AZ54

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.

It’s not that hard to motion Velus into the backfield pre snap. I definitely agree on the blitz concern with Fields. Again I would not do this very often just a rare look. Even then I’d likely be telling Fields to just hand it to the jet sweep just to see how a team reacts.

In total the ‘23 draft yielded 3 WR in DJ Moore, Chase Claypool, and Tyler Scott. Collectively that’s a pretty good haul for a single draft. I definitely believe Scott was best available when we took him. He hedges things a bit with resigning Mooney and to a lesser extent Claypool. With Scott on board it brought to mind a question about how would a team defend a 5 WR set. I include Velus in this not ESB because he is the better runner. Fields can run of course so we don’t need a RB on the field. You’ve got potential jet sweeps from either side with Scott or VJJ. Potential routes at all levels of the field. Going to a dime defense leaves a single LB on the field which the Oline should easily handle in a run play. You know it could be a play action fake or read option for Fields. for that to work we need the expected improvement out of the Oline. This is not something I’d want to see a lot of just enough that defenses have to spend time planning for it. That’s what the wildcat was used for but with our roster this year I like this option better.

Pickens fits the 3T better but we will have flexibility in roles which just makes it a bit harder for the Oline. A late shift could easily flip things.

Watch the video of the draft phone call with Dexter. Look at the pause and the look on Dexter’s face when Flus tells him to bring his track shoes. He’s going to go through some culture shock.

Maybe his knee can't hold up under the stress of a pass rush move with a 300lb OT leaning on him? I have more hope that a full offseason of strength training and coaching (I hope he found someone to help him) as a DE and Dom Robinson will show up ready to play.

I like the idea. With a 3-cone drill of 7.02 he's not very twitchy for dealing with NFL WRs. For a zone CB that's a bit less of a challenge. OTOH his straightline speed and willingness to close on the ball would serve him well at safety. This draft profile criticizes his lack of ball production but I can see that being a factor related to his agility... he's just not quick enough out of his cuts to arrive before the ball. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/terell-smith/3200534d-4973-9042-a2e5-7a611c3c3214

HIs last contract earned him $13mil/yr so I'm sure in his mind that's where the negotiations start. Post draft if he's lowered his price, perhaps to your $9mil target then I could see us willing to talk.

Do you agree with the sentiment that Dexter was on the field for too many snaps due to lack of depth on their roster and that is what led to some of his lackluster plays?

I hadn't thought about it but he does have very similar physical traits to Chris Jones. I wanted us to draft Jones in the 1st Rd years ago. If Eberflus can get Dexter anywhere close to that level we're in good shape for the future.