AZ54

We have two of the WRs GB was targeting in trades last year: DJ Moore and Chase Claypool. First step to getting into the playoffs is winning your division and it cost us a bit to play defense on the Claypool trade and block them.

I watched the interview and Poles seemed pretty clear he's in some discussions on a trade. First for me is what is the status of the injury so 100% that's gotta be reviewed first and foremost. If we make the trade we're effectively obligated to give him a contract extension. What does that look like? I'd be negotiating that up front with his agent before any trade is made because you want some common ground. The Ravens knew what they were getting with Roquan and paid his demands although they waited until right at the end of the season. That injury concern is the main and only reason why I wouldn't make the trade. Why I would make the trade: I scanned a couple early 2024 draft rankings and the Edge class is underwhelming. Assuming Poles/Flus value length at the position The only top 10 Edge prospect (Draft Network) is 6'3" 240lbs Dallas Turner Alabama. He is way too small for what want and the first thing you see in his highlights is that he's not Will Anderson. I watched a bit of the Texas game and OTs swallow him up completely on a lot of plays. Top 20 Edge prospects: Jared Verse FSU, listed at 6'4" 248lbs. Might be a good fit if his height is accurate and he's got some quick twitch. Looks a little more compact in build. JT Tuimoloau Ohio St. 6'4". 270lbs, He's more power rusher than quickness but can bend a bit around the edge, similar style to what you saw from Tuli this year. Similar to Myles Murphy in some aspects. Top 30 Edge prospects: Jack Sawyer Ohio St. 6'5". 250lbs. Again he's more power rusher than quickness and bend off the edge. IMO Jared Verse represents the best speed rusher option followed by JT Tuimoloau who fits the big edge style Flus likes. But that's just two players, and Sawyer and Turner are guys you can find in any draft. I'm sure there will be some younger players who declare, and maybe someone else will move up, but the pool of 1st Rd Edge players doesn't appear to be very deep. It's almost like last year when Poles traded for Claypool because he saw the 2032 WR class wasn't very deep (he proved to be correct). None of these prospects is close to what a healthy Chase Young can do on the field.

That was well done.

If Foreman wins the starting job I’d say it’s more likely Roschon takes Herbert’s place as the 2nd back. They likely keep Homer on the field for 3rd and long situations for his while letting Roschon gain experience with a couple series per game.

I'd like to see a 300yd game or two before even remotely thinking about a 4000 yd season from Fields. The RB room is tough. Herbert has some value as a KR which Foreman does not. Beyond that Johnson and Homer both have more special teams value than Herbert and both can pass block and catch out of the backfield better. On game day you want your RB depth capable of as much special teams as possible plus with those two offering more 3rd down value than Herbert. A lot depends on how quickly Roschon gets up to speed but Herbert is battling with Foreman for the same role.

Seems reasonable.

Zero chance the Cards are 6th overall if anyone has seen DHop play in the last couple years. Plus DJ Moore > Calvin Ridley, Chase Claypool > Christian Kirk (watched him for years in AZ) so IMO we're better than the Jags. I'd put Kirk on par with Mooney and Claypool wins over Kirk simply because he's the better redzone target. Between the 20s I don't see much difference between Claypool and Kirk, they each have strengths and weaknesses.

D'Anthony Jones https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/danthony-jones-1.html?utm_medium=linker&utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&utm_campaign=2023-05-07_cfb This dude does not lack confidence. This is a really long interview with DA talking about DA for the most part. If you catch 1min of it you can just multiply that by 50 to know what the rest of the video is like. I got a feeling coaches are going to set him up early against someone like Wright to see if he can be humbled a little bit. As UDFAs go I want someone like this who will come in and fight for a spot.

Who is our backup OT? I can't imagine anybody on this board believes it will be, or rather should be, Leatherwood or Borom.

Bagent has a weak arm. He’s on par with Peterman but Peterman at least knows the NFL.

More receiver than blocker, and I'm not so sure how good he is as a receiver/route runner. He's been around the Browns for a couple years so he's been working on his craft. At this point we have little competition for the 3rd TE role so he has as good a chance as anyone.

I have no idea what Corey Wooten sees but IMO there is zero chance Bell is the best of our 3 rookie DTs. Gervon Dexter had 23 solo, 55 tot tackles in the SEC Zacch Pickens had 22 solo, 42 tot tackles in the SEC Travis Bell had just 16 solo, 32 tot tackles in some conference I don't know I don't even know why we drafted him instead of just signing him as a UDFA. I've come to accept the fact we used a 7th Rd pick on a "glue guy" who will help the other 2 rookies with his leadership, work ethic, and hustle on the field. That's not necessarily a bad thing either with such a young roster because both Dexter and Pickens have 1st Rd talent if they can put it all together. You can say that's why we have coaches but there are severe limitations on when they can work with players. If Bell can add anything on the football field that's a bonus, otherwise he's the 24yr old glue guy who likely ends up on the practice squad. How much do Poles and Flus value having a few of these players? Just look at Montgomery who they were willing to pay. Replacing his talent on the field was not a difficult task but replacing him in the locker was a different matter. IMO they were willing to pay him in large part for the leadership, at least for a couple seasons until we establish new leaders. That may also be the top reason Detroit was willing to pay him and shuffle their RB room with Swift departing and Gibbs added. In the end it appears we landed on our feet with Roschon.

