The Official 2024 NFL Draft Day Thread

[JamesMadisonSkins]

2 minutes ago, KDawg said:

So…

 

I foresee some 3-4 sets in our future.

 

Magee - Allen-Payne-Newton - Davis

                   Luvu - Wagner

 

         Forbes-Forrest-Quan-Juste

 

 

Yes. And it’s interesting because we could line up very well in the 3-4 and that does not include any of the DEs with upside we brought in FA. Armstrong Fowler and Ferrell. Not to mention KJ Henry. 
 

We may have 3 elite level DTs and not so much at DE but we certainly have very quality depth. It’s insane. 
 

DE: Armstrong, Fowler, Ferrell, Henry, Jean-Baptiste

 

DT: Allen, Payne, Newton, Mathis

 

LB: Wagner, Luvu, Davis, Magee

 

Front 7 is stacked. 

[zCommander]

5 hours ago, Est.1974 said:

Athletic freaks is a common theme in many of our picks, some of the UDFA too.

 

They sure what to build a wrecking crew on defense.

 

Joe Whitt Jr. "We are going to run and put bodies on people in a violent manner."  

 

Edited April 28 by zCommander

[Llevron]

3 minutes ago, zCommander said:

 

Joe Witt Jr. "We are going to run and put bodies on people in a violent manner."  

The best quote of the offseason by far. Witt has me so excited to see what he can do. 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Reminder: draft grades before a player plays a snap are as useless as a teaspoon bailing water on the Titanic.

 

Its just a “how close to my board did you get” grade.

 

We’ll see how good the draft is in 2-3 years.

 

I do think they will sign another OT somewhere along the way.  They need more bodies who can play now.  
 

The good news, though, is with center and both guard spots in better/good shape they can scheme a bit to help the tackles.  Last year they couldn’t do that because center and LG were a mess.

[Veretax]

35 minutes ago, KDawg said:

So…

 

I foresee some 3-4 sets in our future.

 

Magee - Allen-Payne-Newton - Davis

                   Luvu - Wagner

 

         Forbes-Forrest-Quan-Juste

 

 

Also remember that probably 50% of the time we may end up in Nickel and Dime sets.  Or whatever Whitt's equivalent for extra corners/safeties will be called.

So in nickel I could see:

Magee - Allen Payne, Newton
           Luvu  - Wagner
Forbes-Forrest-Quan-Juste-Sainsritl
 

27 minutes ago, JamesMadisonSkins said:

Yes. And it’s interesting because we could line up very well in the 3-4 and that does not include any of the DEs with upside we brought in FA. Armstrong Fowler and Ferrell. Not to mention KJ Henry. 
 

We may have 3 elite level DTs and not so much at DE but we certainly have very quality depth. It’s insane. 
 

DE: Armstrong, Fowler, Ferrell, Henry, Jean-Baptiste

 

DT: Allen, Payne, Newton, Mathis

 

LB: Wagner, Luvu, Davis, Magee

 

Front 7 is stacked. 

Yeah ALlen is the one I've long wondered if he could rotate at DE.  I don't think Payne should though.

They could go a lot of different ways.  I also think seeing how bad they were at LB in Dallas last year impacted this a bit.  

Really not sure what they do.

Only thing I might change, Mathis might get cut for one of the other DTs.

Remember at least one of the DEs can slide inside too so position-flex (man I'm starting to hate that word) Is a thing for us on the DL.

[Ghedrick]

17 minutes ago, zCommander said:

 

Joe Whitt Jr. "We are going to run and put bodies on people in a violent manner."  

 

Mike Sainristil is everything Whitt talked about in that conference. He must be pump to have Mike on his team. 

[KDawg]

16 minutes ago, Veretax said:

Also remember that probably 50% of the time we may end up in Nickel and Dime sets.  Or whatever Whitt's equivalent for extra corners/safeties will be called.

So in nickel I could see:

Magee - Allen Payne, Newton
           Luvu  - Wagner
Forbes-Forrest-Quan-Juste-Sainsritl
 

Yeah ALlen is the one I've long wondered if he could rotate at DE.  I don't think Payne should though.

They could go a lot of different ways.  I also think seeing how bad they were at LB in Dallas last year impacted this a bit.  

Really not sure what they do.

Only thing I might change, Mathis might get cut for one of the other DTs.

Remember at least one of the DEs can slide inside too so position-flex (man I'm starting to hate that word) Is a thing for us on the DL.

Sainristril isn’t going to be outside. 
 

Nickel will likely be a four front and a basic 4-2 alignment.

