AZ54

I'd call Ryan Pace in ATL and tell him the price has gone up.

RBs... there is some good depth at this position. If we can trade down and have extra picks in Rd 2 and 3 we have to consider the value of not signing any FA RB and just drafting one. Use that money on a vet elsewhere to help this roster. If for no other reason than we cannot fix the DT/DE issue in the draft. At best we'd get one contributing/starting DE and DT. If for some reason that didn't work out in the draft it seems likely there will be a decent FA RB still available after the draft as a fall back option. Bijan Robinson is just fast and smooth. You couldn't even tell he was stepping over the bags in one drill he ran so fast. His ability to cut at speed without looking like he is changing direction makes him hard ot tackle. We aren't going there in the first round but all I'm asking for is that this guy needs to be outside our division. Jahmyr Gibbs looked as advertised. Achane is fast but he's a smaller guy so don't think he can handle a heavy workload. You'd have to pair him behind Herbert. Tyjae Spears looked good in all drills. I really liked what Chase Brown did. He's just good all-around and has the deep speed needed to hit the occasional home run. I wouldn't mind drafting him and his brother. Chase seems like a good fit to replace Montgomery. If he's there late on day 3 I have no issue drafting Deuce Vaughn. He's just electric in the open field. He's 5'5" so nobody wants him blocking in the backfield and many teams likely don't want him at all. His agility on jump cuts is insane and his hands looked really good (if you don't overthrow him). Unlike a lot of smaller guys he does have some legit deep speed. He didn't run the forty today but there are plenty of highlights of him being chased 50, 60, 70 yards downfield. Question is can he return kicks? Hopefully we'll see that at his pro day.

Last day. Lots of good options among the Oline. Drills can't tell you much more than how well they move but standouts IMO and in no particular order: Skoronski... on the wave drill he covers more ground than anybody in a balanced manner with his feet under him. We know he can block, arm length issues or not, he looks like a 10yr starter somewhere on the line. Broderick Jones... looks like a beast and maybe not as fluid as Paris Johnson Jr. he's pretty good. Paris Johnson Jr. ... as OTs go he's got the easy movement and agility you want on the edge. Matthew Bergeron ... looked good and I haven't even watched or heard anything on him until today. Cody Mauch, Darnell Wright, and Steve Avila were all as advertised. Anton Harrison likely is on our list. Never heard of Sidy Sow but he looked good out there but his draft profile pretty much says he can't block so maybe he's a late round prospect worth trying to develop. Emil Ekiyor moved well although a bit slow John Michael Schmitz... he looks really strong but also a bit slow pulling and stiff movement wise.. not sure he's a good fit for our scheme. Olu Oluwatimi also looked a bit stiff in motion. Jaelyn Duncan was high on my list but he just looks awkward in motion. Not saying he comes off the list entirely but if blocking in space is the expectation he might struggle a bit in the NFL. Dawand Jones is just a big mountain but will struggle a bit if asked to get on the move. Love the guy but not sure he fits what we want to do.

TEs... I watched their drills and it looks like there is some good depth in this group. If I were drafting an inline TE early I'd take Darnell Washington ahead of Mayer. He's just a beast in blocking and his one-handed catch in the redzone drill was spectacular. I know it's just a blocking sled in one drill but all except 2 TEs had to work hard moving it. Mayer and Washington showed the best power and walked it backwards with control but Washington just took it 8 yards backwards like it was a toy. In these drills you know when someone or something is different and Washington is that. That shows up in game film where he is destroying DEs and he's more than good enough on routes to be effective there too. LaPorta as a 3rd Rd pick looked good all-around. Dalton Kincaid didn't participate due to injury but just from the chatter he's going to be a first round pick.

