New Orleans Saints 1.3.3 Shadeur Sanders / QB - Colorado 3.7.71 Shemar Turner / DL - Texas A&M 3.29.93 Kaleb Johnson / RB - Iowa 4.4.105 Kyle Kennard / EDGE - South Carolina 4.10.112 Xavier Restrepo / WR - Miami 4.29.131 Denzel Burke / CB - Ohio State 6.8.184 Joshua Gray / IOL - Oregon State 7.32.248 Jackson Hawes / TE - Georgia Tech 7.38.254 Upton Stout / CB - Western Kentucky UDFA 1 Kobe Hudson / WR - Central Florida UDFA 2 Kai Krueger / P - South Carolina Trade with the Giants: They got #9, #40, 2026 First, 2026 Third FOR #3, #105 and 2026 Sixth At the end of the day, I'm not convinced ANYONE will take Sanders in the top ten, but if a team is excited about his future, they will need to move up to make sure they get him. All in all, I'm happy with the draft and it presented a realistic case for a QB trade up that we see every year IRL.
lol I appreciate this so much, and not because I think it's hypocritical. To be clear - I don't think that is what you are doing here. I do believe you are so against Sanders being the pick for the Browns that you have baked in enough bias against the pick to have some problems viewing it without that aspect. No disrespect at all in what I'm posting, so don't take it that way. I just see a passionate fan that is putting his best effort into wish-casting a player he does not want to end up somewhere, ANYWHERE, other than Cleveland. I can dig it.
This mock mirrors the conversation we had earlier in the offseason where I was advocating for the signing of Darnold, paired with the drafting of a passer somewhere starting in the third. I don't think Milroe makes it that far, so it would more than likely be a player like Ewers. What they did so far works with that, having Wilson and then going after another passer later. There is still a lot of chatter about Sanders at that #3, so it will be interesting to see which voice in that room wins out. When I post up my mock later today you can see where I was going with this for the Giants.
I have somewhat intentionally *NOT* spent a lot of time with the QB's this offseason. I kept telling myself I would get to it but I realized at some point I couldn't stomach a repeat of the Daniel Jones debacle where I hated the pick going in and struggled to get onboard his entire career. So I watched enough Cam Ward to realize I liked him enough to take him even if I wasn't as comfortable with him as a lot of my recent favorites. When it became clear Tennessee was staying put I didn't have the stomach to go down the line and watch the rest of them. That said I think the Giants going out and signing BOTH Wilson and Winston signals a lot of intent. I really don't think they want to take a QB at #3 overall and want to protect themselves. We have been hearing a LOT of smoke about conflict between the scouts and coaches and today we are hearing that the Mara family is both right in the middle of the argument and not involved at all... Interestingly before today rumors were that Daboll wanted to position player and Schoen wanted the QB. Now they are saying the exact opposite is true... All of which leads me to believe they WANT the league to think are they conflicted and might actually be signaling they are open to a trade down if someone out there wants to come up and get Sanders or Dart of whomever their QB2 is. So you might be ahead of the curve with your approach here. I would gladly take the haul you got, slug through 2025 with Wilson as the QB and then look to the 2026 class to try and find answers at QB. If you manage to nab Milroe who is probably the biggest boom/bust guy in the class as well all the better. I suspect you are right though looking more at the Ewars / Shough / Howard range of guys then Milroe in the 3rd. But crazier things have happened.
Depends on which side of the bed I wake up on. Some days, I have this crazy notion that all 32 GMs will be able to decipher the difference between first round grades and not take any QB not named Ward in the first round. Then next day I wake up and, living in reality, think about all the crazy QB picks in past drafts and can't fathom us getting through the top ten picks without 4 QBs being taken. It's quite the conundrum. My outlook, there should be (1) QB taken in the first round There should be (3) QBs taken in the second round, but late 2nd round, Dart/Sanders/Howard.. but am resigned to the fact that a running QB is still a QB and will throw Milroe in there as well... Then another QB shouldn't be taken until the 4th round. What my reality is telling me is, Ward, Sanders, Dart will be top ten picks... then teams will move up to take Milroe, making 3-4 other QBs be over drafted into the second round early/earlier than they should be and if you haven't gotten a QB by round 4, you might as well sign a camp arm undrafted. Meanwhile, those that don't follow the QB hype or have absolutely no need for a QB will benefit by having better options when their picks come up and THEIR ROSTERS will improve and the chasm will grow between the weak and strong teams.