RT was our top offensive need. Why gamble on a guy beating the odds and becoming part of the bottom 5 percentile as a successful short-arm OT when you have the 9th pick in the draft and there are much better options who fit the 95th percentile of successful OTs? Zero chance I'd put $20mil in salary/bonuses down on that bet.

You know exactly what Poles thinks of Vildor based on all the draft capital he’s used at CB in the last year.

Tippman was the best non selection Poles made. I saw it in the highlights I watched but Greg Gabriel said it best: “in one game he was on the ground 15 times. “ Whatever his balance issue is I’m glad it’s not our problem.

I don’t think I’ve heard Poles mention Mustipher once all off-season.

Missing is just how good a blocker Braxton Jones was in space last year.

In that video I referenced above I noticed one things about Dexter: He's often slow off the snap and Gabriel was discussing that concern while they ran numerous highlights in the background. Poles talked about his defensive assignment at Florida being part of the problem. As I watched some of the video clips at times you could see Dexter was the last one off the line, other times he was late along with 1 or even 2 other DTs. It was odd for me to see an entire 3-man front pause a half second after the snap while the entire Oline was moving. These were players who were off the snap quickly on other downs. It just makes me wonder how much of his snap issue was coaching/scheme. Does he have the innate ability to react quicker and how long will it take for him to get rid of that bad habit? (with a Dline coach in his ear every play)

That was me quoting Greg Gabriel who has said this multiple times on his Barroom Sports videos on Youtube. FWIW in the post draft one he seemed higher on Kramer than I was expecting, said he compared favorably to many of the day 3 prospects we were talking about. If the organization feels the same way it would explain ignoring C in the draft.

He apparently needs someone to hold his hand now with Cobb at 32yr old coming off another poor season. It didn't work with the Packers but let me take my boys over to NYJ and it will all be better. Lazard and Cobb are not HoF players like Gronk with Brady. Rodgers had issues "improvising" outside the called plays at GB and I'm not talking about when a play breaks down. His OC is the failed Nathaniel Hackett from DEN/GB who looked like he was way in over his head calling plays last year. Worse there was nothing that showed he was providing leadership to the team. How much Rodgers will be listening to him or will Hackett just be doing what Rodgers wants? If the issue was the offense that was run in GB why are they bringing in Hackett for Rodgers? It certainly feels like Rodgers is going to run the offense and Hackett is just a "yes" man. All this catering to Rodgers ego could blow up in spectacular fashion if they stumble. https://www.nfl.com/news/jets-sign-randall-cobb-one-year-deal-reunite-former-packers-wr-aaron-rodgers

We have several key players who are rookies (RT, DT, DT) and a relatively new WR corps with DJ Moore an to a lesser extent Claypool still learning the offense. Expect some bumps in the road early in the season but hopefully we'll see some splash plays as a good sign of things to come.

I started this but I realized it's more challenging than I thought in part because now I know things about a few players that I didn't know beforehand. Darnell Washington looked pretty attractive with one of the 3rd Rd picks but then you learn he (reportedly) has medical concern with his knee. The other challenge for me is that I simply didn't do that much work on the day 3 prospects this year, especially DBs. With that caveat I can really only talk about the first 4 rounds. After looking over the draft picks about all I'd have done differently is that I'd have taken Dexter and then Pickens. I assume Stevenson would have been off the board by 64 so went with Riley Moss. 10. Darnell Wright. he was my target going into the draft even if Carter was on the board as I preferred the much higher floor and RT was a critical need position equal to 3T. 53. Gervon Dexter. I often had him late 2nd or early 3rd in my mocks but the way things went with the heavy emphasis on Edge so early he was easily best available and at a top need position. 56. Zacch Pickens. I wouldn't have grabbed the CB here given the dire need for Dline help. 64. Riley Moss CB felt he was a good fit for our scheme and I'd overlook the negative that he went to Iowa. 115. Tyler Scott. WR. Going into Day 3 I wanted a WR to hedge our bets against Velus/ESB/Pettis and also in case contract stuff doesn't work out with Claypool or Mooney. He was one of my top 3 targets with AT Perry and Xavier Hutchinson but I think he was the best fit among those 3, really the perfect replacement for Mooney should we decide to move on. Reality is that it's easier to find a Mooney type WR versus a Claypool type and if the two are even in performance in 2023 I'm keeping Claypool because he's the better redzone threat. 133. Chase Brown. RB I didn't do much work going into the draft on RBs but I like Chase 148. Luke Wypler. C no way I'd have skipped Wypler to take a LB here after that I just don't know enough about the prospects.

Herbert is ok as a 2nd RB but he can't pass protect and he can't catch passes. You can only call plays where he gets handed the ball or you use him as a play action fake. Homer and Roschon can do both. Foreman says he can catch better than he's been given credit for, no clue on his pass pro. It's not hard to imagine Herbert ending up as the 4th back and being inactive a lot of games.

Yes there is now a lot more versatility in our roster.