AZ54

For those concerned about the lack of trade down options this is interesting. This can be disinformation to help motivate someone to trade up for Mayfield (Buffalo?). Then again they also traded away Ajayi mid-season for reasons unknown. I don't think anybody can predict where this organization is headed right now. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/...re-his-pro-day/

I'm going to go ahead and say that before they get anything done with Fuller the Bears will sign Amukamara to modest 3 yr deal with most of the guaranteed money coming in year one. The Fuller situation is too chaotic for Pace to predict and if he sits back and waits on that to play out he could lose out on a lot of options. Plus, once you start getting up in the big money there are other CBs like Trumaine Johnson who might be worth spending just a bit more on. I'd be happy with Amukamara and Johnson as our starters with a talented but raw 4th Rd pick on board for the future. Stability in the coaching ranks will help this year in terms of signing FA too.

I get the feeling we'll be trying to bring in Fulton and slide Whitehair out to LG.

It's just a site that gives me a quick way to see where players rank, and not really my favorite at that. Their rankings are off by quite a bit at times and a month ago were (IMO) worthless. I do not like their mocks much at all other than to see what round a player is selected. There were players I really like (i.e Edmunds) who was showing as Rd 2 a few weeks ago. As we get closer to the draft, and in this case the Combine, they are starting to match most common projections. In the interest of saving some time I used their list to scan some names between ~40-75 to see who I liked on there for this scenario's pick #64. Regardless, at this time there are draft projections all over the place that I don't agree with, including Mike Mayock's and others. I'm still not on board with the rest of the world on Minkah Fitzpatrick as the #3 talent in this draft (where Draftek and many have him). Patrick Peterson went #5 overall and he's an elite athlete, with the size to truly match up with anyone anywhere on the field. Fitzpatrick, for all his talents isn't close to that kind of player. I'm not that high on Roquan Smith either because I think he too has limitations that I don't want in a top 10 prospect. That's why I like the process. I try to list my source for rankings if I make a choice like this unless I'm going outside the conventional wisdom on a player. In that case my source is me. At this point in the draft process with what I've seen on film, I'd be happy with Davis as a late 2nd Rd pick for us. Three weeks ago he was a 4/5th Rd prospect on most boards.

We say this is most drafts but that's talent based on raw comparisons of skills. There is one caveat that must be considered and it is scheme and who fits it and who doesn't. Trading back only to end up with a similarly graded player who doesn't fit what you want to do on the field makes no sense. It is precisely this reason that Pace traded up for Floyd. He had to have him because after that the drop off was huge. Looking back on it I'd say he was right. http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft...d=round1#round1 As I said in another thread, in this 2018 draft I believe a player like Christian Kirk carries more value to our new offense than does a player like Sutton. All that means our draft board looks different, maybe much different, than the generic draft boards we find on NFL.com, Drafttek, CBS, Walterfootball, etc. Of course there are always players who fit any scheme and Tremaine Edmunds is one of them.

I keep doing that to his last name too. I have re-read all of my posts to catch myself and correct it.

I agree on those wildcards in Richardson or Wilkerson. I really wonder why Wilkerson fell off so much lately....and here we are: https://www.app.com/story/sports/nfl/jets/2...nger/106065894/ I think Pace completely stays away from Richardson and his off the field issues. If Wilkerson's available this is a potential top tier talent that, if healthy with his mind focused on football again, would completely transform our D. OTOH on a rebuilding team with a new head coach we can't pay a lot of money to someone who will create issues in the locker room. Pace needs to do a lot of homework on this one.

This is what I think will happen. McCarron wouldn't change a teams QB draft intentions if they felt a legit future starter was within their grasp, even in a trade up. Now if you get to the 2nd Rd and especially after that then having McCarron could alter a team's plans a bit.

