DCOrange

Gotcha. Very cool, good work as always!

Going to be more nit-picky about this one because I care more about addressing this position than the rest: Realistically, I think Amari is probably in a tier all by himself. He's a border-line elite WR; none of the other tier 1 guys (besides maybe AJ if he comes back healthy) are in that discussion. Not sure if the draft grades are yours or from somewhere else, but I think Aiyuk is generally considered a 1st-2nd round prospect (probably more 2nd round) and Tyler Johnson is definitely not considered a 1st-2nd round prospect at this point. As far as trade candidates go, this is purely speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if the following guys are available: Sammy Watkins (but highly doubt we'd be interested), Brandin Cooks, Alshon Jeffery, Corey Davis. As for what I would personally do: I'd try to trade for one of the guys mentioned above (obviously price depends on which guy you're getting, but I think they're all worth pursuing). Assuming we do not acquire any of those guys, I'd aggressively pursue AJ Green. With his age, we can likely overpay him on a short-term deal. He checks every box we're looking for and it would be easy to get out of his contract when we need to. I would also be fine with Robby Anderson if McBeane thinks he's fine personality-wise. Assuming we have AJ Green in hand already, I'd turn my attention to the draft. If Ruggs or Lamb make it to our pick somehow, I'd take them. My guess is those two, Jeudy, and Higgins are all gone though. In that event, I'd be fine with skipping WR in the first round and seeing who makes it to our 2nd round pick. As of today, I'd be happy to get Jalen Reagor, Justin Jefferson, or Brandon Aiyuk in the 2nd round, though I wouldn't be surprised if any of them end up being gone by our pick anyways. We'll have to circle back on this as the draft gets closer and draft stock changes. I'd also be in favor of scooping someone up on Day 3. Basically, come out of the draft with someone that can potentially turn into an X WR and someone that can turn into a Y to develop behind AJ and Cole. Basically, the end result is: X: AJ Green Z: John Brown Y: Cole Beasley Backups: Rookie, Duke, Foster I suppose we can bring McKenzie back if we want, but $2.1 million for him is a little much IMO. I'd be pretty happy to just roll with the guys listed above.

I would guess he doesn't view us as that kind of team, but guess we'll see this offseason.

Long way to go before the draft, but at the moment, people seem to think hell be available on Day 3; maybe even late on Day 3.

Yeah, I'm not sure I see that speed personally but that's apparently what the NFL teams have listed for him in their database. He did say that the junior times tend to be less accurate than the seniors so with Higgins being a junior, he could end up being off a bit. We'll see soon.

I asked Dane Brugler about the 40 times he lists on his big board at The Athletic. He gets them from NFL teams. He has Higgins listed at 4.47 and Shenault at 4.55.

NFL teams expect him to run in the 4.4s. Doesn’t mean he will but that’s what they’re expecting.

NFL man...Green Bay challenges that there was a fumble. Refs overturn the call, agreeing there was a fumble. Green Bay loses a timeout as a result.

I don't REALLY think he'll fall to the Bills, but I'll say one of Jeudy/Lamb slides out of the top 15 and I would lean towards Lamb being the one.

Re: Perriman, can't say I trust him much either. Bucs fans were begging them to cut him earlier this season to try to get a compensatory pick because he was flat out terrible. He had a few impressive games at the end of the year; do we want to give him a contract based on a few games or the few years that preceded them?

People seem to be having a hard time separating PFF's grades from standard statistics that PFF tracks. In this case, their focus is on pressures; similar to point differential being a better indicator for future wins than current wins, pressures are a better indicator of future sacks than current sacks. This is an objectively good article from PFF and they're right to be at least decently skeptical of Phillips. He had fewer pressures this year than he did in his 0.5 sack season; it's definitely concerning as people seem eager to give him a big contract. I don't think it really makes sense to re-sign him honestly; Oliver is probably better right now/is certainly the one that we want starting moving forwards, and ideally, only one of them would be on the field at a time. So it doesn't really make sense to make Phillips a top 10-15 paid DT to play a part-time role; it just isn't a good use of our cap space.

I wouldn’t be shocked at all if he’s the 2nd WR taken honestly. He’s likely the fastest WR in the draft and has a much better skillset than the speed guys usually do.

I think he's a legitimately good candidate, but the optics just won't be good with Cleveland in particular.

Just connecting dots. McDaniels' wife being there = him being the favorite IMO. Stefanski being the choice last year = probably being the fallback. And I just don't think Cleveland can live with the optics of it if they hire Daboll, who failed as an OC in Cleveland and also looks like Kitchens.

Seems like it'll be McDaniels with a small chance of Stefanski and 0 chance of Daboll. This pleases me.

On the topic of the pass-rushers, from everyone's favorite analytics site: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-misleading-sack-numbers-free-agents-2020 The basic premise of the article is that pressure rate is more indicative of future sacks than current sacks are (similar to how point differential is a better indicator for future wins than current wins are). This is objectively true; not just PFF creating their own grades based on what they're seeing. With that in mind, the parts relevant to our players/targets:

That was Taylor Lewan I believe

A couple more guys not mentioned that I would have some level of interest in: Edge - Carl Nassib Edge - Markus Golden RB - Buck Allen RB - Peyton Barber LB - Jamie Collins

Agreed with all of this. The only part that I'm not 100% sold on is the Anderson part. I would tend to lean towards agreeing with you, but at the same time, it's seemed like we've pursued basically every good WR that's become available in the past year regardless of any issues they might have (with the exception of Gordon). Robby's might be worse than anyone else's though. He's pretty much the only FA WR I'm interested in though.

Howard is the one that's often discussed because he's the sexier get as a former first round pick that's shown flashes of elite play, but for those same reasons, I think he might be the one Tampa ultimately keeps. I suspect both are available for trade; it's just a matter of which one Tampa ultimately wants to get rid of. I'd gladly take either one here.

Aside from maybe the OLine, Wentz was by far the best part of that offense this year. He's nowhere remotely close to being the problem.

I would mention Cam Brate as a potential trade target in addition to OJ Howard. I don't think it's a given that Howard would be the tight end Tampa potentially moves this offseason. Either one would be a good acquisition for us.

ESPN+ article breaking down the title game https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2020/insider/story/_/id/28439834/kiper-mcshay-2020-cfp-national-championship-game-preview-top-lsu-clemson-nfl-draft-prospects Relevant portion to this thread:

I knew he was in it but didn't realize that was him until after the fact either. I was just watching and was like "Man, this dude is owning these scenes" and then it clicked in my head afterwards.

Didn't see it mentioned in here, but I got around to watching Dolemite Is My Name during one of my recent flights...man that movie is so good. Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes in particular are just awesome. Just a really well-made fun movie. I totally get why it's getting some award buzz.