Always A Commander Never A Captain

Blake Fisher and Cam Hart would be good Day 2 picks. I'm starting to look at CB's now and Cam Hart is a bit of an enigma. He rarely gets thrown at. They throw it at the guy opposite him all the time (Benjamin Morrison), except that guy is really good. So I'm a little confused on what to think of this Cam Hart avoidance. Like, Hart has outside leverage on Marvin Harrison Jr, whose running an inside breaking route. This should be the choice, yet the QB decides to go elsewhere. Hart isn't much of a run defender at all, but he's a pest when running with a WR down the sideline. Lots of arm/hand fighting to prevent the WR from really separating. He's usually not on the guys back hip like glue (that's Benjamin Morrison), but he's still usually set up a yard further away with his hips in the right direction ready to close. I watched Notre Dame D vs USC to see Hart against a super "buy time and scramble drill QB" in Caleb Williams. Never looked Hart's way as a 1st read, did get to him as a late read on a series of moves from his WR to separate. Side note, but dear god was Caleb Williams atrocious. I'm amazed how much the draftnik community seems to disparage Drake Maye for a bad game yet ignore a bad game from Caleb. I think Caleb goes to the Bears #1 overall. But I don't think it should be set in stone. I think every QB has some warts.

Well then, I guess we know what the trade back floor is to still have a shot at a WR that can separate. They pick at #48.

Hurney was the GM in Carolina when Chase Young was drafted. Conspiracy theory of mine. Dan Snyder's pet project with his son's old schoolmate (Dwayne Haskins), has me convinced that Snyder said no to drafting any of the QB's except for the new national champ, Joe Burrow (which would have sold oodles of new season tickets). Snyder was convinced he knew best and struck gold. After Gruden/Allen were fired, all of the stories about the 2019 draft process came out and it was owner meddling all the way through. So no QB's (cause of Snyder). The best prospect besides Chase Young would probably have been Andrew Thomas and the fallout with Trent Williams in 2019 opens this selection up. Derrick Brown would have been an option if we had not just drafted Allen and Payne. Maybe Jeffrey Okudah, but I feel like him being taken at #3 was still a bit of a surprise?

Are the "we're absolutely trading up to #1" crowd the same as the "we're going to trade back, build the team, and roll with Howell" crowd? Cause they sound an awful lot alike.

https://www.wideleft.football/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-draft-network

Anyone know how Lipscomb's defense has been? Could he make the club and start over Garcia?

Obviously we know about Seattle's old requirement for drafting CB's, bit it looks like Dallas might have shifted to that too? They were drafted in rounds 2, 3, 5, and 6. The hit was in Round 5. The CB's they drafted while Quinn was DC: Nahshon Wright, 32 & 7/8" arm length Kelvin Joseph, 31 & 7/8" (unoffical measurement) Daron Bland, 32" Eric Scott, 32 & 1/4" Both Forbes and St. Juste have arm lengths longer than 32". But this could narrow our search considerably. Good news I suppose, only Kool-Aid McKinstry might be off the board by the time we pick.

The measurements during the combine were at 33 and 1/8th, then they changed to 34 a few days later. Seems like there was an error somewhere. Ah, I think I see it. Fuaga's arms are now coming in at 33 and 1/8 down which is a bit shorter than it first was measured at. I think they put Fuaga's arms as Fashanu's and have since corrected it. I'll just go with Fashanu at 34" unless Brugler lists it otherwise.

Arm length is a bit unknown. Different sources have different combine measurements. It's either 33 and 1/8th" or 34". I also don't think his advertised physical traits appear on film. If they did, he wouldn't have such issues moving in space or an inability to run block like he does. All he can manage is to wall off defenders in the run game, he can't really connect in space, he's a bit clumsy when changing directions, he can't drive to widen a run lane. It's like all of his movements are refined for pass blocking only and he looks like a fish out of water when doing anything else. I don't think Fashanu has as high of a ceiling as other prospects. Fuaga, Mims, Guyton, etc are guys with higher ceiling who are likely to be drafted later than him. He's just a bit more pro ready at pass protection with a high floor for that skill set. That is until I saw his tiny hands and possibly (unclear) short arms.

