Panthers draft summary... Irish said earlier that his decision to take the QB at #3 was controversial. Likewise, my decision NOT to take a QB at #6 is open for debate. Maybe Carolina will take one at #6 on Thursday, maybe they won't. I went with the scenario that they will stick with Darnold for one more season. Reasons: they picked up Darnold's fifth year option. (I take that as a hint.) The coaching staff hired McAdoo - who has said for years that Darnold's mechanical flaws can be fixed. Carolina hasn't had consistency at LT since Jordan Gross retired - in 2014. Flip side... Malik Willis is exciting, but if I take him at #6, he'd struggle his rookie year. He still wouldn't have good protection up front. Matt Rhule would be fired by Halloween. I would have scuttled my own previous plans (it's this year's 2nd and 4th that were traded for Darnold) and given my coach zero chance to succeed this season, so I'd be out the door with him. So... to use the Heath Ledger line, the plan is to stick to the plan. Give McAdoo a year to fix Darnold. (And send him down to Mayberry to see if Floyd can fix McAdoo.) Get a new long term LT. Wait and see if it works well enough to save Rhule's job. And even if he gets the axe, I just might have done enough to save my own job. The amusing irony is that if anyone disagrees with both Irish and me, we cancel each other out and the rest of the draft proceeds pretty much as if we had each done the opposite.
DALLAS COWBOYS 2022 Collaborative Mock Draft - Results R1) Christian Watson, WR - NDSU R2) Dylan Parham, OC - Memphis R3) Cam Taylor-Britt, S - Nebraska R4) Logan Bruss, OG - Wisconsin R5) Abram Smith, RB - Baylor R5) Malcom Rodreguez, LB - Oklahoma State R5) Dare Rosenthal, OT - Kentucky R5) Jake Ferguson, TE - Wisconsin R6) Chase Garbers, QB - California _________ ___________________ In a nut-shell, I addressed all the 'team needs' without necessarily going for BPA, which in this case worked out well, because most of the draft picks for Dallas were highly ranked on a lot of big boards out there. There were better BPA's at a couple instances, but i stayed on the team needs target and did ok... I think/hope. Watson should be a natural to start right away in the absence of Cooper... maybe not fill his shoes right away, but definitely be a contributor from the git-go.
The Tennessee Titans run to the podium to select Cade Mays, OL, Tennessee He has true 5 position versatility so he's great cover for game day, he has starting experience at two different SEC schools dating back to his freshman year, and I think he has the chance to become a NFL level starter at either G or C if given the opportunity to stick to learning just one instead of bouncing around like he did his whole college career. Being instate doesn't hurt either.
