stitches

Just a reminder:

Brugler's draft guide, The Beast, is out. You can find it here: https://theathletic.com/5399690/2024/04/10/nfl-draft-2024-the-beast-dane-brugler/ You need subscription to The Athletic for it. IMO the subscription is worth it just for the draft guide. I will post just the top 100 here: Some notables: - QB rankings are kind of chalk... Caleb, Maye, Daniels, McCarthy... Bo Nix ahead of Michael Pennix... the last two are ranked 44 and 52 respectively. - Joe Alt is OT1 and in the top 5 of his big board - Troy Fautanu before Fashanu, Latham and Fuaga... - Dallas Turner EDGE1 - Graham Barton OC1 - Terrion Arnold and Quinyon Mitchell are no. 10 and 11. Not much separates them. - Brian Thomas is his no. 15 prospect and WR4... interesting thing - no other WR in the top 30. Ladd McConkey is his WR5 at 31 with AD Mitchell(33) and Keon Coleman(37) close behind him. - Byron Murphy DT1 - at 16, Newton DT2 - 28 - Here's a surprise... Marshawn Kneeland- EDGE 5 at no. 32. This is the highest I've seen him anywhere - Jaden Hicks is his safety 1 at no. 39. Again - highest I've seen him anywhere. - Junior Colson LB1 at 42 - tons and tons of receivers in the top 50 - 10 WRs in top 50 ... 17 WRs in the top 100!!! - Jonathon Brooks RB1 at 48... kind of a weak RB class it seems. - Ruke Orhorhoro is DT4 at 51. I think this is one of the highest I've seen him - Xavier Legette is WR14 at 76... pretty low... I think one of the lowest I've seen him. -

Damn... Interesting... Not just that we would want to have him as top 30 visit, but also that he would be willing to come considering we are not in position to draft him as it stands right now...

Oh yah, I saw that one at the time(not sure if it was you that brought it up at the time or someone else. I found it interesting IF they actually put weight on it(the match between Funchess and Luck strengths). It probably played at least some part in it...

Corner. He might be better at safety on a random team, but IMO if Ballard drafts him, he will draft him as a corner. He looks like a Ballard corner to me... well except for the arm length. Not sure about the arm length threshold at safety.

I recently watched some of DeJean... he looks so much like exactly what Ballard likes from his corners. He's big and physical, he has certain level of explosiveness. He plays tough and physical in the run game and at the catch point, He played off coverage too... a lot of it! He seems to have really good ballskills and takes the ball away. The one thing tha doesn't quite fit in the Ballard mold is the thing that most of the top corners in this draft don't fit - the arm length - it's under 32". No idea if Ballard will make an exception for a player that high in the draft. So far the only exceptions he's made are for 5th rounder Nate Hairston and 7th rounder Jaylon Jones... Oh.. and future hall of famer Stephon Gilmore.

Some new "Reception Perception" charts posted... Brian Thomas Jr: Ladd McConkey: Adonai Mitchell: Ricky Pearsall:

No idea but they probably have been hitting him with claims for the rights of the videos.

In a certain way he has a bit of Mac Jones/Cousins in his game meaning - he is supposed to be high level game manager who executes the offense, throws on time and is overall accurate and consistent with his ball placement. What might separate him is that he actually might be a much better athlete than Mac Jones and he has some hidden potential that was not realized on Michigan... they just didn't need him to do more so ... he just executed. If you watch some of his highlights you can actually see his mobility and ability to navigate the pocket at a pretty good level as well as make plays on the move. He is also receiving glowing reviews from meetings with NFL teams. They just love his leadership and attitude. NFL teams think the guy is special and has the personality to lead a team. They also like that he's a winner ... for whatever that is worth. I guess we will see in due time how he pans out... for whatever it's worth those Vikings rumors make a lot of sense when you consider who was their QB the last few years... and if you can imagine that he can pretty easily integrate into that type of offense... and then hopefully even provide some more playmaking with time then he might be worth the high pick?!

I mean... all it took is the best rookie QB year since when? Forever? And just because one player has made the jump doesn't mean another with similar early stats will. In fact, what Nico Collins did is the outlier, not the rule. My argument was that other teams in similar position to us - cheap young QB who needs support and support can be afforded, were able to give that support to their QB. We on the other hand are relying on our super inexperienced QB to raise the level of our pass-catchers. Can it happen? I guess it can... I just hope in 2 years we are not still wondering what could have been if we gave AR more/better weapons.