There may be more than one GM that views Sanders as the top QB in this class. I think that if Shedeur had a different last name, he may be viewed as the 1b or 1a in this class without as much hesitation. He has the statistical component to go along with the physical side that is better than what most want to credit him for and want to downgrade him on because of how unbelievably gifted his father was, in that regard. Let's try looking at it from the viewpoint of 23' instead of 24' - Would Bryce Young be viewed as QB1 in this class, and if so, how far off would Sanders be? I'd argue that Shedeur is the better overall prospect, and Young went ahead of Stroud, so the idea that Sanders does not, or should not have a first round grade, doesn't line up with how the league views those kinds of players and the type of prospect he is, IMO. I understand your point of view, that he is not talented enough to be considered in the first, and you have a lot of people out there that will agree with you. I'm just not one of them. We know Ward is going #1 overall, so it becomes a question of where Sanders ends up. As for Dart - I think he doesn't go until round 2, and I can see a scenario where he is the 5th passer off the board. Should be an interesting first night. Possibly, but GMs fuck up every offseason and find the unemployment line, whether drafting passers or not. The only ones that have the upper hand in keeping their jobs are the ones that have their quarterback to build around, so the flipside of your argument is that you will be forever weak without having the most important position on the field filled.
And now we are seeing mocks where he is QB #2. Milroe has been the name to watch though as far as most mentioned if that smoke is fire or just a fart bomb.
I have seen his name pop up from time to time as QB2 for a while. The people who seem to love Dart simply believe he is a better processor then the media narratives would have you believe and so they think he is a better projection. I can't make an educated comment on any of that frankly but that seems to be the gist of the argument. Milroe has always been a fascinating player to attempt to project. In a down QB class he is the only player that seems to have an elite trait on which to hang his hat. The problem is you normally want that trait to be passing or processing and not just "runs REALLY fast." I honestly will not be surprised if he goes anywhere in day 1 or day 2 because he is like entirely projection at this point. I'm still surprised he didn't go back to school but I guess he was just willing to take his chances based on being a QB and the overall importance of the position. I don't know that he is a winning bet... but I do like gambling on elite traits at the position.
I feel like Sanders is more of a guy who is really going to need a system fit to be really successful. Sort of like Nix landing in the perfect situation for himself with Sean Peyton. He has a good total package of skills and looking at things from a Giants based perspective has me much more down on him then I think some teams will be because he just doesn't fit the direction they have been heading. (Milroe and Dart are both better "fits" in that regard but far far more projection) At least those "Swirling January winds" are not what they used to be in the old Giants stadium... Interestingly with Giants fans this has basically been the argument. Daboll and Schoen haven't taken a swing at QB yet. If Abdul Carter is the second coming of Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan combined the Giants still won't suddenly be a contender. If Sanders approaches a pro bowl level QB they will get themselves out of the gutter much much faster. So you tend to have people who believe you HAVE to take a QB vs the people who believe you can't force it. This is why I would have taken JJ McCarthy last year. When a QB you think can be good is on the board and you need one... you just take him. Even though it would have cost you Nabers. I think you have Sanders as better then the McCarthy and below guys from last years class though right?
I agree 100% and those guys really need to stay in their lane and listen to their scouts! Another quote from you: I have a draft scenario that I keep coming back to that has Shedeur as the 4th quarterback off the board. Sanders is not a fit for every team. It's probably the most likely version of my mock that I will end up with. And it doesn't have the Browns ending up with Sanders, Dart or Milroe. I keep waiting for this to come to light so I can see exactly what I want out of this draft... I don't think I am going to give you the right answer here. I would have to go back and look at the 2023 draft talk, but my really bad memory keeps coming back to my evaluation as Stroud being the only first round grade QB. I know I had him listed as the top draft prospect. I don't believe I had Young listed as a first round grade, but I could be wrong. I would have to pull all of his college stuff if I were going to compare him directly to Sanders. Or even, Dart, Howard, Milroe, etc... I don't know the easiest way to search that far back on here though. This is what I am seeing... It's Ward and everyone else. It is going to be 6 QBs in all different ratings/rankings on 32 different draft boards. Obviously there will be more than one that has Sanders above Ward and some that might even have Ward as the #3 (those teams are teams that have zero need for a QB and were lazy in their evaluations). As for the QBs that actually go after Ward, they are going to be ranked all over the place on teams war boards.. This is what I truly believe, those teams that NEED a QB will have separate rankings, their prospect rankings and then to the side their QB rankings and which round they believe they will need to take them. I don't think these teams, including the Browns, will be true to their rankings and put the prospects true grades next to the QB group. If they are pounding for a QB, they will be discussed separate from the total prospects. GMs do fuck up every off season, some of them trade their franchise for a guy that has sexual issues off the field, then fix another teams needs by trading an actual decent QB for a bag of beans. My argument revolves around keeping your roster as strong as possible so that when the moment arises to get a franchise changer, you are ready to plug him into a nicely built team. Continuing to sign/draft bad QBs doesn't help the cause. Now, the downside to that is, if you are forever "just good enough", you will eventually have to give up the farm to persuade another team to give you the right to that QB. This isn't that draft... Taking a guy you have a second round grade on at #2 overall, passing on a guy you have the #1 prospect grade on, will forever put you on a path to failure. Then the next regime gets put in the same situation and you have a perpetual factory of sadness....
