Going Commando

Yep. Also OCs have ridiculously high turnover. Almost none tenure beyond two years. It's absurd to draft a QB for a two year window.

People often underrate QBs on these things, as a cheap out in case the QB fails or falls. But it's a meaningless hedge, no one in the world actually believes Marvin Harrison is better and more valuable than the top QBs, or that he should be picked in front of them. And the truth is that superstar QBs are the best and most valuable football players in every level of the sport, regardless of position. Harrison isn't even close to as good a player as Williams or Maye are.

I think Frazier is just a guy and I don't really see what is special about him. I like his nastiness, but that's about it. Good balance and power but his body and his reading and movement skills feel very mediocre to me. He's not bad, I'm going to have him towards the end of the top 100, and I've got him as a fourth round value. Yeah I think Zinter will be there in the fourth because of his injury, but if he were fully healthy, I think I would have him as a late second round talent. Probable somewhere between 55-75. He's a king-sized guard and should be able to single block NFL IDLs. He's got super sticky hands and is a very controlled, fundamentally excellent player. I thought his film had the most clean reps of the IOLs this year. I'm assuming his leg will heal and he'll be ready to go as a rookie, and if that's the case, then I think he will be an immediate starter.

This is my IOL ranking: 1 - Jackson Powers Johnson 2 - Cooper Beebe 3 - Christian Haynes 4 - Sedrick Van Pran 5 - Mason McCormick 6 - Zak Zinter 7 - Beaux Limmer 8 - Christian Mahogany 9 - Kingsley Eguakun 10 - Zach Frazier This is not a deep IOL class. It's going to be bolstered by OTs that end up playing inside, but even still, I struggled to find 10 players with top 100 viability.

Well yeah. We know Jay is a drunken clown who is emblematic of the mom and pop hiring their idiot nephews culture of nepotism that riddles the NFL. Why would we take anything he does seriously?

I don't think he falls far if we pass him at 2. Someone will trade up for him. You just have to find the spot where the trade ammunition matches the willingness to jump down. The Giants and Cardinals both feel like great candidates to take Godfather trade offers because they might be looking at what Chicago did and think they took will be QB shopping in 2025 once they have the financial flexibility to cut their albatross contracts. The dead cap for cutting Murray or Jones drops by like 50 million next off-season.

Colt isn't bad. Jay is. They both struggle to synthesize the information they glean into a coherent, well-reasoned take. And that fundamental inability to see the wood for the trees is super common among the former QBs and experts who are suddenly moonlighting as draft media analysts. Good scouts take years of focusing on this one job to hone their perspective, and they also possess intuition for identifying player personality and growth potential that is different than what players and coaches develop when they watch film for the purpose of game planning.

I think New England has been desperately hoping we pick Daniels because they want Maye. They've been chumming the water like crazy to try and speak that into existence. I think they trade out of three if we pick Maye, and the Raiders give up 13, 44, and two future firsts to get Daniels. Then I think Minnesota will move up to four or five for McCarthy. I don't think New England likes Daniels, and if they have a mandate from Kraft to pick QB and Maye is off the board, then I could see them taking McCarthy instead. Then Arizona would have a bidding war for Daniels and be able to milk the Raiders and Vikings.

He uses these people as his mouthpiece. His mom, his agent, his publicist, there is a clear pattern of them speaking for him when he doesn't want to get his own hands dirty. The other two top QBs in the class have been no stranger to controversies and intense media speculation, why is Jayden the one who looks like his circle is a big problem? The dude is such a horrible fit for this franchise and we all know it. The only ones who are still lying to themselves about it are his cheerleaders in the media. He needs to go to the Raiders. An old, grizzled fan base on the East Coast won't put up with his act. He is way too soft and too much of a diva to play in DC, NY, or New England. He'll get eaten alive in those markets, not to mention he would greatly benefit from playing in a dome.

She has an outsized role. She's in the injury tent with him, which means she's on the sidelines during his games. And she personally participated in recruiting violations at Arizona St. She has had a completely inappropriate amount of program access for a player's parent, and I don't care who demanded that access between either her or Jayden, it's a red flag either way. I think we all know why Jayden needed that huge suitcase on his visit. His mom:

What's wrong with Wallace? I really liked the cut ups I saw from him.

