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2017 Comprehensive NFL Draft Thread


Dukes and Skins

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After seeing Donte Whitner embarrass himself Monday night and getting frozen on a deep ball, I dug into safety prospects in this draft. There is a lot of talent, I'm not nearly qualified to see how they project into the NFL. But Tedric Thompson and Marcus Maye are excellent options in the mid rounds. Watching some Florida tape, it's impossible not to recognize Jarrad Davis. He is a bad man

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3 hours ago, Hail2theSkins24 said:

After seeing Donte Whitner embarrass himself Monday night and getting frozen on a deep ball, I dug into safety prospects in this draft. There is a lot of talent, I'm not nearly qualified to see how they project into the NFL. But Tedric Thompson and Marcus Maye are excellent options in the mid rounds.

 

Where would you say they're better suited to play, lineup, as?  Su'a Cravens is supposed to move to SS next season, so someone with a bit more range would be desirable.

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5 hours ago, Hail2theSkins24 said:

After seeing Donte Whitner embarrass himself Monday night and getting frozen on a deep ball, I dug into safety prospects in this draft. There is a lot of talent, I'm not nearly qualified to see how they project into the NFL. But Tedric Thompson and Marcus Maye are excellent options in the mid rounds. Watching some Florida tape, it's impossible not to recognize Jarrad Davis. He is a bad man

Enough of the Whitner BS. We signed him after Hall went out, knowing Blackmon sucks. What else could we have done? People act like he was part of the plan, instead of anybody off the street.

 

That said, sucks hooker isn't coming out, because a safety always goes top 10 and that's Adams.

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Cam Sutton being the 10-12th rannked corner says a lot about the talent at that position. 1st round corners are iffy though so u got to look at them REAL close. Florida and Clemson corners Yes....Alabama corners NO. JMO

 

WR's are good these days coming out of college. This year has Mike Williams out of Clemson who will be bigtime. Guys like Ryan Switzer and James Washington are mid round picks that could have good careers.

 

TE and ILber have IMo 3 guys each who are better than the tops of last year.

 

DeMarcus Walker is on the edge of top 5 edge rushers. I must've watched all his great games because when I saw him he took over games. 4 guys better than him??

 

The fat boys on the DL are what I'm lookin at around the new year. Besides Allen, who can still beast against top level comp?? Michigan vs. FSU , Bama vs. Washinton. Star's bro vs. Feeney, Iowa vs. Florida has 2, Auburn vs. Oklahoma......

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I think Harold Landry is a first round talent.  He is super twitchy and agile.  Elite balance, first step, and lateral quickness.  Reads the field well.  He also has a competitive fire that you see in the way he battles tackles who are much bigger than him.

 

Length is a weakness.  He gives up size at DE.  Not going to be a brilliant run defender.  But he's one of the best pass rushers in the class.  He reminds me of Vic Beasley and Shane Ray and looks better than Noah Spence was.

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I have mixed feelings about Zach Cunningham.  His size and length are special for a stack linebacker.  Honestly, he's built more like a DE than a LBer.  As such, he demonstrates outstanding strength when he takes on blockers at the LoS and he looks really good playing downhill.  He also eats up a lot of ground in pursuit with those long strides and when he can leave his feet to make a tackle from a mile away.  Reminds me of Jaylon Smith in that way.

 

His major weakness is the lack of strength in his base.  He's got skinny legs and is not a twitchy athlete.  He is fluid, but he isn't quick when he is shifting his weight and flipping his hips because he has to gather himself for it.  And you don't see him generate a lot of hard contacts on ball carriers.  He's not explosive like Jaylon Smith was.   But he's more instinctive and fundamentally sound than Smith was.  Better take on strength and ability to win with leverage in the run game.

 

I think he's a really clean player who is probably going to be a good and productive starter for a long time.  But I'm not going to lie, he's not a sexy pick for a first round ILB.  He is not explosive and doesn't generate big plays.  You're drafting an assignment sure 130+ tackles a season guy instead.  And I think there are going to be better players available at our pick in the first round.  For example, Christian McCaffery is a far bigger and more impactful talent than Cunningham.  I would much rather draft McCaffrey if both were sitting there.