That's a lot of fun and I'd be very happy with picks 1 through 3. I have seen concerns about Courtland Sutton's ability to separate and that might be why he skipped the Senior Bowl. You would think a player who was not at a top tier school would definitely want to show he belongs in the NFL and can win against the best DBs. Not so with Sutton and the speculation is that he avoided the senior bowl because it could hurt his draft stock. He will be someone to watch closely at the Combine. His film was always ok but lacked that consistency you'd like to see out of a high draft pick but some of that was the offense he was in. That sums up where I'm at right now on Sutton but it could all change as we learn more. In his place I'd just take Kirk at 2-35 because I believe he will be electric in the open field and Nagy will know how to use him. I don't really want to deal with 2 rookies at WR this year because I think it hurts the team in the near term with little long term benefit (vs. just drafting another WR in Rd 2/3 next year). Instead I prefer that we bring in a very good FA WR, and a good FA WR to fill the depth chart. Maybe this year we toss in another rookie from Day 3 if he fits BPA. Using Drafttek rankings at 2-64 I'd take CB Carlton Davis. I like the roster balance picking up future starting players at OG, RT, DE/OLB, WR, and CB.

He's very stiff and won't offer anything at all beyond pass rush. I see him as a quality depth player who can help get some occasional pressure but he won't be nearly as versatile as Acho. Still if Pace decides to remake the entire depth chart and release Young, McPhee (very likely) he could in the mix. I prefer to keep Houston over signing Okafor.

He said he doesn't want to play ILB, or at least that he much prefers being back at safety. At best he's an in-the-box safety so he's still gotta play well in heavy traffic. At this point I'd question if his heart is really into that. I'm not going to say I blame him either because I don't know what he's been through physically/mentally.

I do not but I like that draft as long as the Bears get Edmunds last name right on the draft card.

Let's start with FA since that is what Pace has to do... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/footbal...m=.361b4ad564b9 Junior Gallete coming off back to back seasons with torn achilles tendons (2015/16) returned in 2017 with a grand total of 3.0 sacks, and 14 tackles. Hard to imagine he has the explosiveness he once had and it would be a big gamble to rely on him. ----------------------------------------------- Trent Murphy looks like he fits Pace's ascending player type until we see that he had a torn ACL last year and was also suspended 4 games for performance enhancing drugs. His draft profile likely fits in the slot where McPhee played for us. More DE than OLB http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/tre...rphy?id=2543503 ------------------------------------------------ Aaron Lynch... seems like he might not fit the OLB role but he too had a suspension for drugs of a different type. HIs draft profile does not fit the type of player Pace wants at all: http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/aar...ynch?id=2543650 /////WEAKNESSES Classic underachiever. Questionable effort, motor and desire. Leaves production on the field. Does not play with passion and lacks urgency. Goes through the motions //// People change so perhaps he has but that suspension two years ago might indicate otherwise. ------------------------------------------------- Clayborn...definitely just a DE type. Falcons spent the last two drafts finding pass rushing replacements for him. ------------------------------------------------- Will Clark...like a lesser version of Willie Young. Given his all-time high of 4 sacks, and just 2.5 sacks in 2017 I'd rather keep Young and see if we can lower his cap hit a bit. At least we know we have leadership in the locker room with Young. ------------------------------------------------- Among those FA I would guess that Pace targets Trent Murphy. The ACL injury was in preseason so he's healthy enough for doctors to know how well he's healing. It will depend as well on that performance enhancing suspension and what excuse was behind that. All that adds up to a player who might be willing to gamble on himself with a 1yr deal. If Pace thinks that drugs were not the main reason he had 9 sacks in 2016 I could see a 2yr deal similar to what we did for Hicks. Murphy will still be young enough to hit on a big contract if he plays well. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Draft time... Knowing the question marks here, including Floyd, along with the weak FA class, this will get addressed in Rd 1 or 2. At best we're replacing McPhee/Young question marks with FA Trent Murphy's question marks. I think we stay at #8 and take Edmunds or Davenport.

One former GM doesn't think Davenport gets out of the top 10. Here Casserly has him going at #5 overall, which is very surprising to me. Casserly always has his own strong opinions, sometimes unique to himself, but he also has a lot of contacts around the league. When I see something like this about Davenport it makes me wonder if this is what he's hearing from his contacts, as well as what he sees in him (likely Senior Bowl film). Almost everywhere else I see Davenport talked about more as a 4-3 DE. Davenport and Edmunds are a little different in their strengths/attributes but each could fill a role on our defense. Edmunds being more OLB/ILB versatile, while Davenport fits the McPhee role as OLB and then DE in our 4-man front for our nickel D. I'll be watching the combine closely to see how these two perform in the agility drills. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000091...-saquon-barkley

I like this option with Zack Fulton quite a bit. Cut Sitton and backfill OT in Rd 2 or 3 where there are some good options.

