I agree with, Joe, but honorable mention, or dishonorable mention, has to go to Minnesota. The picks were good, but the path to do what they did makes no sense to me. They helped the Packers and Lions... coulda been handled differently/better?
Former first-round prospect Justyn Ross goes undrafted, hopes for one chance Clemson wide receiver Justyn Ross would have been a first-round draft pick in 2019, if the NFL would allow freshmen to declare for the draft. Ross had a 1,000-yard freshman season that culminated with six catches for 153 yards and a touchdown in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Alabama and was viewed as one of the truly elite talents at the wide receiver position. But Ross couldn’t turn pro, and after returning to Clemson he suffered a stinger in practice that revealed a potentially serious congenital spinal condition that caused him to miss one full season. He did eventually return to the field, but last year his production was not the same and his season ended early because of stress fractures in his foot. Ross went undrafted over the weekend, and now he’s just hoping that some team gives him a shot as an undrafted free agent. “Just need dat 1 chance,” Ross wrote on Twitter. It had to be a rough weekend for Ross, especially knowing that if not for the NFL’s draft rules forcing him to remain in school, he could have been a first-round pick who’s now heading into his fourth NFL season. PFT
Weird approach for sure that I did not agree with but it seems to have worked out as far as my board goes.
Another slightly unusual pick by Belichick, was Zappe. If the Pats are committed to Mac, why do a fourth for another QB? Id guess, Hoyer or Stidum is on the way out if Zappe looks at all impressive... and I believe he will.
All I know is the Cleveland scouting department came away from the Pro Day in Norman impressed. Browns drafted three Sooners. We are however, still stuck with the one we're trying to get rid of.
Along the lines of TopDawg's earlier question, I can't say I'm happy at all with the value I got for the teams I represented this year. I did the role playing side of it well, and I'm happy about that, but I didn't do a proper big board at all this year and now I clearly see the impact of going without it. (Of course, if the Bears, Broncos, Panthers, Generals or Cardinals fans don't like what Tim and I did with their teams, they should have shown up to rep the teams themselves.) Still, I don't mind trading a future pick to get Ross even though he went undrafted. The talent is there without a doubt. The concerns are entirely medical, so to me it was worth the roll of the dice for Chicago. I'm stunned we didn't immediately hear about him being signed as a UDFA. I hope it's because he has many offers and that he and his agent are taking their time to weigh their options rather than no one wanting him. Atlanta and Chicago should both be jumping at the chance to snag him. He really would be Chicago's #1 wideout the day he signed, and Atlanta's passing attack could be lethal with Drake London, Justyn Ross and TE Kyle Pitts, with Auden Tate / Damiere Byrd / Olamide Zaccheaus as the slot receiver or rotating in for depth.
The most "interesting" UDFA signing by Atlanta that I've heard about so far is Ferris State QB Jared Bernhardt. Oddly enough, I actually did watch part of one of his games and saw him score a long rushing touchdown (it was a D2 playoff game - I tuned in to see Valdosta State). I don't see him having a future in the NFL (even at other positions), but he's interesting because he's also potentially the best college lacrosse player in the country. So whenever the Falcons release him, maybe he'll end up sticking around and signing with the Georgia Swarm pro lacrosse team. Meanwhile, the best player the Falcons have signed so far that I've heard about is Tyler Vrabel, son of Titans coach Mike Vrabel. The knock on him as an OT prospect is that he isn't athletic enough to handle speed rushers and will get beaten around the edge 11 times out of 10. But he supposedly has strong run blocking skills and is stout in pass blocking when he makes contact with the defender. To me a prospect like that is automatic... sign him in a heartbeat, make him a guard at first, but have him spend some drill sessions snapping the ball and others working on his kick and slide techniques. He may have a very long career in the NFL, though it will start out slow.
You hear about brothers ending up on the same team, but here's something you don't see too often. I didn't know it beforehand, but Falcons third round pick DeAngelo Malone (LB, Western Kentucky) and sixth round pick Justin Shaffer (G, UGA) are first cousins. I'm going to make the early prediction and peg Shaffer to make the roster and Tyler Vrabel for the practice squad. I'm stoked. I'm feeling like my team quietly did well enough in the offseason that they can make this a true competitive season rather than an utterly tanking. There are still a lot of what-ifs as far as youngsters continuing to develop, coaches molding the units and putting together effective game plans, and key players remaining healthy (which derailed last year's offensive line, with two potential starters lost for the season even before it began). It's going to be fun to watch to see if they can pull it off. I'm going to step out on a limb and say that even with Matt Ryan and Foye Oluokun gone (among others), the Falcons actually have a better roster right now than they did for the last two months of last season.