I'd rather that be the reason he transferred than he couldn't crack the starting lineup at Oregon. I had heard the rumors about him lacking maturity, and wondered what they were based on. If that's what it is, and it's not a work ethic issue, then I would be fine taking a chance on him. If it's a work ethic issue, then I would probably pass. Bottom line for me is that I think his upside is so high that I'm willing to take risks on the personality. This guy is a Penei Sewell type athlete where he was just blessed with elite physical might even be NFL standards. The game is so much easier for guys like this. We're going to see reps where he blocks TJ Watt with his left hand while helping out inside with the right. He's the kind of player I would take a big swing in at 36. Much as I love Jordan Morgan, he's just not as talented. And he got touched up by Bralen Trice.

I've been lower on Alt than the consensus this entire time. I have him in the early 20s. I think he's good but not great. I like his athleticism and balance and size, but what kills him for me is I think he has weak hands. If a guy can't sustain his blocks, then he has a toughness/motor/functional strength issue that will follow him into the NFL and put a low ceiling on his pass protection. And I value pass pro above any other skill for OTs. The guy I'm far lower on than the consensus is Guyton. I've got him OT15 and a third rounder at best. He can't hold blocks for **** and is not even a good college tackle. All of the size and athleticism in the world is worth nothing in an OT that can't perform the basic requirement of blocking. The hardest part of the rankings for me was Olu or Latham for OT2. Latham has so much more power and nasty in him, but Fashanu is so much faster. That call very much comes down to which traits you favor, and I ended up going with speed even though I think Latham's film is better. Normally I try not to put traits over film for OLs, so I don't feel as confident in that ranking. The most functionally powerful OL in the class is Kingsley Suamataia. I've got him as a late teens, early 20s pick on my overall big board (still adjusting it). I think he's the best all around athlete and biggest raw talent of any of the OLs. I liked his film way more than I expected to going in, where I had the preconception that he was this super raw player whose film would be ugly. Nope, his film is actually pretty good. And then it finally clicked for me when I went back through the senior bowl videos and saw his drills in the context of all of the OLs. This kid is dominatingly powerful and he has super heavy and fast hands. He gets easy wins without conventional technique because he resets his hands so well and he is such a tenacious fighter with ridiculous natural strength. I think mock drafters have been sleeping on his upside and that he's gotten lost in the crowd. Getting him at 36 would be about a +15 value pick for me, and I think he should be a first rounder. Fautanu was one of the hardest for me to place. I think his game is ugly, but his tools are elite and his character is supposed to be outstanding. He's going to work out for somebody, and I could see him ending up somewhere like the Rams and becoming a Pro Bowler. There would be some years where he could be OT1 or OT2. The most underrated OT in the class to me is Caedan Wallace. He is better on film than Fashanu, and really doesn't have any weaknesses. He's nasty, he's consistent, and he is a good athlete. I think he is a starter and the last of the second round picks. I thought about putting him at OT10, but decided to shoot for more upside with Paul and Amegadjie and Fisher instead. But I could accept a case for Wallace as OT10. He's good and he's not really going to have to improve a ton to be good in the NFL. I think Ethan Driskell is super underrated too. His profile suggests a big stiff who can't bend or move and gets his ass kicked at the SB when he has to play against the big program guys, but he did well. He's a tenacious pass blocker with elite size and length, and he was nasty. Way tougher and more consistent than Guyton. He's the kind of day three project that interests me.

GMAP is bad enough. Just say Newmark.

This is my OT position ranking. Not all of these guys are going to be on my top 100, but it will only be a couple that get left off. Everyone already knows this, but my position rankings made it clear to me that WR and OT are the two strongest and deepest positions in this year's class. Some of the others won't yield 20 draftable players, much less 20 worthy of going in the top 100. 1 - Taliese Fuaga 2 - Olu Fashanu 3 - JC Latham 4 - Kingsley Suamataia 5 - Joe Alt 6 - Amarius Mims 7 - Graham Barton 8 - Troy Fautanu 9 - Jordan Morgan 10 - Kiran Amegadjie 11 - Patrick Paul 12 - Blake Fisher 13 - Caedan Wallace 14 - Roger Rosengarten 15 - Tyler Guyton 16 - Isaiah Adams 17 - Ethan Driskell 18 - Javon Foster 19 - Dominick Puni 20 - Christian Jones

Kingsley and Legette wouldn't be swings on obtaining depth players. Legette's upside is Terry McLaurin/AJ Brown, and Kingsley's upside is Penei Sewell. I'm also not sure Olu Fashanu's upside is as an elite player. IMO the only OT in this year's class who is a strong bet to become an elite player is Fuaga.