 

Unless he gets projected as an edge rusher, it wouldn't surprise me if Cunningham ended up going in the second round.  He's better than almost all of the other ILBs in the class, many of whom look flawed, but players like him are a tough sell in the first round.

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On 12/27/2016 at 1:26 AM, squatch66 said:

You can never have too many pass rushers so maybe he is starting to look for another guy to push Preston. 

That's what KC did year after year it seemed when they drafted Poe and Ford and Jones and someone else. Worked pretty well for them.

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@stevemcqueen1 Good posts. I'm higher on Cunningham than you, but can't argue much with your points. There is no doubt he needs to get stronger, but he reminds me of Jamie Collins so much. In fact, he is in the mold of Collins, with a very high football IQ. Lots of impressive people around him consider him one of the smartest/most instinctual players they've seen. I think he's one of those guys you draft and by Year 3, maybe 2, he's the face and leader of your D

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18 minutes ago, Hail2theSkins24 said:

@stevemcqueen1 Good posts. I'm higher on Cunningham than you, but can't argue much with your points. There is no doubt he needs to get stronger, but he reminds me of Jamie Collins so much. In fact, he is in the mold of Collins, with a very high football IQ. Lots of impressive people around him consider him one of the smartest/most instinctual players they've seen. I think he's one of those guys you draft and by Year 3, maybe 2, he's the face and leader of your D

 

I love the instincts and I love the length and ability to take on blockers at the point of attack and hold his ground.  He plays with good functional power and I wonder if he has some wrestling in his background?  I say that because he tackles like Robert Quinn did at UNC, and Quinn was a wrestler.  He's got a lot of body control and looks very comfortable making plays off his frame.

 

He's an odd player.  He's physical and doesn't shy from contact.  But he doesn't hit hard.  He's fluid and runs well in the open field, but he's not quick.  I think his lack of explosiveness and pop comes down to him having skinny legs and lacking the lower half strength to really lay the wood.

 

Maybe he could be a Jamie Collins type down the road, but I think that takes projecting him as a pass rusher, which is a wrinkle he hasn't really shown in college.  He certainly has the size and length to do some pass rushing, so the projection wouldn't be off base.  But we don't really know if he can do it.

 

I think he's a safe bet to be a quality starter, and I think he's the second best ILB I've watched so far, after Foster.  But I don't really see playmaker or star in him.  And I don't think you take that kind of ILB in the first round, unless you think you can develop those pass rushing tools and use him in that facet as well.  Or maybe the leadership skills and intangibles are special enough that you can justify him late in the first.  But we can't really know too much about that from where we sit.  Otherwise, LBs like him typically go in the second round or later.

 

On the whole, I'm not as impressed by this ILB class as I was by last year's group.  There will certainly be some gems, but the top end of the class isn't as good as last year's and it's not as deep.

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Actually, did some more thinking about Cunningham and Hail2TheSkins24 might be on to something about him being a raw prospect that could blossom into a stud two to three years down the road.  Reason being: Vandy is not Florida or Texas or Alabama.  The reason his lower half might be underdeveloped might not be because he's a bit of an ectomorph, but instead it could be that his nutrition and strength training just aren't on par with the prospects from the power programs.  I'd like to see what an NFL strength and conditioning program could do for him.  If he becomes a significantly more explosive athlete in a couple of years, then he could be special.  He's got a really big frame that's probably capable of carrying 250.

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Imo, Foster is the best ILb coming in since Luke. He's fast, can play the pass, strong, can hit, and was taught by Saban after a long line of good lbs. I wouldn't mind trading up for him. Cunningham I believe has the potential to be almost as good but like someone earlier said(and he does tackle like a wrestler) , its based on projecting him to do something he hasn't done a lot of. He got IT though. I could see a little Clay Mathews in his game.

Has anybody watched Hardy Nickerson Jr?? If he had the size......

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