Maine-iac

When you start making playoff predictions before a game has even been played and rosters even finalized I have to think you're jumping the gun a little.

You don't have to be super twitchy to run a good slant. Gordon was a beast. He even flashed with the Pats before he got caught again.

Speaking of Higgins that is why the Bengals took that kid from Princeton because they will have a hard time paying Higgins pretty soon. I was really hoping we'd take Iosivas but given the time we spent with Shorter they must really like what they've seen.

His 3 cone was not good but all in all his 20 yard was faster than gabe and his 40 and 10 yard splits were virtually identical. If he's running routes Gabe runs his 3 cone isn't as important as just timing and running a good route. As long as they aren't asking him to do water bug things. I guess we'll see though.

I'm borrowing the name but if Kincaid is in fact Swole Beasley than it benefits the quick pass, keeping coverage honest on our wide outs, and the running game.

i think as a team we are pretty good at evaluating WR's. We used a late round pick on Gabe and it turned out well. Hodgins and Shakir seem to be on track to be decent players. Hopefully they can keep going to that draft pick well and Shorter sees the field a lot.

That was the maddening thing last year. We didn't need to develop the run. We could run ........... we just didn't. Up 2 scores in some games and we are running called QB runs.

At the same time they were gashing us with the run because Oliver is not a run stopper and Phillips was gutting it out with one arm. Fazier annoys me as well but I'm not sure with the totality of our injuries McDermott would have done that much better.

If Shorter shows he can do Gave Davis type things it would be a real cost savings as Davis hits the end of his contract. I like Davis but he has enough stats to demand a decent contract. Money we might not have.

Take away Frank Clark and I doubt the Chiefs win. Take away Frank Clark, Chris Jones, and most of their secondary and I guarantee the Chiefs don't win that game.

The offense is loaded but I don't think our offense was the limiting factor at any point the last two years. They fell on their faces a little in the Bengals game but the defense wasn't making any stops to get them the ball back which leads to I think the big question. Can we stop the run and effect the QB? Injuries I think effected both our pass rush and our coverage ability so we might (barring injuries again) have that fixed just with people being healthy. The large question I have is can we stop the run? The Bengals ran the ball at will which might also be a product of injuries (Jones being hurt) but it's something that has happened several times a season (sometimes more). Will the players we have (with McDermott's coaching) be able to stop the run. The Pats and the Jets will probably still come out running against us.

My fear isn't that this guy can't catch or that he drops passes. That doesn't seem to be the case. My fear is that he doesn't have the quickness or agility to get away from NFL cb's and that leaves him being a contested catch guy and reports are that for his size he's not great at contested catches. That said I take everything I read on the internet with a grain of salt, he may come out and have a great feel for zones and be a smooth route runner and just find ways to get open. It's as much on the OC as it is receivers sometimes. I don't mind the pick. The team had met with him and felt comfortable with him and they seem to be pretty decent at evaluating WR's. I'll "trust the process".

Garner is going to end up at safety. He's a big DB.

Hope they bring in Bryce Ford Wheaton and Mekhi Garner.

He might not have a problem with drops (per the numbers) but he doesn't win contested catches like you expect from someone that big. Saw it in two other places and ESPN put it in their article also. If he's playing outside and can't out quick people and isn't sudden in space then he needs to win contested catches at that size and there are a lot of reports saying he doesn't do that very well. Don't get me wrong, the pick is in and you have to love the one your with so hopefully our scouts and coaches know what they are doing. A 5th round pick for WR is a crapshoot anyways. Who knows maybe he ends up at TE.

Klein is pretty decent at getting to the QB though. Just spit balling here but play Milano, Klein, and Rapp as "LBs" and let Klein blitz more and drop into short coverage enough to keep them guessing.

So now we have 3 TE's who are great pass catchers ........

If he was a lock to be playing in the NFL he wouldn't be a 5th round pick. Not hating on the pick but outside of being huge he doesn't have a lot that would make you pick him over someone else. That where our scouts come in ............ hopefully they know something and he's not James Hardy 2.0.

I actually didn't see many saying drops were a problem. I did see conflicting reports (or at least confusing) that he runs routes well but then at the same time he comes from a spread offense and doesn't have much of a route tree. So he runs 4 routes but runs them really well? At least two reports suggested moving him to TE.

Daboll got Hyatt. I know he was a favorite for many on here.

I wish multiple scouting reports didn't say he never played to his size. I'm hoping our scouting dept. knows something. Read several reports suggesting he move to TE.

as long as he's not more like James Hardy.

I wouldn't mind a late round swing for Garner from LSU. A 6'2" 212 pound corner would be a decent project who could end up being a decent safety.

Both the LSU corners would be interesting picks. They're both big corners who could play just about anywhere in the secondary.

I wouldn't mind drafting that kid from Princeton at WR. I'm not sure how late he was supposed to go but if he there after the 4th round he's worth a shot.