Isn't that the problem here? He hasn't established he has the ability to handle playing ILB, in a durable fashion. Now he's happy at safety and coaches are talking about him as a good player there but the same coaches are trying to trade him.

Not interested. I didn't like him that much as a draft prospect and now with the injury history I see no reason to give up a pick. Then I read that he has walked away from his college team, went AWOL one day with the Redskins, and then went full MIA. No way I'd give up a draft pick for him and then pay him $1.7mil. I'm not even sure where fits in our defense. He is not big enough for ILB, too slow for safety, so he's just an in-the-box NB. I would like to see the Packers trade for him so Nagy can get him in coverage on Cohen.

I think Marcus Davenport could be in the mix at #8. Much depends on how he works out and if he can show enough lateral movement skills. If he doesn't have that he may just fit as a 4-3 DE.

I'll agree that down the road McG will be better than Massie is today. How much? I don't think it's a big upgrade. However, the same things about any CB we draft improving over the years can be said. Anyway, I agree that things like his core strength and even fundamentals will improve but each time I watch him his slow foot speed makes feel like I'm watching a young Massie when he first arrived with the Cardinals. http://draftbreakdown.com/2017/12/10/mike-...-stanford-2017/ I see plays where QNelson comes over to help him and just takes over the defender driving him around the field. It's kinda funny to see McG just stand there as Q takes his man away from him. In his movement skills Nelson just looks quicker and smoother moving than McGlinchey, even if he doesn't have great range. That's why I'm ok with drafting Nelson at #8. Park him next to Leno and Leno gets better on some of those plays where he gives up early inside pressure. Now if we have to wait a year for McGlinchey to be equal to or better (a bit IMO) than Massie I'm perfectly content with the choice of Brandon Parker as our backup swing OT this year. He has LT potential. Keep Massie around for another year and then in 2019 we add another OT prospect after Massie is cut and Parker starts at RT. In the meantime, we also have a young CB with long term starting potential. Or we drafted someone like Wynn at OG with #21, draft Parker still in the 3rd, and the Oline's future looks outstanding.

I'm not buying that this was a good deal for SF. From OTC.com "The effective guarantee is the first two years of the deal minus the per game bonuses which is about $59.6 million. That is about $9 million more than he would have earned if tagged twice so that’s a big number. --------------------- Therefore the point that they have him for 2 years well they could have done that for less money. Certainly for far less risk if they just franchised him this year, then worked on the long term deal next year. --------------------- back to OTC.com "From a salary cap perspective the 49ers frontloaded the contract for a whopping $37 million cap hit this year (and perhaps more if they did that acceleration trick) but took a modest $20 million cap hit in 2019. This surprised me a little as I expected big cap charges in the first two years so this tells me two things. One is that the team still isn’t sold on him being a sure thing just yet as doing this would have forced them to raise the two year cash flow level by about $6 million. Secondly it tells me that they are going to be active in free agency and this gives them a better chance to spend next year as well. Here is the breakdown of the contracts cap structure:" ------------------------- OTC makes hte point that this deal falls in line with Rodgers, Stafford, Wilson, Luck, Roethlisberger, and even Carr. There is still the fact all of them were far more accomplished in their body of work than Garoppolo. The thought that the franchise had no leverage in this doesn't fly either because they had the franchise tag for two years as a cheaper way out. JimmyG could only negotiate with one team for two years if that's what SF wanted. If Jimmy wanted more money now for long term security he could have settled for less than the franchise tag on an annual basis but with more guaranteed money. He has the same risk as the team: He's only had 7 games and if he gets exposed as being less of a franchise QB by the end of next year, or he gets injured again as he did in his 2nd start in NE which also raises long term questions, then the balance of the contract equation changes in the team's favor. I still think it's horrible negotiating for Lynch to pay him on par with QBs who have a much better body of work including Superbowl victories. He had options and he never even got close to the franchise tag deadline much less using the tag to add leverage to his side. He was owned by the player's agent who is still out celebrating his victory.