I'm not seeing it with AD Mitchell. He seems to be a pretty polarizing prospect where people think he's either worth all the hype or are just confused with how he's gotten so much hype. But the rest of your list I also think are guys with likely better than expected Pro careers. I haven't looked at Byron Murphy though, and I'm waffling on Bowers as TE's are unusually hard to project.

Disagree so strongly. Gruden would not have survived the Snyder culture of team wide sexual harassment revelations. He had his own skeletons. Gruden was busy getting drunk 10 hours before games while trying to cheat on his wife. His offense was not good. I remember Chris Cooley saying Gruden was not accepting input to help his play designs. Or shift them based on opponent. Gruden was the best Snyder could get after chasing the Shanahan's out of town. The next replacement happened only because he had to throw in General Manager power to Rivera, who was in way over his head. Rivera only realized he needed to hire support staff to help him GM 2 years into it. Was Rivera good? No. But Bruce Allen and Jay Gruden were worse. They would have torpedoed us to the point Snyder would have traded the farm for Trey Lance. Sean Payton revitalized Russell Wilson from his awful 2022 season to the point we have to wonder how much was Wilson and how much was Sean Payton. Him jettisoning Wilson has to be a yellow flag at best for Wilson treading water productions wise in 2024.

I'd heavily wager both still suck but can also say it's still an upgraded QB room. Pickett was way worse than I thought he'd be.

I've got Fashanu down further than that. I'll probably be wrong, but I think he's got clear limitations. It's a risk. I'd rather roll the dice on drafting double OT with an OT in the 2nd and an OT in the 3rd than trade up for Fashanu. There are some good prospects on Day 2 to roll the dice on for development.

The Panthers also have a terrible owner who meddles as badly as Dan Snyder did.

They aren't doing it. No way.

You're a huge believer in Justin Fields I take it. Does his lack of trade value change your opinion on his abilities at all?

So everyone knows, Dillard has a Guard body trying to play OT. He was worse at OT than Wylie was last season. Led the league in sacks allowed. Anyone who is worse than Wylie can't be an option for us.

Well, there goes Forbes starting spot. (Not complaining at all)

Hmm, I've gotta choose a source to trust for his numbers. I think I'll wait for Bruglers beast before I commit to his arms being either short or OK. His small hands fit better with his shorter arms, but people have odd proportions all the time so who knows.

I'm positive that Fashanu's arm length measured in at 33 and 1/8 inches. Why am I now seeing 34 when looking it up in half the spots online? It's not like he was remeasured.

They'll draft Nabers. Who is an amazing prospect.

On one hand Caleb Williams never likes to throw the types of routes Keenan Allen is awesome at. On the other hand Keenan Allen's late route double moves are pretty good and Caleb will buy enough time to throw some of those.

Yes and no. The games I saw he was routinely giving up too much separation on Out routes or Cover 2 beaters but the QB's never threw it. My question back then was if he knew the QB's weren't going to throw it or if he was just getting lucky. Turns out it was luck, he was getting roasted in the NFL on similar stuff.

Banks was also a bad prospect that was way overdrafted based on his stellar combine. The film did not show a 1st (or 2nd) rounder. Clear lack of effort and not caring about run defense. Late to react to WR's in off coverage. He was hit and miss in press, in part because his arms are really short for press. Joey Porter went at the beginning of the 2nd, and is like the Megatron prototype for shutdown press corner on an island. Still can't believe 2 teams were dumb enough to draft corners with bad film ahead of him...we just happened to be one of those teams. Hooray.

So, just 1 LB then? Nobody is running an old school 4-3 defense against current passing offenses. The whole league is mostly Nickel.