 

Fowler - Allen - Payne - Ferrell

               Luvu - Wagner

Forbes                                 Juste

          M.Davis-Forrest-Quan

 

Newton/Sain/Jamin Davis rotational pieces

Edited April 28 by KDawg

[OtisDriftwood25]

I think Peters had a goal of getting good people with great traits. He has given his coaching staff players with elite movement skills that they need to develop. The other trend was these players all played a lot of football. Whether this works or not we will see. A lot of eyes will be on Coleman.

[FrFan]

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

42 minutes ago, KDawg said:

Sainristril isn’t going to be outside. 
 

Nickel will likely be a four front and a basic 4-2 alignment.

 

Fowler - Allen - Payne - Ferrell

               Luvu - Wagner

Forbes                                 Juste

          M.Davis-Forrest-Quan

 

Newton/Sain/Jamin Davis rotational pieces

What has me excited is this coaching staff, based on their history, will be creative and use a lot of different formations and personnel groups to show offenses new things they have to react to every week.  In a lot of cases a lot of it might be window dressing to play the same coverages, but unlike Ron/Jack where they just kinda did the same thing over and over, and it was predictable, and they didn’t cover for weaknesses in their personnel, this year and future years should be different.

 

i agree with what you posted, but we also might see some crazy stuff.  

[Skinsinparadise]

posted some of this in the individual player threads.

 

this is McGinn interviewing scouts before the draft

 

 

[illone]

Important:

 

what number will Newt get?

 

🤓

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

1 hour ago, Llevron said:

The best quote of the offseason by far. Witt has me so excited to see what he can do. 

Yeah, I am guilty of being overly excited by Whitt winning the press conferences.  Add to that the injection of talent via FA and the draft and I’m willing to overlook that we are protecting our greatest investment with air right now.

[Skinsinparadise]

8 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

Yeah, I am guilty of being overly excited by Whitt winning the press conferences.  Add to that the injection of talent via FA and the draft and I’m willing to overlook that we are protecting our greatest investment with air right now.

 

I'll give them this, they worked to the convinction to wanting a hard hitting violent defense.   I think this defense goes top 10 next season.

 

Some forget that Dallas' defense was garbage pre Quinn.  It hit me at the time because this FO kept loading up on defense.  And I expected a really good defense and it felt it was a given that it would be better than Dallas years back.  Then all of a sudden it turned the other way.  Dallas' defense >> Washington.  And its been consistently that way most of Quinn's tenure.

 

If I had to pick one thing that will turnaround this year its the defense.

 

As to weaknesses, Outside CB-LT are the clear ones left.  Hopefully we get lucky.  Often decent players get released post draft for cost cutting purposes because their replacements were found in the draft.

Edited April 28 by Skinsinparadise

[Llevron]

4 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

Yeah, I am guilty of being overly excited by Whitt winning the press conferences.  Add to that the injection of talent via FA and the draft and I’m willing to overlook that we are protecting our greatest investment with air right now.

One of my biggest worries is that Witt so over-performs that he is offered a HC position before we can. 
 

Which is 100% irrational lol. 

[Skinsinparadise]

4 minutes ago, Llevron said:

One of my biggest worries is that Witt so over-performs that he is offered a HC position before we can. 
 

Which is 100% irrational lol. 

 

Good thing he doesn't coach offense.  Defensive coordinators aren't as coveted typically. 

 

But yeah I do think they will turn around a crap defense into one of the best in the league in short order and in turn get a lot of attention for it.

 

The depth on this defensive aside from outside corner is night and day from the last regime.

 

Among the series of things that frustrated me about Ron is he didn't seem to give a rats behind about depth on either side of the ball.   There were so many players during his tenure that could have had for the cheap and he just blew it off.  He was perfectly fine with 7th rounders, UDFAs and proven jags to backup starters.  Then later he'd use injuries as an excuse for the late season collapses. 

Edited April 28 by Skinsinparadise

[Panninho]

2 hours ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

 

This dude apparently thinks we did worse in this year's draft than we did in last year's draft...and blames our drafting of Daniels at #2.

It's not an opinion. It's basically just aggregating all data from journalists' mock drafts on the internet and then looking at average draft position (range) of each player. Then you look for each player whether it was a reach or a steal based on where this player got drafted.

The consensus draft board is actually a pretty nice dataset to compare draft classes to, with metrics like second contracts earned and wins above replacement. The NFL does not really outperform these boards in general. Teams that often reach according to the consensus board usually also perform worse than other teams. This says nothing about the individual players and draft classes though. It's just looking at trends on an aggregate level.

 

I think the reason why our draft class is held in very high regard is that firstly, we got a lot of good players because we had so many assets. Hence, our draft class is strong in absolute terms even though it might not be relative to the assets we invested. And secondly, the Jayden Daniels pick was a pretty strong reach according to the consensus draft board which usually undervalues QBs. According to the board we reached on every player except for Newton, Sainistril and Jean-Baptiste.

