2024 Comprehensive Draft Thread

[method man]

5 hours ago, KDawg said:

Why? We don’t have anyone who can go and get a jump ball…

Not quite jump balls but Terry has gotten a fraction of the contested catch opportunities with Sam at the helm vs Heinicke

[KDawg]

6 hours ago, method man said:

Not quite jump balls but Terry has gotten a fraction of the contested catch opportunities with Sam at the helm vs Heinicke

I agree. But, to be fair, Heinicke launched them and prayed. Most of those balls shouldn’t have been thrown. And Terry hasn’t been himself this year (likely due to the injury before the season lingering).

 

But yes, Howell is much more cautious throwing contested throws. Most of his INTs are bad read balls, not “throw it up” balls.

[KDawg]

Kyle McCord to Syracuse is an interesting development. That’s actually a really good fit for both parties. And it’s going to save Dino Babers’ job. With Gadsden leaving he doesn’t have many high end targets, though Cuse always has some pro prospects every year. 
 

Going to be interesting where some of these other transfer portal QBs land… their draft stock moving forward depends on it. Though I’m not 100% sure McCord to SU is official yet.

 

Tyler Van Dyke to Wisconsin 

 

Riley Leonard to Notre Dame

 

Grayson McCall to NC State

 

Will Rogers to Washington 

 

Aiden Chiles to Michigan State

 

Dillon Gabriel to Oregon

 

Some rumors:

 

Cam Ward deciding between Miami and Florida State… he changes Miami completely and winds up behind Travis at FSU.

 

Malik Murphy is still out there, too.

 

I actually think the 25 class is looking better than anticipated. 
 

Ward has star written all over him, but he’ll need to prove it. Rogers, Leonard, McCall are good prospects (probably not top of the draft types but solid). Gabriel… we’ll see. 
 

25 is shaping up, at the very least, to be an interesting QB year 

 

 

[philibusters]

Because of the covid year not counting it feels like some of those QB's have been around for a long time.  For example it will be Dillon Gabriel's 6th year and because he took over as  a starter at UCF as a true freshman due to injury like I actually remember him from that 2019 season.  He'll have 3 years at UCF, 2 at OU, and 1 at Oregon.  However, because he was an 18 year old true freshman (rather than 19 or even some true freshman are 20), he'll only be 23 for his senior year season, and 24 as a rookie, not that unusual because there have always been 5th year seniors who started out as 19 year old true freshmen. 

 

It will likewise be Grayson McCall's 6th year.   Unlike Dillon Gabriel he didn't play much as a true freshman so he wasn't on my radar until the 2020 season when he took over as a starter.  Also like Gabriel he was a 18 year true freshman, so he'll only be 23 next year and 24 as a rookie.  But yeah I remember this board discussing BYU vs. Coastal Carolina in 2020 where everybody was scouting two potential future pros in Zach Wilson and McCall... https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401237514

 

We are two years away I think from being done with players who got a 6th year because of the covid year.  In some weird way I am kind of looking forward to that because I feel like its tough to evaluate 24 year old men against mostly 19 to 21 year old competitors.

Edited December 17, 2023 by philibusters

[skinny21]

13 hours ago, method man said:

If QB is not the call, I would much rather use the first on a WR/Bowers than a tackle if it came to it. I don’t know about Legette but the other three guys give off WR1 vibes for me and, after the season Terry is having, we need a true alpha weapon who can consistently win to give Sam the best chance to succeed. Let’s do something we never do and use the depth of the tackle class in this draft to our advantage and wait until the 2nd round to grab who is remaining of these well regarded tackles and I believe multiple of them will be around for us to have a solid pool to select from.

I’m all about taking advantage of the positions with more depth (that’s what she said).  If receiver is deep too though, doesn’t this go both ways?  I guess if you don’t see any wr #1 types after those initial guys, then I get what you’re saying.

 

More broadly, it’s interesting that you can approach the depth factor in a couple different ways - 1) take a high end guy at a more shallow position knowing you can still get a good prospect at the deeper position later, 2) double dip at the deeper position (if it’s reasonable to do so - ie you have a need at the position).  I suppose you could also forego the deeper positions, thinking other quality guys might get pushed further down the draft, but that seems less certain.

[Rufus T Firefly]

By the way, are Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning really going to coexist for another year at Texas?

 

Does anyone else find that extremely surprising? 

[Going Commando]

17 minutes ago, Rufus T Firefly said:

By the way, are Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning really going to coexist for another year at Texas?

 

Does anyone else find that extremely surprising? 

 

Those Texas boosters must be paying through the nose.

[DWinzit]

11 minutes ago, Going Commando said:

 

Those Texas boosters must be paying through the nose.