Fashanu is legit, but I think Peters is going to earn his money and find value with those early seconds. Personally, I think I would rather have Kingsley and Legette than just Fashanu, and I think it is realistic to get both at 36 and 40. We can still have a home run draft without both 36 and 40, but it's harder to get a ton of value from our picks without those. Especially when we'd be moving up to the mid teens and picking Fashanu around his slot.

He's talking to Jay Gruden. So he's talking to a high ranking idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. The NFL is largely populated by Jay Grudens. And many times, even when the people in charge are smart and not stupid like Jay, they are toxic and unprofessional nutjobs unfit for any kind of senior management job, like Daboll. Joe Gibbs was one in a million, people like him are not the ones that make up the league. More NFL owners than not are terrible people who build organizations with terrible culture, they manage their teams via whim, and their front offices are riddled with ego and unprofessionalism.

Peters went to a bunch of UNC practices. He's known about Drake Maye for a while. NFL personnel people absolutely track players who show NFL potential in future classes. Not finalizing your evaluations on them is different than not scouting them.

Personally, I'm not that high on Chop. Tools are as special as it gets, but he just isn't an impact player. Maybe that changes if you give him a featured role in a Dan Quinn defense, I don't know. But I don't like making those kinds of bets. To me, Jonah Elliss, Bralen Trice, and Austin Booker are all much better players, all in that second tier of edge rusher behind the top four guys (Verse, Turner, Latu, D Robinson), and all likely to be cheaper than Chop. My ideal scenario is to get Kingsley Suamataia and either Xavier Legette or Ladd McConkey or Kool-Aid McKinstry with 36 and 40.

I do not understand what he was thinking. It was a first down scramble, not a short yardage run where you might move the chains by leaping over the pile. Why the **** did he try and hurdle a defender in the middle of the scrum? Well I know why, it's because the guy literally can't see past the man in front of him and he had zero plan beyond making that DT miss. He has terrible vision as a runner. Also that was never going to be a targeting call. Jayden's head is way up in the air because he jumped, like a dummy. No ref is going to bail out a ball carrier for doing something that stupid.

I want to know what MH Jr's 40 time is. Is it in AJ Green/CeeDee Lamb territory? Or is it in Calvin Johnson/Julio Jones territory? Put it this way, if he were running low 4.3s in training, he would have run for scouts this offseason. So assume he runs in the upper 4.4 to 4.5 territory like Green and Lamb. When deciding between Nabers and Harrison Jr, you ask yourself who would you rather have? Jamarr Chase or CeeDee Lamb? You're getting an All Pro either way, but I'd definitely rather have Chase.

I like Nabers over Harrison because I think he's faster and more explosive. I've had him over Harrison for a couple of months, but haven't posted my board in a while. I recognize that Nabers had a big advantage at QB this year compared to Harrison though. McCord sucked, and Harrison looked a lot better when Stroud was running the offense. But Jayden was just erratic enough with his vertical pass placement to let Nabers show off how good his ability to adjust to throws in the he air is. On my overall big board, I have Nabers #4 in the class, between Bowers at 3 and Harrison at 5. I think he's a faster OBJ.

I think the consensus has fallen way too far on XL. I still think he's a first round talent. I see AJ Brown in his film, and I put him over Ladd even though Ladd is more skilled because he is so much more of a beast in his physical traits than Ladd. At the end of the day, Legette is a 6'1 220 pound horse who plays like he is 220. He runs as fast as McLaurin and has a 40 inch vertical. He's a stud on contested catches and Spencer Rattler made life hard on him, and he always answered the bell despite getting the absolute hell beaten out of him all year. He also has a great top gear that he can hit in the open field, and you're just not going to bring down a guy that powerful running that fast once he hits it. The late breakout age is a concern, but the light bulb came on big for him this year. I love his combo of pure toughness and aggression and speed. I would love to get him at 36, and feel that he is just as good a value there as McConkey.

I think they stink, but I can't leave them off my list because of how fast they are. Worthy is a skinny straight line burner with no functional strength and no elusiveness and no ball tracking nor contested catch skill. Mitchell is a diva WR without the aggressiveness that makes you put up with a diva WR. He's the kind of prospect that will fall through the cracks in an NFL receiver room, but he'll get a chance because of his return skills.