Chuck Wagon

While I completely agree with you, it would be incredibly disheartening to see a corner taken at #10 after letting Gilmore walk out the door.

I really think a dude being murdered is a bit of an extenuating circumstance in regards to not living up to draft status, Taylor was well on his way to being a perennial All Pro. I also don't think the Steelers regret taking Polamalu, or the Ravens regret Ed Reed, or the Seahawks regret Earl Thomas, all three were 1st round picks.

Please not Peppers.

I expect another defense heavy draft and a battle for WR PT between Brown / Holmes / Butler / Listenbee / Powell / Lewis / late draft pick

Oh I firmly believe owners should build their own stadiums, but I think it's pretty naive to say "Terry loves WNY, he would never let the team leave" while there's no real plans for a badly needed new stadium the league wants built.

I think the Jaguars in London is the next potential move. Based on what? There's not one story of a baseball player not being able to play in Toronto and they have a much more diverse player base.

I'm not saying I think it's going to happen, but until ground is broken on a new stadium I do believe all of us as fans should maintain a healthy level of skepticism.

Tim Couch and David Carr are the two easy examples, they were put on expansion teams with very little talent around them and got wrecked from getting smacked around. Byron Leftwich might be another example, he got smacked around before eventually being replaced with a more mobile option Garrard. Jake Locker is another guy who looked like he had all the talent to succeed at the position but got smacked around and had little help around him. The Jets and Browns have taken as many QBs in the draft as any team in the league. have they just mis-evaluated the talent on every single one or do they have a systematic failure that prevents QBs from succeeding? I think it's much more likely the later than it is likely that teams like New England, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Green Bay are just miles ahead in the evaluation process. The teams with QBs have talent all over the roster compared to the teams without QBs, some of it is absolutely scouting, but the stories of guys drafted after the top 10 who turn into something on perennially poorly run teams are non-existent. If New England, Dallas and Seattle knew Brady / Dak - Romo / Wilson would be that good, they would have taken them much earlier. I tend to believe every single QB in the league is a "system" QB. Tom Brady is not going to be successful if asked to do the things Cam Newton is asked to do and vice versa. The smart teams are able to find talent that fits their system. I think that goes a long way towards explaining why guys like Flynn and Cassel look so good in one system and struggle as soon as they leave the cocoon.

IMO it'll go the complete other way. The way we are bringing in WR depth through FA while not addressing LB and CB along with McD as HC (and very likely decision maker) makes me think we are going to load up on LBs and DBs in the draft while we hope to find a WR diamond in the rough.

Fair enough, but I think Hankins and Washington are two completely different types of players. Hankins is going to eat up blocks to allow Dareus to penetrate while Dareus would need to fill that role next to Washington. I think there's room for all of them in a DT rotation.

I think Tyrod and Cardale are going to be the only 2 QBs on the roster. I expect camp will have a couple of undrafted guys or maybe a journeyman vet, but the Panthers "#3" QB has been Joe Webb the last few years, a guy who plays on special teams and has played WR in a pinch, aka a profile similar to Logan Thomas. Unless Thomas really breaks out as a regular TE, I imagine his spot on the roster will be made by having a role similar to Webb's (especially seeing how the team has valued versatility since McD came aboard).

I said it a few pages ago, but I'd love to go after him over all these other fringe level talents being mentioned. He wants too much money, but if we could restructure a couple of contracts and work out a way to bring him in he could serve as the long term replacement to Kyle and create one less spot we'll need to fill in the next season or two while giving us very strong depth on the DL this year.

I never read the book, but I really enjoyed how the movie made it out that Jeremy Giambi, Scott Hatteberg and David Justice were the reason the A's were so good, while failing to mention having 3 CY Young winning pitchers or a MVP winning shortstop as a factor of success. You don't win in the NFL because you have a roster full of under appreciated talent, you win because you have Tom Brady, Julio Jones, Cam Newton or Von Miller.

Seattle and Pittsburgh created situations which asked very little of Ben & Wilson starting out, allowed them to have success early in their careers and then eventually flipped to them leading the team. Brady was the same thing. Rodgers was allowed several years of development before stepping right into a playoff team. Dak and Carr look like guys with talent who were put in positions to succeed due to the talent around them. I believe over the last 20 years there have been several highly drafted QBs across the league who had all the talent in the world and would have been franchise guys but were put in situations that prevented them from succeeding, due both to coaching and the talent around them. Our offensive line talent now is as good as it's been since the days of Hull leading the line, and we still have a hole at right tackle. We've lacked talent at WR for years, we've always had 1 "guy" and below average talent around him other than a couple of years with Moulds and Price then Moulds and Evans, those have been some of our closest playoff chances. We haven't had a tight end with talent that could even flirt with a Pro Bowl for decades. We had one run under Schwartz where our defense was good enough to win games by themselves, but Rex made sure to wreck that. Our failing at QB has as much to do (or more) with our failings across the entire roster as it has to do with the lack of using draft picks on them. We simply haven't been in a position to allow a young QB to succeed.

One thing that does seem strange, it seems like DePodesta became a much more highly regarded baseball mind when he became a football mind than when he was ever actually a baseball mind. I think they've put together a good starting point, but it seems the only "moneyball" concept they've brought in from baseball is thinking they are smarter than everyone else. A lot of their plan is copying what the Raiders did, but it's all moot until they find a QB.

I was a stupid 8 year old kid and now am a too loyal for his own good 30 something.

Must just be a coincidence that "studying of game tape" coincided with losing Harbaugh, Boldin, Crabtree, Davis, Gore and 4/5ths of the offensive line.

But draft picks! The Tretter deal is a short term deal, I'm guessing Greco ( pretty well respected vet) and Tretter will battle it out for the center job in camp. The real question is what happens at QB, if they do land Jimmy G. it could be interesting quick for them, if they go with Brock or Kessler it's going to be a LONG year again. The most concerning factor for them is it's tough to tell if they actually accomplished anything in the draft last year. Many of their draft picks were laughed at by respected NFL talent guys (similar to moneyball with the old scouts) but they didn't exactly show they knew more than previous Browns regimes. Having a lot of draft picks is great and all, but when you are cycling 12+ rookies in yearly you are inevitably going to let guys who can play walk, letting Gabriel walk was a worse move than any of the picks they made at WR. Using 4 draft picks on WRs then still having to give $30 mil to Kenny Britt is not a good sign of their talent evaluations.

No he isn't.

One puff and he's gone. Giving up anything of value for him is a mistake.

Glennon is on a glorified 1 year contract. I think 2 QBs go top 6. Too much smoke coming from Arizona / New Orleans / Houston (and even us), these teams up top aren't going to wait a whole round to take their guy. I wouldn't be surprised if 5 QBs are off the board by the time we hit the clock in round 2.

The Bears are locked in on Watson? I'm not sure any mock drafts have that connection.

Agree with this. The Raiders were so impressed with Holmes work as a "#2" (catch % - 47.5%) they went out and drafted Cooper and signed Crabtree. I expect he'll fill Easley's role on ST and be a big red zone target, anyone think he's going to break out as a #2 at 29 years old is drinking way too much Bills Kool Aide.

I would have to imagine he's going to be used similar to Taylor Gabriel was in Atlanta last year. I don't think you can compare salaries with the 49ers signings at this point. They badly overpaid on every signing (Garcon, Juzcyck, Goodwin) but had the cap room to do it and needed to if they wanted to attract guys.

No kidding. I don't question Ross's talent as a potential top 10 guy, but he's got a scary injury history (especially given Sammy's injury history) and sets up to be a pariah pretty quickly with this fanbase.