Another good day for the Bears. The QBs stole the show and that was without Bryce Young participating. CJ Stroud just made every throw look easy to make, and easy to catch. Anthony Richardson might still need work but not in terms of his athletic ablity and his ability to throw. He probably moved himself into the top 10 and maybe top 5 given that there is a blueprint for bringing along a young athletic QB (Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields). Levis looked good throwing the ball too as well and certainly didn't hurt himself. You could say that a QB needy team could take any of the 4 but fortunately they are all different enough in what they offer that there will be preferences for who fits your offense best, or timeline (i.e. Richardson). At this point I'd say first overall could be Young or Stroud. Richardson and Levis will battle it out for 3rd/4th. WRs... some stood out to me and mostly I like the gauntlet drill and a couple of the routes: deep and intermediate because you can best see their hands and quickness. Tank Dell looked smooth and quick in everything. Likewise with Josh Downs and Zay Flowers who solidified their draft stock. Dell is likely moving up from where ever he was ranked, he's not even listed on Drafttek WR group. At 175lbs JSN looked quick and clean in his cuts but doesn't appear to be full speed yet. He didn't run the forty because he's only been at full go on his hamstring injury for 2 weeks. If he's close to full speed he's not very fast. Jalin Hyatt ran well but seems to fight the ball. I prefer receivers who have easy hands and make the ball stick on first touch. Andre Iosivas looked good all around. I think he moved up after running a 4.43 forty and a 6.85 3-cone. Beyond that he catches the ball well. Rashee Rice also impressed with good hands and moves well around the field. Michael Wilson (lengthy injury list) performed well and he gets a lot of good PR. It's hard to guess where he'll go but I wouldn't be surprised if he's a day 3 selection just because of the competition. The one WR who surprised me was Ronnie Bell out of Mich mostly because I haven't seen his name anywhere. He wasn't necessarily elite in anything just seemed to always perform well. He had a knee injury in 2021 and his draft profile says he might need scheme help to uncover in the NFL. Some guys need more than a year to get fully healthy and up to speed after those injuries so he might be worth a shot. A couple guys I was watching for weeks: Xavier Hutchinson I think helped himself. He has no lack of making contested or difficult catches. His concerns were speed and getting separation and I think he answered those with a 4.53 forty and 6.91 3-cone. He looked good in drills too. Jayden Reed ran a 4.45 and I thought he might be a bit faster but he did show quickness in his route running and good hands. Overall if we want to improve our WR depth on day 3 we should be able to get that done. We're talking about stepping up from ESB and Pettis. A 2nd Rd pick should be able to contribute on game days (Downs/Flowers) and possibly some of the guys in Rd 3.

I saw that last night and smiled. There is now no way he can stay put at 4 and even trying to wait for draft day to get a deal done adds more risk. Ballard is now firmly between a rock and a hard place.

I should have just stuck with A A because it took 3 or 4 spell checks to get his name right.

Figure I'd start a new thread just to capture some combine players who stood out to me. I haven't watched everything from day 1 yet and most of these guys I'll have to go find some film on. DT Dante Stills. Smooth athlete, maybe a bit of a tweener but could be a good depth option on day 3. DT. Calijah Kancey ran a 4.67 forty. I wish he'd done the drills to see how fluid he was but just watching him run you can tell he's a good athlete. Stay tuned for his pro day. DT. Bresee. ran well, big dude. Looked a bit stiff running the hoops but looked more fluid in the other bag drills. Edge: Nolan Smith running a 4.39 forty and a 41in vertical at 240lbs is just insane. He's hyper active around the LOS but might be a better fit in 3-4. Edge: Yaya Diaby just stood out in all drills as a very long fast fluid athlete. He played in 3-man front so we have to translate how he'll do as a DE in our scheme but he certainly seems to have the tools to be a really good edge rusher. He's just 6'3" and 263lbs but with nearly 34" arms has the length needed to go along with his 1.56 10yd split and 4.51 forty. Profile says he needs development in the pass rush moves. Edge: Will McDonald looked good, skills match the film. Edge: Adetomiwa Adebawore. At 280lbs this rocked up man can run, bend, jump, and spin. Impressive athlete just 6'2" but with 34" arms. He played at Northwestern and others have mentioned him. Gotta watch some film on him and he carries the infamous tweener label. Edge: Van Ness looked like the power rusher he is. He struggled at times in the bag and other drills. With so much edge talent in this draft players are going to fall into Rd 3 or even 4.

The fact he isn't signed indicates they want to look around a bit before deciding The running aspect is the easiest part to replace my main concern is pass pro Herbert is really bad there and there aren't many rookies you can trust with that

Based on today’s press conferences Swift is thinking the Panthers are all in to make a deal. Anytime I’ve contemplated that big of a drop it was a double trade down scenario. The old trade value chart suggests they give us 9, 39, and 61. There would likely be a QB premium on top of that so maybe Poles gets next years first or second. We’d end up with 9, 39, 53, 61, and 64 and then 102 to start day 3. That’s ten picks in the draft without any additional trades.

