actorguy1

With the 151st pick in the ES GM Mock Draft the Indianapolis Colts select Ainias Smith WR Texas A&M

https://establishtherun.com/jayden-daniels-qb-lsu-dynasty-and-nfl-draft-outlook/ Daniels started at Arizona State as the top dual-threat QB prospect in the country. He was impressive as a true freshman, averaging 8.7 yards per attempt with a 17:2 TD:INT ratio. He also added 515 yards as a runner. This certainly put Daniels on a trajectory you would expect given his prospect status. Then COVID hit, and it drastically altered Daniels’ trajectory. Arizona State played just four games in 2020. Over the course of COVID, Daniels lost both of his grandparents to the illness. He was dealing with grief, an athletic department that was being investigated by the NCAA, and a new offense that did not play to his strengths. Daniels is not like other five-year QB prospects. That could be some excuse-making, but when you look at how Daniels finished after (grad) transferring to LSU, it makes sense that he had to do some rebuilding inside as well as out. Daniels had the most prolific passing season ever in his Heisman-winning 2023 campaign. His 208 passing efficiency rating was just the fourth season since 2000 over 200, and the third from a Power 5 institution.

With the 117th pick in the 2024 ES GM Mock Draft the Indianapolis Colts select Andru Phillips CB Kentucky

My current take: Draft analysts love Maye and see his ceiling being so high. Coaches are more risk adverse and focus more on Maye's lower floor and instead chose Daniel's higher floor.

Jim Nagy on Pete Schrager's podcast: " I was at the weigh ins for the LSU Pro Day, Jayden weighed in at 210lbs. I asked the strength coach, is that close to his playing weight? The coach says his playing weight was usually 212 or 213lbs."

With the 81st pick in the ES GM Mock Draft the Indianapolis Colts select Calen Bullock S USC

With the 46th pick in the 2024 RS GM Mock Draft the Indianapolis Colts select Troy Franklin WR Oregon

How accurate has Keim been in predicting their first pick? Obviously, past regimes have been more open. But I recall not much accuracy from him.

This episode should be required listening to post in this thread. Believe me, listen!

