AZ54

After last years circus act with DJ let’s hope Rome takes him under his wing.

Not true. My inference is that Ryan Poles has to justify his job to the owner who approved him to pay a HC that much money. There should be an expectation from the owners to see results on the offense this year with all that investment. The timeline on defense can stretch a bit longer.

The problem is Ryan Poles has not put a winning product on the football field. Technically neither have I. Until he changes that there is no data to prove he’s any better than the virtual fantasy GMs here on this board.

We can all find rankings with all sorts of different values. Loveland here was 7 overall on Draft Network. I"m sure I can find him as far back as 20 or 25 but on average I'd say he was at least around 15 across the board. Might have been higher than that in the final rankings just prior to the draft. https://www.thedraftnetwork.com/list/nfl-draft-2025-player-rankings ....12 here on CBS https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/prospect-rankings/ ....Brugler had Warren at 10 and Loveland at 11. https://www.chargers.com/news/dane-brugler-top-100-draft-prospects "Two common names in recent mock drafts — Penn State's Tyler Warren and Michigan's Colston Loveland — are right near one another on the Big Board. Warren came in at No. 10 overall while Loveland was at No. 11." I checked a few other places and almost everywhere I look his value fit very close to where we drafted him. I wanted to build the trenches and didn't want a TE at 10 so I never really considered him, or Warren, unless we traded back a bit. Seeing him work out of the slot effectively gives me hope we got a good move TE and filled a clear need on the offense. I'm coming to grips with it. The fact we took him ahead of the popular pick in Warren shows me our talent evaluators and new coaches can make good decisions together. Or maybe I should be worried they agreed with my TE evaluation?

What Ben Johnson sees in Loveland

He'd have been a great pick for us on a big trade back but Loveland is at least better value at 10.

Phil Emery would agree with this statement.

That was my pick but I'm not the guy who just handed a offensive head coach $13mil/yr.

Actually a lot of people had him ranked higher or just as high as Warren. He's a better athlete in space than Warren and he's like gumby with his catch radius. Most importantly he is the better fit to pair up with Kmet and I think he'll quickly become Caleb's favorite target. The Patriots owned the league with Brady and 2 TEs for many years. I'm not putting anyone in Gronk's category (much less Brady) just saying that with the right offensive mind Rome, DJ, Loveland, and Kmet will cause DCs headaches running or passing. Add in the right RB in Rd 2 and we're well on our way.

It also came down to the fact the top 3 OTs were all selected before us.

The look on Poles' face when everyone stood up to applaud was priceless... "this draft sucks".

PHX....maybe too right since he went before us.

Less likely because neither wants to lose the deal. Without Cunningham and with reports that trade deals are likely going to be 70% of normal trade value we can theoretically get a bargain for a blue chip player. I can’t see Cunningham giving his old boss a 30% discount. Or the new boss will be plenty upset.

Agreed

I haven’t watched a ton of film on Banks but have seen some. I think his floor is most likely on par with Jones. What I have not really figured is where his ceiling is supposed to be. Even if the ceiling is close to Jones and the team wants to keep LT on a rookie deal for 5 years I’m ok with the plan. I’m pretty sure Banks will be there at 10. If we don’t draft him I think that means they see Kiran as the future. I just can’t see them risking LT as an issue to fix next year.