Steelers drafted Calvin Austin one pick before the Ravens would have The Steelers scored a win over the Ravens on the third day of the 2022 NFL draft. Pittsburgh selected wide receiver Calvin Austin in the fourth round with the 138th overall pick, and the Ravens, with the 139th pick, were set to take Austin if the Steelers hadn’t. Peter King was inside the Ravens’ draft room for this week’s Football Morning in America, and he heard how much the Ravens wanted Austin to fall to them at No. 139. “Gotta be kidding me,” someone blurted out in the Ravens’ draft room when their biggest rival got the player they wanted. Austin caught 74 passes for 1,149 yards and eight touchdowns at Memphis last season, and he also competed on Memphis’s track team and ran a a 4.32-second 40-yard dash. Austin has the athletic profile of a player who could go a long way toward replacing what the Ravens lost when they traded Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to the Cardinals. Instead the Ravens will have to face him twice a year. PFT _______ ________________ SNIPED!
I'm skimming through the TV coverage of the later rounds (mainly looking for coach / GM interviews but not getting much of that). I missed it live due to a family commitment with the in-laws. One thing that jumped out at me was Ian Rapaport mentioning the Giants taking Thibodeaux at #5 even though the whole world had OT pegged as their top need. RapSheet pointed out that with both Neal and Ekwonu still on the board, taking Thibodeaux at #5 was the clear logical move. If they take their OT of choice (and he seemed to imply Neal was their #1) at #5, anyone else could trade up with Carolina to take Thibodeaux at #6 and they miss out on their other top target. So they go defense first, and the worst case scenario is they get Ickey instead of Neal at #7. With that in mind, great job by @xinik in the mock. He played it exactly the way the real team did. The only difference is that we flip flopped the OTs, as the real Panthers preferred Ickey where I chose Neal and the real Giants apparently preferred Neal but I took him first and left them with Ickey.
Thats good stuff! There are some very savvy posters on this site. I learn a lot here and have fun doing so.
I'm going to have to get my draft grades out soon, at least for posterity lol. I'm deciding how to tier this. I feel like I have 3 A+ grades and 2-4 A teams. But after that I am not sure how to split it and what the lowest graded teams get.
Actually helps to know it happens to the real teams too, even with all their resources and extra information
Give or take. I like the line from the story where the guy says “you gotta be kidding me”. I just had a draft in another league where I got sniped right in front of me. I didn’t use quite the same verbiage
A 4th is nothing. The idea that it’s any sort of referendum on Mac is plain silly. Plus Stidham blows and Hoyer is washed (though a great resource for Mac). Bill has stated in the past that the ideal scenario is to have your backup QB on his rookie contract. Shoot he drafted three QB’s in 4 years after Brady’s first SB.
Zappe is okay. He's a cool prospect and they need a backup. He is by far my personal favourite pick they made but I also think they reached, often massively on every pick that wasn't Chasen Hines, who they took at the end of the 6th. As far as my personal grades go they are probably clear last (but hey they could prove me wrong, it often happens) but I've got a couple other teams I want to scrutinize as well.
Every once in a while I reveal my personal big board at a position so I figured I'd show my CB one. It wasn't an exact science and for the most part it's in order. Can't really hurt my fantasy drafts revealing this lol. 1st Derek Stingley Jr. Sauce Gardner Andrew Booth Jr. Trent McDuffie Kaiir Elam 2nd Kyler Gordon Roger McCreary Cam Taylor-Britt 3rd Martin Emerson Jalyn Armour-Davis Damarri Mathis 4th Alontae Taylor Tariq Woolen Marcus Jones Mario Goodrich Zyon McCollum 5th Coby Bryant Tariq Castro-Fields Akeyleb Evans 6th Joshua Williams Josh Jobe Cordale Flott Jaylen Watson Montaric Brown 7th Derion Kendrick Jack Jones Deane Leonard Josh Blackwell Gregory Junior Chase Lucas Kalon Barnes Isaac Taylor-Stuart