https://theathletic.com/5372805/2024/03/28/broncos-sean-payton-draft-qbs?source=user-shared-article How Sean Payton and the Broncos are turning up the heat to evaluate QB prospects J.J. McCarthy didn’t have much time to revel in the afterglow of his performance at the University of Michigan’s pro day earlier this month, the one his college coach and now Los Angeles Chargers boss Jim Harbaugh called “the best I’ve ever seen a quarterback do at a pro day.” That’s because Sean Payton had given McCarthy a significant pile of homework — and it was due the next day. “We sent him a bunch of information,” Payton said at the NFL’s league meetings in Orlando, Fla., this week, “and made him throw all over again.” As the Broncos evaluate quarterbacks ahead of this year’s NFL Draft, the squeeze Payton and the rest of Denver’s decision-makers put on prospects is a critical part of their process. Insight provided by quarterbacks who have sat in meetings with the coach — and coming from Payton himself — has painted a picture of a process designed to put players in uncomfortable positions. Payton wants to pry players off the autopilot path that can be easy to travel during the whirlwind draft process. In other words, the coach wants to see how players handle it when he starts turning up the heat. Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, appearing on “The Herd” with host Colin Cowherd, described how Payton set the tone for a different kind of meeting. “He has asked several questions. He’s dry and straight to the point,” Nix said. “One of the questions is, ‘Bo, what’s your shoe size?’ I told him I was a 12. He’s kind of sizing me up and says, ‘You should probably be wearing a 13 or something.’ I said, ‘Yeah, probably so. But that’s just what I wear. I wear a 12.’ He’s been fun to interact with and fun to get to know.” Payton noted in Orlando that quarterbacks in the NFL “don’t always get to play in a clean pocket,” and his style in meetings could be viewed as his way of muddying the proverbial pocket and seeing how the incoming rookies respond. The Broncos, Payton said, will send quarterbacks a wealth of information at 5 p.m. the day before they meet — “more than we think they’re going to have a chance to study” — and then take careful notes about how they compartmentalize it all. “How do they handle that? Where is the breaking point the next day? Is there one?” Payton said. “Do they handle it really well or do they really struggle? What time are they at the facility? Are they preparing? Are they early? All of it is interesting and fascinating.” “It’s a big deal when you spend that much time with a player and not only watch them throw but put them through a test and just see how they come through,” Broncos general manager George Paton added. “It can really help.” Payton said the quarterbacks he and the Broncos have met with have been well prepared and were “well coached in college relative to the game.” But he also wants to see how the prospects respond when they don’t know what’s coming. Another example occurred at the NFL Scouting Combine in February in Indianapolis when Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. walked into a meeting room with Payton and other Broncos staffers and was immediately put on the defensive. “They were tough. They pulled up a lot of bad plays,” Penix said. “But it was good because at the next level, it’s hard. It’s hard to win, and I understand that. I felt like, in ways, he was probably trying to see how I reacted to those bad plays and take accountability and stuff like that. I’m always going to do that. I’m going to be honest about everything.” Payton, who spent 16 seasons as a head coach in New Orleans and is entering his second season in that role with the Broncos, has plenty of experience with the quarterback evaluation process, but this year could be different from all the others. Payton never drafted a quarterback in the first round during his time with the Saints. He had no chance to do so last year because the Broncos did not have a first-round pick, having sent the one they acquired in a trade with the Miami Dolphins to New Orleans for the right to hire Payton. Now, the Broncos hold the No. 12 pick and have a glaring need at quarterback after releasing veteran Russell Wilson earlier this month. “It’s a race for information right now,” Paton said. “We don’t have a lot of time. … We’re all trying to gather it and try to make the best possible decision.” The in-person meetings with quarterbacks are an important part of that process. The Broncos were set to meet Wednesday with LSU’s Heisman Trophy winner, Jayden Daniels, after the quarterback’s pro day, his agent told NFL Network. They have done the same with other top quarterback prospects, preparing for every scenario that could unfold in the draft. The next step, Payton said, will be the team’s “final board meetings,” which begin Monday. That is where the team will bring in all of its scouts and begin setting up its big board of prospects heading into the draft. Like the interactions with the players, the final board meetings will aim to challenge those in the room. New to the mix this year is Cody Rager, the team’s new vice president of player personnel, who previously worked with Payton in New Orleans. “You’re always looking to evolve. You don’t want to stay stagnant,” Paton said. “That’s why it was kind of cool to have Sean come in with his new ideas. We discussed our thoughts, philosophies, draft, what have you. He brought a lot of good ideas to the table, we both evolve and we kind of merged. Then you bring in new coaches, you bring in a guy like Cody Rager, who can help and help the process. I think every year after the draft, you should look in the mirror and see how we can improve. So we do that every year, but that was one of the reasons why we want to bring in Cody — to get some new ideas, a different lens.” No decision for the Broncos in the coming weeks will be bigger than the one they make at quarterback. If the Broncos draft a player at that position with their first-round pick, it would be the first time they’ve done so since taking Paxton Lynch with the 26th pick in the 2016 draft. That selection turned out to be a massive mistake as Lynch started only four games with the Broncos in two seasons. To ensure their next quarterback won’t fold under the intense pressure of being a first-round pick, the Broncos will continue turning up the heat in the pre-draft process. “The process has evolved a little bit with analytics and different testing we are doing but it still comes down to the film evaluation, spending time with them, getting around them,” Paton said at the combine. “Can they learn it? What type of leader (are they)? The passion for the game? I mean, it’s a tough game … and the toughest job is to play quarterback.”

Extreme Skinists?

With the 15th pick in the 2024 ES GM Mock Draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Quinyon Mitchell CB Toledo

I'm in a discussion with Keim and SpiderStrick on X currently. Here is how it's going so far.

Tomorrow is also first day of BIG 12 COMBINE Pro Day. Offensive Skill Players and DBs.

Big day tomorrow. UNC and the first day of BIG 12 Combine Pro Day featuring Offensive Skill Players and DBs.

I'm sure this has been posted before but it's such a lazy take that because Kingsbury had Murray in Arizona that he prefers a dual threat QB. Here are the QB's he has had since becoming an Offensive Coordinator or Head Coach: Case Keenun Johnny Manziel (1400 yards rushing in 2012- This is the exception) Davis Webb Patrick Mahomes Nic Shimonek (Mahomes replacement who had -66 yards rushing in 2017) Alan Bowman (-26 yards rushing) Jeff Duffey (369 yards rushing) One of these QB's was a dual threat. The rest were all mobile QB's who were a passer first and could scramble when needed.

Only source for live coverage of USC pro day is NFL+ Anyone else got a source?