DCOrange

Update re: Sony Michel: ESPN is reporting that his roster spot is in jeopardy after they drafted that guy from Oklahoma.

Yeah, this is about to become a major point of contention between the NFLPA and team owners unless Denver does him a solid and agrees to pay him anyways.

And unrelated! That dude is a bull though. He stood out big time when I was watching Kellen Mond's film. I don't think he's generally highly regarded for the draft, but Malik Davis really impressed me when I was watching Kyle Trask's film. Between him, Pitts, and Toney, that was a really strong trio of weapons.

Yeah I looked it up out of curiosity when I saw this thread. He got a futures/reserve contract.

Still waiting for potential 1st round pick Anthony Johnson to get his first NFL snap too lol

FWIW, Patterson's listed 40 time on most sites is a 4.59 from the Pro Day, including places like PlayerProfiler.com that adjusted that to a 4.64 because of the fact that it was hand-timed and those are, on average, 0.05 seconds faster than their real times. Obviously a pretty big difference between a 4.51 and a 4.64. Based on the times that are in The Athletic's draft guide, Patterson was a 4.58. The average RB this year was a 4.54 and the average drafted RB was a 4.51.

It's an improvement for sure but it's still bad relative to most teams in the NFL. I'm not really convinced that they have the talent at the skill positions to prop up what I believe are two bad starting QBs at this point in time.

Also, CEH was drafted highly because he was an incredible receiver out of the backfield. Patterson had 20 catches in 3 years, including 0 this year. But yeah, 5'6" and like a bottom 15% athlete for a RB with no experience as a receiver is going to be a fringe draft pick at best. At best he probably projects as a less versatile Jacquizz Rodgers.

I am really curious to see New England now that they're getting a lot of guys back from Covid and added a lot of pieces in free agency as well. I think the offensive talent on their roster is still just flat out bad and they were bad last year too. I would expect the defense to return to being at least good if not great but I'm still skeptical they can put up enough points to really be that much of a problem.

Yeah, I don't really see the point in giving out grades if you're going to do it that way lol

He's Rotoworld's (Now NBC Sports Edge) lead college football/draft guy. I'd say he's pretty much the only person that does grades the right way. His average grade is a C rather than guys like NFL.com dude giving almost every team a B or A. I think the Rams, Seahawks, and Houston were dinged a lot for the players they actually took as well though. Obviously having fewer picks makes it harder to have a "good" draft, but those teams all took players that analysts didn't really like.

Basing it off the idea that an average draft should be a C grade, I would probably give us a C or C-. The closest I came to loving any of our picks was probably Brown. I liked the idea of going back to back with pass rushers, but I would have liked to see one of them more in Hughes mold of having good speed off the edge to try to force QBs to climb the pocket where Oliver/Rousseau would theoretically be waiting to finish them off. I don't think Basham really compliments the guys we have on the line right now but maybe I'll be wrong about that. Rousseau wouldn't have been my choice in Round 1 but he was who I expected us to end up taking and I think he's a pretty good prospect. I don't really know much about Brown, but I was definitely interested in addressing the OLine in the draft and I love taking an athletic freak like him. Stevenson is an interesting dart throw for a 6th round pick. Shockingly graded out as an average athlete but he looks a lot more athletic on the field than his numbers indicate. All in all, it looks like a fine draft to me. Nothing special but not bad by any means either.

Likely like Brissett where the way Syracuse wanted to use him wasn't what the NBA wanted him to put on display. I'll be curious to see if he actually opts to transfer rather than going pro though. I don't think he's likely to improve his draft stock with another season of college personally.

I'd be fine with either side of this argument. They can decline the option and give it another year and then just tag him for slightly more money if they want to do it that way, or they can pick the 5th year up now and save a million or two without having the 4th year to check in on his progress. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable signing him long-term right now.

Cleveland is definitely as strong a contender to knock off the Chiefs as anyone at this point. They've had a great offseason and were already good.

Detroit and Cinci continuing their great draft so far today

My favorite and least favorite drafts so far, in order: Favorites: Carolina - I like all of the players they picked and they did a nice job addressing their needs on top of getting good prospects IMO. Chicago - Fields was my #2 QB and they topped it off a 1st round caliber offensive lineman. Cinci - As expected, they took the WR on day 1 knowing they'd come back and get an offensive lineman on day 2. I like Ossai a lot as well. Washington - Basically the same gist as Carolina except I don't love the first two picks as much as I did for Carolina. Detroit - Got one of the best prospects in the draft at #7 and I think Iffy was great value at the end of round 3. Least Favorite: Tampa - Took my lowest rated QB of the past 4 years in the 2nd round. Dallas - I disagree with all of their picks. LA Rams - Waiting until day 2 to make their first choice and taking a blah WR prospect is not ideal. Pittsburgh - Just totally disagree with their strategy of taking the RB when you desperately need OLine. Waited too long for OLine IMO.

Basham isn't really what I had in mind, but this aged pretty well.

Meinerz is pretty much the only one from this list that I'd be happy with at 61.

I think Wilson has good but not great upside. Mac to be doesn't have good upside so I'm more worried about Wilson personally. Mac seems destined to put New England in QB purgatory to me.

Short answer is yes. I would imagine that Rodgers looks at the fact that they've essentially invested nothing on the offensive side of the ball for at least the past 5 years now and despite that, the defense has never been great either. I think there's a fair argument to be made that when you have a QB like Rodgers that can elevate his teammates, it makes sense to try to stack the other side of the ball so that you end up with an elite offense and elite defense. But they've tried to do that and still end up with a below-average defense almost every year. The few early picks they've spent on offense haven't worked out either. Their last 5 drafts they've spent their Day 1 and Day 2 picks on: 2016: DT, OT (who has never been a starter), OLB 2017: CB, S, DT 2018: CB, CB, LB 2019: LB, S, C, TE (who has barely gotten snaps) 2020: QB, RB (who was a reach at the time and is now locked in as a backup), TE (who was generally a healthy scratch). Their offensive weapons are still decent but the WR group is very bland after Adams and they opted not to address it all last year when it was considered one of the deepest classes you'll ever have and instead basically punted all of their picks.

I think he can be good anywhere honestly. Arguably the best nickel back in the country this past year and he's good at LB and safety as well. Sounds like there's medical issues with him though.

It is kinda funny that two of the main options for us was a guy that generated a lot of pressure but literally had 0 sacks and a guy that didn't generate a lot of pressure but nearly led the country in sacks. Drastically different production there though some will definitely argue that Oweh projects as the better pass rusher.

Supposedly there's medical questions that caused JOK's slide. Can't really speak to the others aside from the general consensus being that this is a weak safety and DT class and I think there's a lot of questions about Barmore's mental makeup.

JOK or Moore were my preference but I think Rousseau is a fine pick.