I'm keeping Long at RG. He has a long offseason and there will be no moving him around this year. Sitton I'd cut. I don't think his injury issues will get better as he gets older and for some reason he gets away with a fair amount of grabbing/pulling when he's out of position. I think he starts to get more flags as his feet slow down. I'm not opposed to keeping Sitton another year either but if the upgrade in Wynn is the best player available so be it, we fill the 2019 need this year. Worst case is that Wynn give us some good insurance if Long's recovery takes longer than expected. In which case we can keep Sitton. If Long isn't ready to play early in the season who are we playing? Morgan? He has long term promise but I'm not sure a year of no practice helped him enough to be a starter. Kush? He has his own injury concerns to recover from.

I'm keeping Long at RG. He has a long offseason and there will be no moving him around this year. Sitton I'd cut. I don't think his injury issues will get better as he gets older and for some reason he gets away with a fair amount of grabbing/pulling when he's out of position. I think he starts to get more flags as his feet slow down. I'm not opposed to keeping Sitton another year either but if the upgrade in Wynn is the best player available so be it, we fill the 2019 need this year. Worst case is that Wynn give us some good insurance if Long's recovery takes longer than expected. In which case we can keep Sitton. If Long isn't ready to play early in the season who are we playing? Morgan? He has long term promise but I'm not sure a year of no practice helped him enough to be a starter. Kush? He has his own injury concerns to recover from.

I think McGlinchey is probably a bit better athlete than Massie but I'm not sure he'd be that much of an upgrade, and probably will be a downgrade in the run game. I see McGlinchey as more of a late 1st to early 2nd Rd prospect and in this mock we're sitting at 21 where I feel there will be better value/need matchups for us to take. http://draftscout.tsxfiles.com/position-rankings/ WEAKNESSES Tardy pass-sets and late to mirror. Forgets his feet and struggles with wide speed. Poor hand/punch timing, allowing rushers to cross his face and wrap his outside shoulder. Hips/butt rise in his kickslide. Only average arm length. Has an answer for the first move, but consistently struggles with counters. Overeager at times in the run game and tips his hand, ending up on the ground. – Dane Brugler 12/30/2017

I'm really bummed out about this. After the draft last year I was assured John Lynch was the smartest GM in the NFL. Now he gives a QB who has played a total of 7 games in the NFL the largest QB contract ever. Say anything you want about his play; good, bad, great, whatever, he still only has 7 games and just 5 in that offense. Very little body of work here to base this decision on. If your GM can't drive a better bargain than making him the highest paid player in the league then he's not doing his job well. Until NFL defenses have film and tendencies on your QB it is caveat emptor. I don't think Garoppolo will be a bust but it's ridiculous to make him the highest paid player. At least Joe Flacco had a Superbowl ring on his hand when he was given a huge deal.

Arden Key scares me. On one hand I see prototypical OLB for Fangio, on the other I see prototypical bust. In his place I'd take the best CB Pace has on his board. Could be any of Carlton Davis, Josh Jackson, Mike Hughes here, maybe someone else I haven't seen yet. Where they all rank depends on what site you go to and right now some of those names fall all the way into the 3rd Rd. That'll be sorted out soon. Josh Jackson, a former WR, has good INT numbers but he's very soft as a tackler. Davis is the opposite and hits like you want a DB to hit plus he's good right in the face of the WR. Mike Hughes seems to have the mirror skills to hang with a WR all over the field. Then I'm not a big McGlinchey fan either because he reminds me of a guy named Massie with his often too-slow feet. If we already have a RT who struggles with edge speed why add another? In that spot I'd take Isaiah Wynn OG and build a brick wall in front of Trubisky where he can always step up, or step up and out of the pocket. That there leaves the outside pass rusher in quandary even if they can beat Massie out wide. ----------------- Where does he fit on the field: ILB or OLB? Leighton Vanderesche. Watch his highlights and you'll feel like you're watching a young Urlacher at times. http://draftscout.tsxfiles.com/position-rankings/ COMPARES TO : 2018 Hall of Fame finalist Brian Urlacher, Bears - It might seem presumptuous to compare Vander Esch - essentially a one-year wonder - to Urlacher, who recorded an eye-popping 1,229 tackles and 41.5 sacks over his 13 NFL seasons, all in Chicago. There are some eerie similarities between the two, however, not the least of which are their similar sizes, athleticism, physical tackling and small-school backgrounds. It is worth remembering that prior to earning the No. 9 overall pick in 2000, the 6-4, 258 pound Urlacher also fell off the recruiting radar after playing eight-man football in high school and played his college ball at New Mexico before