 

Like I said, it doesn't mean anything for the individual draft class though. It just might become a problem if you do this every year.

You can read more about the thought process and data here:
 

https://www.wideleft.football/p/the-2024-nfl-consensus-big-board

 

[Going Commando]

Michael Davis feels like a starter in our scheme.  He should be out best press coverage guy.  I think corner is going to feel like much less of a need after next season, because I think our coaches are going to get Forbes, Juice, and Davis playing well.  Our slot DBs are some of the best athletes and highest upside players on the defense.

 

The guy I'm most excited to see this year is Jamin.  He has an opportunity to become an impact player in this scheme.  Luvu and Wagner should get most of the snaps in the stack, and Jamin can play the Micah Parsons role. We didn't target any rush linebackers in the draft, and that was probably because of the way the board fell.  But it could have also been a quiet endorsement of Jamin for that role.

 

IMO the last big needs we have on D are getting that lead edge rusher who can dictate protection schemes, and getting that safety/slot/overhang player that can lead our coverages and direct our traffic.  These are the roles thay I am hoping Sainristil and Jamin grow into.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

13 minutes ago, Panninho said:

This says nothing about the individual players and draft classes though.

 

 

 

When they say a team "knocked the draft out of the park," but that conclusion has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual players the team drafted or that team's overall draft class, something's wrong lol...if they are only looking at the best use of a team's draft assets, then something better than a glowing "knocked their draft out of the part" comment needs to be used.

[Ball Security]

It’s fun to get excited about this year’s picks under a new regime, but it’ll take time to see how they pan out.

 

We can put a bow on Rivera’s four drafts:

 

2020

Young - fifth year option not picked up.

Gibson - signed 2nd contract in FA ($5.3M guaranteed)

Charles - signed 2nd contract in FA (1 year $250k guaranteed)

Gandy-Golden - retired early

Ismael - cut within four years, bounced around, currently guaranteed $25k in AZ

Hudson - signed 2nd contract ($491,500 guaranteed)

Curl - signed 2nd contract ($6M guaranteed)

Smith-Williams  - signed 2nd contract ($167k guaranteed)

 

2021

Davis - no fifth year option

Cosmi - starting guard, potential building block

St-Juste - 37 games played in 3 seasons

Dyami Brown - 2024 bubble player/roster casualty 

John Bates - blocking TE, 508 yards in 3 years

Darrick Forrest - still in the mix at S

Cheeseman - LS couldn’t last 3 seasons.

Bradley-King - on and off the roster now in NE with no guarantee money

Toney - took a bet on himself, but is no longer on the team.

Milne - on and off the roster. Currently outside the top 6 WR under contract.

 

2022*
Dotson - needs a bounce back year 3 to get a fifth year option.

Mathis - injury riddled two years, DT3 was drafted early in 2024. Cut candidate 

Robinson Jr. - starting RB

Sam Howell - 1 year starter, traded away.

Cole Turner - roster bubble

Chris Paul - roster bubble

Holmes - roster bubble

* traded back to get extra picks, but passed on Chris Olave and Kyle Hamilton

 

2023

Forbes - couldn’t play at all in last year’s scheme. Maybe new coaches can salvage.

Martin - chess piece for Whitt Jr

Stromberg - team signed two centers and a guard this offseason

Daniels - roster bubble

Henry - roster bubble

Rodriguez - back of the roster RB

Jones - roster bubble.

33 selections for the Rivera era. I would expect only 9 to definitely make the 2024 roster, with an additional 9 maybes.

 

[Panninho]

9 minutes ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

 

When they say a team "knocked the draft out of the park," but that conclusion has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual players the team drafted or that team's overall draft class, something's wrong lol...if they are only looking at the best use of a team's draft assets, then something better than a glowing "knocked their draft out of the part" comment needs to be used.

Well if you stop reading there, sure. But the sentence finishes with "based on the consensus draft board". So based on this metric they did knock it out of the park with regards to the players they took.

But for one year it's just one more data point, that doesn't necessarily mean all that much. However, if you do this every year, history has shown that your chances are quite good you are gaining strength relative to the field. So adding draft classes like this will help in the long run, even if this individual one doesn't pan out.

Don't know what's so controversial about this.

[FrFan]

https://www.espnanalytics.com/draft-predictor/

[Califan007 The Constipated]

9 minutes ago, Panninho said:

Well if you stop reading there, sure. But the sentence finishes with "based on the consensus draft board". So based on this metric they did knock it out of the park with regards to the players they took.