For sure, but I don't think they even bat their eyes at that

[clskinsfan]

On 12/16/2023 at 12:06 PM, KDawg said:

For the first draft in a long time I haven’t found a single linebacker that I think is an improvement at this point. I’m sure I will… but…

I am with you. I think it is a pretty bad LB draft. So bad I would wait to take a flyer on a guy way later in the draft. I like some of what I have seen from Jaylan Ford as a zone defender. He is a willing and hard hitter and has some pass rush ability as well. I also like the flashes I see from Trotter Jr. His interviews are going to be important for him though. Because there are just too many times where he is nowhere to be found in a play. Other than that I am probably staying mostly away from this LB crop.

[CapsSkins]

Saw Santana and B Mitch at the fan rally in LA yesterday. FWIW, they both told me they’d go LT at 3 or 4 overall over QB or MHJr. Tana said he thinks MHJr may go back to school; as for QB, he wasn’t enthusiastic about Jayden Daniels but said it was bc he didn’t want to “start over”.

 

BMitch half-jokingly said he’d go LT in the first *and* second rounds. I asked whether he’d flip one of them to RT and he nodded.

 

Both nice guys! Hung out for a while.

^me chopping it up w Tana Man lol

[Rufus T Firefly]

11 minutes ago, CapsSkins said:

 

Saw Santana and B Mitch at the fan rally in LA yesterday. FWIW, they both told me they’d go LT at 3 or 4 overall over QB or MHJr. Tana said he thinks MHJr may go back to school; as for QB, he wasn’t enthusiastic about Jayden Daniels but said it was bc he didn’t want to “start over”.

 

BMitch half-jokingly said he’d go LT in the first *and* second rounds. I asked whether he’d flip one of them to RT and he nodded.

 

Both nice guys! Hung out for a while.

^me chopping it up w Tana Man lol

Man, you're about three times as good-looking as me.

 

 

 

(that is not a compliment) 

[KDawg]

1 hour ago, Rufus T Firefly said:

By the way, are Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning really going to coexist for another year at Texas?

 

Does anyone else find that extremely surprising? 

It’s possible they aren’t. With Texas in the playoff Ewers is going to stay. He can declare after.

Edited December 17, 2023 by KDawg

[Chump Bailey]

Top 20 WR’s

 

1. Marvin Harrison Jr. Ohio State

2. Malik Nabers LSU

3. Rome Udunze Washington

4. Troy Franklin Oregon

5. Brian Thomas Jr. LSU

6. Adonai Mitchell Texas

7. Emeka Ebuka Ohio State

8. Xavier Legette South Carolina *Lack of production and age are slight concerns, but he reportedly has a top-notch work ethic

9. Jalen McMillan Washington *Vastly underrated IMO

10. Keon Coleman Florida State *Concerns about NFL translation separability persist

11.Ladd McConkey Georgia

12. Xavier Worthy Texas

13.Tez Walker North Carolina

14.Jemari Thrash Louisville

15.JaLynn Polk Washington

16.Brendan Rice USC

17.Jermaine Burton Alabama

18.Roman Wilson Michigan

19.Troy Horton Colorado State *Great hands and I will be very interested in seeing his 40 time

20.Malachi Corley Western Kentucky (knew I was forgetting someone

 

 

*Potential risers & sleepers and there are a lot more than this I’m sure

 

Tre Harris Ole Miss 

J. Michael Sturdivant UCLA *Underrated IMO

Demeer Blankumsee Memphis *Joystick type movements

Tyrone Howell Louisiana-Monroe

Ricky White UNLV *Underrated

Luke McCaffrey Rice

Jerjuan Newton Toledo

Derwin Burgess Georgia Southern

Cornelius Johnson Michigan

DeCorian Clark UTSA *Injured unsure of 2024 status

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Chump Bailey

[DWinzit]

I understand the Legette concerns but thought he'd be a little higher.

 

I find McConkey one of the more interesting players to watch how he falls through the process leading up to the draft.

[Chump Bailey]

10 minutes ago, DWinzit said:

I understand the Legette concerns but thought he'd be a little higher.

 

I find McConkey one of the more interesting players to watch how he falls through the process leading up to the draft.

 

Yeah, I suppose swapping AD Mitchel for Xavier would make sense but overall I am satisfied. It was agonizing ranking a lot of these guys.  

Edited December 17, 2023 by Chump Bailey

[e16bball]

8 hours ago, philibusters said:

Because of the covid year not counting it feels like some of those QB's have been around for a long time.

This is a big part of the concern I have with the way folks are talking about these QBs. There is a very substantial age/experience gap between the two groups of top QB prospects.