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2023/03/broncos-seeking-o-line-upgrades-dl-dremont-jones-plans-to-test-market

"Police asked a Georgia athletics official to have Carter return to the scene; he returned at around 4:15am and denied speeding or racing. Police did not find Carter had been drinking." The fact they asked him to "return" indicates they knew he was there when they first arrived so the "left the scene" might be a reporter embellishing the story. The arrest charges are only for misdemeanors which is odd since they are publicly saying he was committing felony speeding or reckless driving. It's also interesting timing for the prosecutor to do this on the day the combine starts when they already had him available for 6 weeks. He was obviously cooperating with the police investigators after the accident and returned immediately when this news broke. There is much we don't know so I will give it time but it definitely will take him down boards. Details will determine how far but from a personal side this is a very difficult life lesson for him. I hope he learns from this and also has some good support to help him. https://www.profootballrumors.com/2023/03/arrest-warrant-out-for-dt-jalen-carter-in-connection-with-fatal-crash

Hadn't seen that but in the NFL world this is old news so I wonder how teams dropped him? https://www.profootballrumors.com/2023/03/arrest-warrant-out-for-dt-jalen-carter-in-connection-with-fatal-crash

Just like selling a house, he has to already know he has enough buyers to demand they give him best and final offers early. People will have to waive things like inspections or appraisal value.

Yesterday Poles said he's open to trading the first pick before FA begins as that could help them plan. He also said they'll be evaluating the QBs at the combine and Flus said they have interviews scheduled with Young and Stroud. So we're doing enough to keep 'em guessing but I think it's clear the pick is definitely for sale if the price is right. With that I'd say Poles intends to use the combine week to do some heavy negotiations, maybe generate something of a feeding frenzy before teams get too deep into the QB evals. Is he trying to get something done early with HOU or IND so he stays in the top 4? From there if he likes the talent trade back again on draft day to 7/8/9? Or is he willing to drop back to 9 with Carolina straight up? Trades further back will definitely involve players and picks.

I'm not that interested in Hargrave either. I prefer to find a cheaper younger DT who won't have as much cap hit. He might not offer the same performance but he won't hamstring on our roster flexibility either. Despite all the excitement with $100mil to spend this is a 2yr rebuild.

Bummer but it puts them in a tough spot for a QB. It'll be interesting to see how they resolve that problem.

I understand what you are doing and why but I don't like this format because it makes it hard to define the value proposition on where to trade down. Leaving the QBs aside is one thing but I guess we could call it the wish list instead of the board. I expect Skoronski will drop after the combine as it becomes more apparent he's a better fit at OG, likely 10-15 range. Same with WRs Johnson and JXN who is a slot WR, I'd guess both are 15-25 range. Regardless of JXN production in college I'm not taking a slot WR in the top 10. We have a gaping hole at CB why exclude Witherspoon? Daniel Jeremiah has already dropped Myles Murphy down to 18. FWIW he has Mayer all the way down at 26. With your list I'd say it will end up more like: 1 Carter 2 Anderson 3 Tyree Wilson 4 Witherspoon 5 Johnson Jr RT 6 Skoronski 7 Addison (better versatility for slot/x/y over Johnson) 8 Bresee 9 Keion White - his position versatility DE/3tech and he's a complete Flus type player 10. Murphy

Hopefully the plan is for him to compete to take over as the backup C/OG. I'd certainly like to see him win that job over Mustipher or Patrick because IMO he's got more upside. Can another offseason close the gap for him?

He's ok. Fills the niche of a slot WR based on what I see on his Indy highlights. Flus will know quite a bit about defending him from the practices. He seems fast but not 4.31 fast or to put it another way.. VJJ seems faster as he pulls away from more defenders quicker. I don't think I'd be calling him first but I'd let his agent know he can keep in touch.

Pitt started him outside then tried to make him into a big slot WR. He wasn’t comfortable there and I don’t think that fits his skillset the best. Get him back outside where he can threaten the deep perimeter. Draft a good slot WR. We will sometimes use VJJ out of the slot too.

The entire offseason goes thru Chicago. It’s going to be a wild ride.

Because it is the most difficult position to play in professional sports. If you don’t have one and believe that player is on the board then you draft him. Demeco is smart enough to remember what happens in a Superbowl when you have the wrong QB.

We need more What-If scenarios like this in the media to help our trade down cause. AZ is a great target for the 2nd cluster of QB-needy teams. I don't even care what they are proposing just keep the rumors alive because it puts the pressure on the Colts that they might end up getting the 3rd best QB. https://bleacherreport.com/videos/369833-raiders-trade-packages-for-no-3