That scenario had Ward at 1, Dart to a Saints team that had traded down with the Seahawks or Colts, Milroe to the Steelers, and Sanders being taken by a team moving back into the first, or possibly the Rams. The other iteration I had for a falling Shedeur was one where Shough also went ahead of him, with LAR taking Tyler before someone bounced back in for Sanders. These are all kind of 'worst case' looks, but the reason why I kept coming back so Sanders' as that 4th option was how hard the media narrative was driving that he was falling like a stone. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes wrong, but it is something that I try to bake into the cake. The mock I will be posting later today has Sanders as the second passer off the board, but not to CLE. Well, at least in the 'Projection' phase...
I know you preferred Stroud, but I don't remember anything with Young in the same neighborhood with Sanders when it comes to not being worthy of a first round selection. Pretty sure you had Young in the top 10. What makes you think the majority of scouts are as down on Shedeur as you are? This doesn't address the obvious... You will be building up the roster for the guy that gets your job when you are handed your walking papers. This is based on your personal board for Sanders. I don't believe for a minute that the majority of teams have a second-round grade on Sanders. Outside of the top 10? Sure, that's a viewpoint that I won't argue against. Then it becomes a question of - Does Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter do enough on the field to save your job? Or does getting it right with a passer that can become a top 16 player at his position, because that is the bar you are trying to get over. The idea that you need to hit a homerun at the position is flawed. You just need to get a guy that can put you in a position to win games more often than not, or else you will continue to be a bottom tier team with no guarantee of ever answering the question at the position if you are unwilling to take shots at it. Sanders is a reasonable risk to take, IMO, because he comes ready to go with some of the more difficult skills for a passer to grow as a pro.
Yep, and I would probably put Ward over Maye, which I'm not sure a lot of people would agree with. People don't realize just how talented the top end of last season's draft was for passers, and trying to make an argument against Sanders based on that class is a bit out of touch. If you compare him to 23', he only comes in behind Stroud. If you compare him to 22', he's the top passer easily. If you compare him to 21', he's immediately in the mix after Trevor Lawrence, unless you're running the Jets, because Zach Wilson rolled left and thew a deep ball in shorts, or some such shit...
Hmmmm interesting. And yeah I felt a LOT more comfortable with Maye as a prospect then I do with Ward. Like I said I haven't spent much time with Sanders because I was afraid of what I would see when I thought the Giants were locked in on him. Many of the talent evaluators I like in the Giants community / podcast ecosystem etc... all tell me Sanders just isn't worth taking that high. I have a general "positional value matters" stance. So I can't take a low positional value player over a high one within a tier. But I don't like to step down a talent tier because of positional value. QB tends to trump this. So to me the question really becomes... Is Sanders 1 tier down from Carter & Hunter or two? I'm not sure I can justify it if you don't project him as a true franchise QB. I really don't want to pass on a blue chip for a guy who is in the "ranks behind Kirk Cousins" tier of middle class QB's. Based on what I have seen in brief glimpses -- I think Sanders can be successful. But I don't see a guy you win because of I see a guy you can win with. I can't say whether or not I see him as a first round talent because I didn't do a real evaluation. And to me being Sanders kid is *NOT* a downside. I like that he is a cocky bastard. Giants could use some of that -- as long as he can back it up.
This was part of it. But let's not forget also about some of the off-platform throwing, directly on the back of watching the Chiefs dynasty arrive with some of the wild off-platform stuff Mahomes was doing. Context gets everybody. Remember all the wasted draft picks with teams chasing the next Kam Chancellor? @Torgo your squad had my most memorable one.
Yep, that would be part of the context. But I know you can specifically remember a lot of analysts absolutely painting their keyboards with Wilson pro-day-rollout porn.