It's not laughable. I only included the new players the respective QB will have. I'm talking about new additions and helping your young QB. I'm talking about intent to support your QB and make his life easier compared to the previous year. In addition to those... Stroud will have Nico Collins(better than every single one of our receivers), Diggs(Better than every single one of our receivers) and Tank Dell(better than everybody except MPJ... but might surpass him too). Lets play this game... you let our receiving corps on the Texans roster. Does ANY of them start? I don't think they do. I think both Collins and Diggs start over Pittman and I think Tank Dell would be ahead of him too because he's more of the speedster Z type. And Dalton Schultz starts over any of our TEs too... Well... I guess we will have to wait and see. You know where my bet is... (that we keep having bottom 10 receiving corps in the league)

Interestingly enough, his PFF grade in zone is even higher than his grade in man. I think he can play both... but he has press-man experience, which would be helpful if we decide to man up more often or 3d downs.

Yes, we've seen this type of approach work wonders in the past for us... not addressing OL followed by complete collapse of the OL, not addressing DB followed by disastrous DB season, not addressing DL and relying on the youth followed by meagre pass-rushing season. What could possibly go wrong with just sitting on our deficient roster and hoping that various groups will just... improve? And yes... there are usually internal improvements to be made from young players, don't get me wrong... but those improvements in huge number of cases are incremental, not huge jumps. BTW if they rely on AR to turn Pierce, Pittman and Downs, who were a bottom 10 receiving corps in the league into a great one, that to me screams even MORE reliance on AR, rather than less. In essence what they would be wanting out of him is to do what Luck used to do - turn mediocre receiving groups into great producing units. I'm not sure if AR is ready for that. I think at this point he needs more help from his receiving group, rather than the other way around(although, Pierce might indeed benefit purely from the style of play we can practice with AR, compared to Minshew). Yep... as I've said before and above... I disagree with their assessment. Oh they will definitely add more vets after the draft. This is what Ballard does every year. he fills the holes with what is left over after the first and second wave of FA. Doubt any of them will be difference makers of any sort. Good QB play is very important to any team's success, indeed. My problem is that we are not doing enough to support our QB and improve the chances that he has a season of good QB play. Young QBs need support... especially ones as green as AR is and the very fact that we are relying on a rookie scale QB should have been enough to allow us to actually splurge on some weapons for him. While Stroud will have Diggs and Mixon, Levis will have Calvin Ridley and Pollard, as it stands right now, AR will have Ashton Dulin.

When he makes snide remarks towards reporters asking him legit questions about the pass-catchers of this team for example. When he continues professing the same damn philosophy that has brought little to no success to this team... I just don't see any sign that he actually has learned something or changed anything in his approach to team building. I think he's dug in and unwilling to move. This to me is stubborness and arroggance.

He's not megalomaniac, but he is stubborn and sometimes pretty arroggant for the limited success he's had with this team.

The team was whatever it was last year(if they thought it was good, then good, if they thought it was mediocre, then mediocre) and it should be pretty much the same this year, except for AR. I have no idea how much of a difference he would make, but I think it's fair to say whatever improvements they expect, they expect them to come mainly from AR. Hell, you can read Atkins and Holder's pieces, who seem to have talked to Ballard and this is pretty much what emanates from those pieces. It's about AR, the whole point of those pieces is precisely this - to explain how not making any moves is good and getting AR back will make the difference. You know what I think about this roster and where I think we are weak. AR doesn't fix any of those areas.

Is your ranking influenced by the year Stroud had or were you this high on him before? Because if I had to re-rank him based on what he's already shown I would put him no. 1 too. Also... any particular reason you are this low on Caleb?

I might be the wrong person to ask since I had AR higher than pretty much anybody around... and he hasn't done anything (besides getting injured) to dissuade me from my evaluation at the time. If I had to stack them I'd probably go with... 1. Caleb Williams 2. Drake Maye 3. Anthony Richardson 4. CJ Stroud 5. Jayden Daniels 6. Will Levis 7. Bryce Young 8. JJ McCarthy I don't exactly remember if I had Bryce above or below Levis, but I had them close.

Very realistic mock with a trade back. I personally like Mitchell a lot too...

Seems like teams already had concerns about his off-field focus and partying...

Good job with the draft. You got some of my favorites for the Colts. Best EDGE in the draft... one of the most explosive WRs in the second... and really traitsy CB later in the draft. Nice

Is that much more competitive than last year though? And just how much harder is our schedule? By winning % we are tied with a few teams for the 10th easiest schedule. By Mike Clay's projections we are with the 8th easiest schedule. Haven't seen it by Vegas odds but I assume we will again be in that range.

What are your expectations for next year? What does "much more competitive than last year" mean? And what should be the repercussions/changes for not hitting that goal?