Yoshinator

I like it as of now. I believe when we sign a veteran CB later on, we can safely cut Mo-Allie Cox for whichever CB we sign and have 4 TEs and 6 CBs.

I love this. Fixed our WR position, and helps with some depth at the secondary. Didn't even sacrifice the player we wanted either with Mitchell. Major win by Ballard here. That's how you build a team.

So Akhello Witherspoon is 29 and Xavien Howard is 30. I think you could sign either to a deal, maybe even 2 years if you really wanted too and front load the first year. That would fill the CB spot that we missed out on in the draft. Give our young CBs someone to learn from.

Nice, well thought out post Scott. Agree with a lot of what you say!

Yes. Facing tough competition is always a positive. It's not the be-all-end-all to succeeding in the NFL, but it's a very important factor. I'll give credit to @John Hammonds for mentioning that in his article!

Simpson is a favorite of mine. He can cover TE's and has nice playmaking skills. I had him as an early 5th rounder and I've seen some publications who ranked him as a 4th rounder. He has potential to start one day at FS.

Agreed. The old Ballard would have never taken Latu or Mitchell. We got two elite players because Ballard went outside his comfort zone. There is hope for this team.

Which WR? Mitchell or Gould? Both are athletic beasts. Mitchell I was more concerned about his character and work ethic, However, Ballard seems to be ok with him, so I'm not worried about it. Mitchell may be the 4th best WR in this class honestly if he plays to his potential. Gould is a poor mans Xavier Worthy IMO. Slower than him, but can be a punt and kick returner for us, do all sorts of gimmick plays, be a backup slot receiver to Downs. I like him a lot. Fun player.

I don't think there was ever great value for CB in this draft except in round 1 and 5 personally. I did want Mitchell or Arnold. Once we didn't get them, I wanted Melton in round 2. He went before us when four CBs went in a row. I didn't see anyone of value I wanted after that until round 5. We just missed out on Cam Hart by two picks to the Chargers, and I was hoping to get Abrams-Draine or Brownlee, and we didn't get either. After that I just gave up lol.

Yeah, we did a great job. Just need to sign a veteran CB for a year and we're good IMO.

I'll give this draft an A- Ballard did very well in the first 4 rounds, about as well as he could IMO. 5th round was nice as well. Where he lost me was not taking a RB before the run in the 5th round or getting Blake Watson at any point in the 6th or 7th round or as a UDFA when we had a top 30 visit with him and didn't draft one. I have to deduct a bit off the grade for that. I'm assuming we will sign a top remaining CB on a one-year deal pretty soon with some of the cap we opened up, so missing out on a CB until the 6th round really doesn't bother me. I love Latu, Mitchell, Goncalves, and Bortolini. They were either players I loved, or in Mitchell's case, a great value. Gould is a lot of fun as a WR, Carlies and Simpson have some potential. Not a fan of Abraham that much, but he can back up Kenny Moore and play ST's. I like Laulu as a raw athlete that has potential to be good with a decently high ceiling, that's the type of guy you want in the 7th. Overall, Ballard did a great job and I'm glad he went away from his normal strategy to get some players he wouldn't have gotten otherwise. A lot more production over athleticism in this draft. Looks like Steichen may have had an effect on him.

That would work perfectly if it happened.

I agree with the vet signings. We have some cap space. I think that was intentional where Ballard plans to sign FAs to fill in the holes from the positions he couldn't draft during the draft.

Slovis has a legit chance of being the no3 QB. He's probably a top 10 QB in this class tbh.

I like Strong a lot, this is the type of guy I wanted to compete for an RB spot. Absolute freak athlete!

Also, if we are at 91, maybe we cut Cox now.

Good. Glad we're giving a RB a tryout. I'll check him out.

RB too.

I like it. Flacco will only be here for a year, so it'll be nice to solidify a #3 and possibly a backup in 2025. Hoping we sign an undrafted RB or two for competition.

I had Slovis as a solid day 3 pick in the QB tier pool after Rattler. I like this signing.

Simpson does really well against TEs. I think that might be why we drafted him.

Yes. good pick here. I had him as an early 5th.

We traded our 6th to move up for Gonsalves, now we got it back.

Must have wanted Prince and got sniped.

If the Colts take Blake Watson at RB next, I will be extremely happy. We had a lot of interest in him.