But for one year it's just one more data point, that doesn't necessarily mean all that much. However, if you do this every year, history has shown that your chances are quite good you are gaining strength relative to the field. So adding draft classes like this will help in the long run, even if this individual one doesn't pan out.

Don't know what's so controversial about this.

 

"Based on  the consensus draft boards" that are based on the consensus mock drafts of journalists all over the internet which are based on....

 

None of that negates what I said.

 

If it's "just one more data point" in a long list of draft data points, then they definitely should not be claiming any team "knocked their draft out of the park."

[Skinsinparadise]

PFF

 

https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2024-nfl-draft-grades-all-32-teams

WASHINGTON COMMANDERS: A

• 1 (2): QB Jayden Daniels, LSU
• 2 (36): DI Jer’Zhan Newton, Illinois
• 2 (50): CB Mike Sainristil, Michigan
• 2 (53): TE Ben Sinnott, Kansas State
• 3 (67): OT Brandon Coleman, TCU
• 3 (100): WR Luke McCaffrey, Rice
• 5 (139): LB Jordan Magee, Temple
• 5 (161): S Dominique Hampton, Washington
• 7 (222): EDGE Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Notre Dame

Daniels — Daniels is QB3 behind Drake Maye on both the PFF big board and the consensus big board, but the new regime in Washington takes him at No. 2 overall. Daniels does make sense as a theoretical fit in a Kliff Kingsbury spread-to-run offense that will allow Daniels to add on in the run game and get the ball out to players in space.

Newton — This wasn’t a need for Washington, as two of their best players — Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne — play along the interior defensive line. However, this is a tremendous value selection at the top of the second round. Newton is the 11th-ranked player overall on the PFF big board and was extremely productive over his college career. Just three Power Five interior defensive linemen have recorded 100 or more pressures over a two-year stretch since PFF began charting college in 2014: Newton, his new teammate Jonathan Allen and DeForest Buckner.

Sainristil — The Commanders continue to draft good football players. Sainristil brings a fierce mentality to the team and provides positional versatility. He secured a career-best six interceptions in 2023, second among cornerbacks, and his 90.3 PFF grade since 2022 ranked fourth among Big Ten cornerbacks. Sainristil has great reaction speed and is fearless in run defense.

Sinnott — After previously getting great value in this draft, according to the PFF big board, the Commanders pick the 105th-ranked player in Round 2. Sinnott is an athletic tight end for Jayden Daniels to develop with for the next decade. He doesn’t do any one thing at an elite level but can do everything well. Sinnott’s 14 missed tackles forced in 2023 ranked third among tight ends, and he made 31 explosive plays over the past two seasons.

Coleman — The Commanders finally land an offensive lineman at the top of the third round, selecting Coleman out of TCU. The 6-foot-6, 320-pounder struggled in 2023 but was far better in 2022 when he earned a 79.6 PFF grade. He could wind up on the inside in the NFL, but he has the experience on the outside, so he could still get a shot there first.

McCaffrey — McCaffrey has NFL bloodlines and is a natural athlete who knows the nuances of route running. He lacks an explosive element to his game but has strong hands, especially in contested catch situations, where his 32 receptions since 2022 are the most in college football. A former quarterback, McCaffrey has a good feel for finding open zones. While the Commanders already have weapons in the receiver room, McCaffrey provides a different style for the group.

Magee — A high-level competitor with a nonstop motor, Magee offers some solid run-and-chase ability, physicality in the box and upside as a blitzer. He posted a career-best 87.2 PFF grade in 2023 and an eye-catching 90.7 pass-rush grade that ranked fourth among all linebackers. At worst, Magee will be an impact core special teamer, but he has the competitive toughness and athletic traits to become a starter.

Hampton — Hampton is a supersized safety at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, and he comes with good athleticism. He’s an interesting addition to a Dan Quinn defense that prioritizes those kinds of hybrid athletes in the middle of the field. Hampton was at his best in coverage around the line of scrimmage, as he earned an 81st-percentile coverage grade in the box last season for the Huskies.

Jean-Baptiste — Jean-Baptiste recorded 43 total pressures a season ago, including six sacks and 11 quarterback hits. He also produced 21 run stops without missing a tackle.

[Panninho]

2 minutes ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

"Based on  the consensus draft boards" that are based on the consensus mock drafts of journalists all over the internet which are based on....

 

None of that negates what I said.

 

If it's "just one more data point" in a long list of draft data points, then they definitely should not be claiming any team "knocked their draft out of the park."

 

Why shouldn't you? If you say, based on the relative athletic score, the Washington Commanders knocked this draft out of the part you'd also be correct because our draft class scored the highest on the average RAS.

I really do not understand the point because everything that was said was just in the context of this metric.