This is a PERFECT example of "pick your trait". Nearly every other CB we've seen from around the 5th round on has been pretty good in man/press but struggles in zone. Clark is exactly the opposite. Louisville lined him up a lot on the slot receiver (which he had never played before) in man coverage. He was dreadful. He's decent in man coverage on the outsides, but he's by far at his best in zone coverage.
With the 8th pick of the 1st Round Collab, The Atlanta Falcons Select Bijan Robinson, RB - Texas Also Receiving Votes: Lukas Van Ness, Anthony Richardson, Peter Skoronski, Devon Witherspoon Van Ness and Skoronski were the other 2 tied.
1st Round Collab: 1) Carolina Panthers - Bryce Young, QB - Alabama 2) Houston Texans - CJ Stroud, QB - Ohio State 3) Arizona Cardinals - Will Anderson Jr., EDGE - Alabama 4) Indianapolis Colts - Will Levis, QB - Kentucky 5) Seattle Seahawks - Tyree Wilson, DE - Texas Tech 6) Detroit Lions - Christian Gonzalez, CB - Oregon 7) Las Vegas Raiders - Paris Johnson Jr., OT - Ohio State 8) Atlanta Falcons - Bijan Robinson, RB - Texas 9) Chicago Bears - 10) Philadelphia Eagles - 11) Tennessee Titans - 12) Houston Texans - 13) Green Bay Packers - 14) New England Patriots - 15) New York Jets - 16) Washington Commanders - 17) Pittsburgh Steelers - 18) Detroit Lions - 19) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 20) Seattle Seahawks - 21) Los Angeles Chargers - 22) Baltimore Ravens - 23) Minnesota Vikings - 24) Jacksonville Jaguars - 25) New York Giants - 26) Dallas Cowboys - 27) Buffalo Bills - 28) Cincinnati Bengals - 29) New Orleans Saints - 30) Philadelphia Eagles - 31) Kansas City Chiefs - Anyone that wishes to vote, please DM me a pick for the Bears and 2 picks for the Eagles. I will tabulate votes in the late morning before moving on to the next set of teams.
Browns Draft: 3.11 - Daiyen Henley, Washington State OLB 3.35 - Zacch Pickens, South Carolina DL 4.9 - Ji'Ayir Brown, Penn State S 5.1 - Zach Kuntz, Old Dominion TE 5.5 - Isaiah McGuire, Missouri Edge 5.7 - Chase Brown, Illinois RB 5.42 - Mekhi Garner, LSU CB 7.12 - Tanner McKee, Stanford QB
I think I covered all the areas that V.V. requested, and I think the Titans are in pretty good shape heading into training camp. Thank you Torgo.......you covered all the Bases and did a Hell of a good job. I appreciated the Post and your time it took to do this.....IOU a Beer.
New Orleans draft is a wrap. As with Tennessee, I wanted to get an actual Saints fan on board to represent them. I think SoCalSaint is the only one we have on the site, and for the most part the mock really isn't his thing. I recruited him to help me prep, figuring out team needs. Even then, we struggled to try to put together a general strategy. The team preview articles are all over the place and generally conclude that the Saints need a little of everything. And trying to role-play it like I did with Scott Fitterer of the Panthers last year? I don't even know what variety of acid I'd have to drop to get in sync with Mickey Loomis' mind. But I do know (a) Saints are still in cap hell so I can't trade for big names like I did trading for Saquon Barkley for Tennessee (b) Loomis is likely to do something surprising, like last year's flip of first rounders with the Eagles. I got lucky. At almost exactly the same time, Tim said Drew Lock was up for trade and V.V. asked me to go ahead and trade Malik Willis from the Titans. That was the opportunity to go for Door Number three. Mickey Loomis "surprise" = pick up Malik Willis with the idea of shifting him over to WR. Remember Antwaan Randal-El ? The Saints now have the next generation's Slash. Line him in the slot or even at RB and get him the ball in the backfield on Jet Sweeps, laterals or screens. The toss sweep is now a RPO play. Sleep tight, NFC South defensive coordinators... Is that something the Saints would do if they had the chance? The way they used Taysom Hill says absolutely. They can certainly afford it on the cap, and in the end the cost of the trade was basically nothing. The trade price was flipping a fifth to a seventh, and that seventh rounder became cornerback Kei'Trel Clark - one of the names I had on the list for the 5th round pick before making the trade. Oh yeah, the draft... As for the draft picks, I got replacements for David Onyemata and Kaden Elliss (in both his edge and LB roles), a potential successor to Andrus Peat, a versatile running back and a pair of DBs. I think I did okay getting those players. The picks met needs / plugged holes and gave the team more depth in the secondary and at RB. I hope that @SoCalSaint likes the overall results if he sees the spreadsheet.
That helps out the draft pool for the Bears. On the subject though, I did hear a lot of chatter on sports radio last night that the Falcons will be trying to trade down pretty hard, but if they can't they will take Robinson anyway. Doesn't mean anything of course, but the word is out there. Closer to the draft, the more accurate the info seems to become. Pretty sure Young has been locked and loaded at #1 overall. I think the Giants bigger failure than taking Barkley was who they took in the first round to be their franchise QB... Then make him the starter nearly his entire career as a Giant... Yet, Jones is still the QB(with a new 4 year contract extension) and Barkley has not signed the tag yet.
Ngl, I'm giving Jones some time. I want to see what he does with healthy receivers. He looks alright for now.
You're smart. But then i always knew that from the way your user name is a clever code for St Louis Cretin.
Nope, not me either. The position of need I mentioned earlier is left guard. Every other position has been addressed, but the front office has made the hole even bigger by letting last year's starter and two of the three backups slip away in free agency. The top contenders they have left are Jalen Mayfield, who was dreadful as a rookie in 2021 and lost the starting job last year, and Matt Hennessy, who was dreadful at center in 2021 and lost the starting center job last year. It is such an obvious hole in the roster that it just screams that GM Terry Fontenot is planning on the draft to address it. Running back?? They already have Tyler Allgeier and Cordarrelle Patterson as the top two. Bijan is the top RB in this draft class by far, and he's being connected with the Falcons. He might be it on a BPA basis, but it's truly NOT a need. Atlanta's running game is already quite good without him.
Oh dont get me wrong, i'd be happy with this outcome. The Bears are more than stupid enough to take him. Like that tweet said, the Eagles get to make a luxury pick like that if they want. Teams like the Falcons and Bears? Hell friggin no!
If the first seven picks played out the way it did here, Jalen Carter is a serious option for Atlanta as well as the linemen. But yes, my favorite play (you'd never guess) would be to trade down first and THEN go for the offensive lineman. Bijan still on the board... Jalen Carter on the board and the whole world thinking Chicago wants him at #9... Anthony Richardson still on the board. The trade offers should be there.