 

Nix, Daniels, and Penix are all FIVE year college starters. Each of them became the “flagship” QB at their first school in 2019. Conversely, Williams and Maye were both in their junior year of high school at that time — and both had their entire senior seasons wiped out by COVID.

 

Nix will be 24.3 by the time OTAs start, Penix will be 24yo and Daniels will be 23.5yo. Williams will be 22.5yo and Maye will be only 21.7yo.

 

In other words, the Nix/Daniels/Penix group is a couple years older (and more physically developed) and has had about double the high-level experience and coaching. You really can’t overstate the advantage that gives them in one-on-one comparisons with the younger guys. I’d hope their processing and detail work would be more advanced, as would their mechanics. But a lot of the analysts, particularly PFF guy, seem interested in trying to determine who is the better player right now — when the actual question is which will be the better player in 2027.

 

The fact that the two young guys are already comparable or better players suggests very powerfully that they are easily the better bets for future value. Imagine where they’ll be in a couple years, with more physical development and continued high-level coaching and on-field learning. I think it’s a little wild that some of these old QBs who had to bail out of their first schools are starting to get slotted ahead of Drake Maye.

[DWinzit]

57 minutes ago, Chump Bailey said:

 

Yeah, I suppose swapping AD Mitchel for Xavier would make sense but overall I am satisfied. It was agonizing ranking a lot of these guys.  

Hey, don't change anything due to my response. Everyone has their own grades, stick with them! I love everyone's different thoughts on players

[Rufus T Firefly]

3 hours ago, KDawg said:

It’s possible they aren’t. With Texas in the playoff Ewers is going to stay. He can declare after.

Possible, yes. The rumors are that ewers is coming back, and Arch didn't enter the portal. 

 

But we'll see. 

[Commander202]

Yea, so without a doubt in my mind QB will be the move top 5. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Commander202

[DWinzit]

Has anyone graded all the day one and two long snappers yet?

[CapsSkins]

Jayden Daniels YOU are a Commander!

[seantaylor=god]

3 hours ago, e16bball said:

This is a big part of the concern I have with the way folks are talking about these QBs. There is a very substantial age/experience gap between the two groups of top QB prospects.

 

Nix, Daniels, and Penix are all FIVE year college starters. Each of them became the “flagship” QB at their first school in 2019. Conversely, Williams and Maye were both in their junior year of high school at that time — and both had their entire senior seasons wiped out by COVID.

 

Nix will be 24.3 by the time OTAs start, Penix will be 24yo and Daniels will be 23.5yo. Williams will be 22.5yo and Maye will be only 21.7yo.

 

In other words, the Nix/Daniels/Penix group is a couple years older (and more physically developed) and has had about double the high-level experience and coaching. You really can’t overstate the advantage that gives them in one-on-one comparisons with the younger guys. I’d hope their processing and detail work would be more advanced, as would their mechanics. But a lot of the analysts, particularly PFF guy, seem interested in trying to determine who is the better player right now — when the actual question is which will be the better player in 2027.

 

The fact that the two young guys are already comparable or better players suggests very powerfully that they are easily the better bets for future value. Imagine where they’ll be in a couple years, with more physical development and continued high-level coaching and on-field learning. I think it’s a little wild that some of these old QBs who had to bail out of their first schools are starting to get slotted ahead of Drake Maye.

This is a good point and I generally like guys who dominate at a younger age. That said, experience also is important and having tons of games under your belt is a good thing for a pro QB. Since QBs play much longer now the age isn’t a huge deal. Overall, ideally I want a guy who has a combination of high level traits, instincts, experience, and production, but if a guy is overaged I’m less worried from a QB. These aren’t guys that played baseball and are 28.

[CapsSkins]

Daniels and Howell are the same age (Howell is like 3 months older). Both started as true freshmen in 2019 - Howell at UNC and Daniels at ASU. Howell spent 3 years at UNC and started 37 games. Daniels spent 3 years at ASU where he started 29 games (his 2020 season was shortened to 4 games due to COVID).

 

Howell then declares for the draft whereas Daniels transfers to LSU and has another 26 starts with a bowl game upcoming. Daniels had a great season in 2023 but only had 1 win against a ranked opponent (#9 Missouri). Anyway, point being - there might be something to getting the extra seasoning in college before making the jump. Idk... but maybe in a vacuum (aka ignoring draft implications) Howell would have benefitted from spending some time at a big time college program facing stiffer competition before going to the NFL.

[Redskins 2021]

 A qb to watch who is undecided if he coming out or going back to school is DJ Uiagalelei.

 He is rumored to be the new ohio state Qb could easily have a Jayden Daniels year if he returns to college. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Redskins 2021

[Est.1974]

QB really is going to be our go to move isn’t it.