, instinctive, and gets his head back around to locate the ball. Possesses a nice move to the throw and solid ball skills. Speed is a concern, though Newsome should be able to play in bump-and-run or even zone.

 

33- Alex Leatherwood LT - Athletic left tackle prospect with a large upside. Sets with a wide base, blocks with leverage, and stays square. Fires off the snap into blocks, keeps his head on a swivel, and displays excellent blocking vision. Explosive, quick out to the second level, and easily adjusts to hit a moving target. Displays solid footwork off the edge and terrific lateral blocking range. Gets his hands into pass rushers, riding them from their angles of attack. Agile, mobile, and keeps his feet moving. Makes excellent use of blocking angles. Quick and fluid pulling across the line of scrimmage and blocking in motion. He's a natural left tackle with the footwork and movement skills to be used in a zone-blocking system, but Leatherwood must get stronger

 

47- Wyatt Davis OG - Athletic guard with terrific size and upside. Sets with a wide base, bends his knees, and consistently gets leverage on opponents. Fires off the snap, fluidly gets out to the second level, and is outstanding blocking in motion. Easily slides in space displaying good lateral blocking range, stays square, and keeps his feet moving. Very effective with his hands, properly placing them into defenders and displaying strength in his game. Terrific leader on the offensive line who is intelligent and quickly picks up assignments. He's a zone-blocking lineman with outstanding size and needs only to improve his finishing strength to complete his game.

 

59- Elijah Molden CB/FS - Tough, instinctive safety with a terrific game. Quick reading and diagnosing the action, explosive, and plays with a degree of suddenness. Fast arriving on the scene, sells out to make plays, and effectively times his pass defenses. Takes proper angles, moves well laterally, and possesses a closing burst. Stays with coverage assignments, stays on the receiver’s hip out of breaks, and possesses terrific ball skills facing the action. Does a great job leading the defense and quarterbacking the secondary. Does not bite on crossing patterns or receivers’ moves and can burst to the ball out of his plant. Molden offers potential as a free safety or even in a zone system, and won't be a liability lined up against a slot receiver.

 

106- Drew Dalman C/OG - Two-year starter who lined up at both guard and center for Stanford. Explosive zone-blocking lineman with nice upside. Explosive, fires into blocks, and quickly gets out to the second level. Fluid if asked to pull across the line of scrimmage, plays with great pad level, and consistently gets leverage on opponents. Stays square, moves smoothly about the field, and easily redirects to hit a moving target. Keeps his head on a swivel and works well with linemates. Effective with the shotgun snap. Dalman was a smart, tough zone-blocking lineman who was effective at both center and guard. He lacks next-level power and needs a running start, but he would be very effective in a system that puts linemen in motion.

 

113- Bobby Brown DT- Explosive three-technique tackle who plays with outstanding fundamentals. Fires off the snap, plays with excellent pad level, and draws the focus of opponents. Consistently gets leverage on blockers, shows agility, and immediately alters his angle of attack and redirects to the action. Moves well laterally chasing the play down the line of scrimmage. Aggressive. Tough to move off the point. Brown possesses the size and style to line up as a three-technique tackle or one-gap defensive lineman. He possesses an upside and should only improve as he gets stronger in time.

 

Cleveland Browns 2nd round pick in 2022

 

Summary: We add 3 athletic, zone blocking players at positions of need, OT, OG and OC/OG respectively. While none are the best blockers at their positions, each are well suited for our zone blocking scheme and have up side. The first 2 could start in year 1 and definitely by year 2. Even the 3rd could find early playing time and perhaps become our replacement for Paradis at Center. Their weaknesses are all the same, strength, which we all know can easily be improved. 

We also add 2 DBs, CB and CB/FS. Again, positions of need. Both are well suited for Zone schemes which we run and have good coverage skills and have versatility and read plays well. With an effective pass rush their weaknesses will be less and the opportunity to Ints should increase as both are capable of reading and anticipating throws. Their skill sets compliment our other DBs very well.

Lat, we add a solid 3 tech into our rotation which is again a position of need with his weakness once again being strength which is easy to improve. As a bonus, we recover the most controversial pick we used to get Darnold and that's a second rounder. 

 

This only cover the first 4 rounds. We still had 4 more picks to add to depth but in all, while we didn't land the 1st or 2nd graded player at each position, we did land 3 players in the top 5 of their class and the other  2 were top 10. Leather was 6th but for our scheme he was 3rd. Molden could arguably be the 1st FS although he is listed as a CB. He could and would probably play a CB in some situations but the other top safeties are more suited for Strong, which we already have. His skill set is something that we are missing. 

 

Of all the mocks I've done I really like these 4 rounds. What do you guys think about this 4 round draft? Do you like the strategy? Do you like the players?