Always A Commander Never A Captain

Why not? Assuming medicals are clean he's a better prospect than some listed in the 20's there. As some of those guys are more about potential based on rarer size/athleticism than what they've shown they can do against competition.

Depends what people want. He is (I think?) fairly new to the position and already shows a lot of versatility. There are times where he mirrors really well in Man, and he's instinctive in zone so developmentally he seems scheme diverse.

Especially with a brand new coach/front office situation.

They've got an above average LT in Slater. But he's got some weaknesses. Kind of reminds me of a better Charles Leno. He can get worked a bit by a good sudden power rush ( such as speed to power). His body style is a bit like Jordan Morgan who we might draft.

Yup! I was one of those, but now he's actually hitting the ball harder. Originally I wanted Lipscomb to get games at 2B, but Garcia deserves to see this out. Wonder what changes he made.

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I'm curious about Cam Hart. I wish there was more video, preferably some All-22. He never got thrown at so his ability to play the ball is kind of unknown.

One thing that might sell Morgan is he should be better at handling the rushers that rely more on quick movement in our division. Thibs, Parsons, Huff, maybe Nolan Smith (but he might be a bust) So I could see them thinking, Morgan could be fine for more games than normal and the others we offer some harder TE chips and the like to set him up better? He's a 2nd rounder, you hope for a long term starter, but even if it's just 3-4 years until we get someone better then it's still a win. That said, I also think he's more of a Guard. But maybe they can make it work?

This is super hard. Cause his supporting cast looks all time great. Nabers and Brian Thomas are so much better than the corners they went up against. Is that growth or just knowing they're going to win because they always win?

I mean, kinda, but it's not like Young didn't have glaring question marks everyone knowingly overlooked at the time and are revisiting with hindsight. I think a lot of the draft narratives by 'experts' are them knowing a team loves Player A, so they don't want to say anything negative about Player A to make it look like they've always rated him where he winds up being drafted. I think this is also happening with Caleb. Who is a better prospect than Young, but still has flaws. It just doesn't benefit the 'experts' to point them out when they know he's going #1.

I think P2S needs far more nuance. I want pressure outcomes on down, distance, play action vs no, how clean is the rest of the pocket during pressure (can the QB step up easily?), then types of passes after pressure, rate of passes etc, then how the sacks happen. Caleb's scrambling against pressure is a negative but the sacks and fumbles are brutal. Whereas Maye and Daniels can feel pressure and then try and escape vertically, fail, but those sacks are lower yardage lost. So also figuring out how bad the sack was for that drive. P2S can have a lot more nuance...and I want that but obviously that's not a free bundle of stats we have access to.

For funsies, QBASE is a stat to peruse to pass the time. But it's not a good one. It had Bryce Young as a superior prospect to CJ Stroud, I think it gave Stroud a bust chance comparable to Maye's while Young was 10% lower? Similarly, it's ratios of Bust, Adequate, Elite, etc show Stroud, Maye, and Kenny Pickett as comparable prospects. It bombed the 2018 draft. It had Darnold and Rosen really high.

EPA is a fine stat, but it's too difficult to separate player's contributions with teammates. So people try to isolate it to specific situations, or types of outcomes, and see if that says more about the QB's actual contribution. The best one I looked at showed a surprising EPA similarity between Maye and Daniels. They were both a smidge above Caleb, but there are always other factors.

Peyton Manning. That was a big part of what made him deadly.

I've been reading speculation that he's made the leap. What he changed in the off-season has likely made him an Ace. Absolutely crucial for our rebuild. Especially with Corbin (and now Strasburg?) contracts off the books. We can go hard on what our farm lacks, pitching in FA.

I'm curious how many negative boxes Caleb Williams checks. I'd say he checks all the ones for Maye except for "Not enough starts". One box that might be more unchecked for Daniels and Maye vs checked for Williams is severity of sacks. They all get sacked loads, but when Williams does it's brutal, whereas Daniels and Maye often have less yardage lost and less fumbles. I do find it interesting that analysts will cite positives for Caleb, but then use that same thing as a negative for other QB's. I swear, if Chicago wasn't so obviously hell bent on picking him at #1, the discourse around Caleb would be less "this is a perfect prospect that we should put on a pedestal and never question" and more "this is a fun draft that has lots of flawed but pretty talented prospects.

Kittle is interesting, his usage is causing him to age a bit like a RB. His dominant athleticism has waned taking a beating like he does. He's also not a plus sized monster like Gronk. Kittle is slightly bigger than Brock Bowers, which also goes to show how Bowers should be used otherwise his skills could deteriorate faster. We know nothing of Bowers testing other than he looks fluid on tape. He declined to be tested at the Combine, Georgia Pro Day, and then the special Pro Day he did with Mims. Bowers is really enticing, but there are a lot of red flags from his smaller size, probably not the crazy Kittle levels of athleticism, and the pounding an in-line TE can take. If he's just a move TE that's basically a Big Nickel that occasionally blocks linebackers, ok, cool. But that's not someone you draft as early as he's hyped.

You can buy it by getting a cheap subscription and then download the Beast (it's a 300 page PDF). I don't know what the deal is currently, but they used to have a 1 month trial for $1.

I think Meneses would have to go down. I'm reading conflicting things on this, but service time manipulation dates are really soon? If Wood is called up after that date, and balls out, do we still get a draft pick but he loses a year of service time? Some people are saying that's the case, others are saying service time stays the same and we don't get the pick?

It has in the past, plenty of times. They've only invited 13 this year, but they invited 17 in 2023 and 21 in 2022. In 2019 22 prospects attended. In 2023, the following guys who went to the combine were picked in the 2nd round: Joey Porter Jr Will Levis Brian Branch Keion White In 2022, these guys went to the combine and were picked in the 2nd round: Kyler Gordon Same draft (2022), these guys went to the combine and were picked in the 3rd round: Nakobe Dean (picked #83) Malik Willis (picked #86) Matt Corral (picked #94) In 2019, these guys went to the combine and were picked in the 2nd round: Jawaan Taylor Cody Ford Drew Lock Greedy Williams DK Metcalf (#64, last pick in 2nd round)

Anyone have thoughts on Brandon Coleman out of TCU? Dane Brugler has him surprisingly highly rated at OT. Thinks he's a 2nd rounder. P.S. I wouldn't say trash at RT, but Warhead is right in that Cosmi should have made the switch to G sooner. His contribution at G far exceeds his contributions at RT. Sometimes just let guys play where they're best.

I don't think it counts as smoke if nothing is coming from the team. It's all referenced to guys on other teams. Keim and others are being transparent about the lack of access they have right now.

Anyone know what's up with Travis Sykora, the guy we paid way overslot for in the 3rd round last season?

Sure you do. A lot of great Guard's (and Center's) are really athletic. Evan Mathis, David DeCastro, Joel Bitonio, Brandon Scherff, and Ali Marpet fit that. Currently the Chiefs have a pair of extremely athletic Guards in Trey Smith and Joe Thuney. Why wouldn't athleticism help inside?

Mahomes is the best QB in the NFL, so QB's always get compared to him. Zach Wilson was supposed to be very Mahomes-esque. Advanced stats say Caleb Williams playstyle and the effectiveness of it is more akin to Russell Wilson than Mahomes. Chicago would still be pretty happy if Caleb winds up like a mid-2010's Wilson.