I mean, do we even need to make a joke about the Raiders drafting Conley?
I guess Dallas is a good place for a Taco. Just hope he isn’t too much of a left end.
Packers pick up a 4th round pick to move down 4 spots. Nice job with the talent still available. At least I can go to bed now.
That’s simply not true. The Panthers and Broncos in 2015. The Seahawks before them. The Panthers before them. The 49ers before them. Almost every year there is a team competing for the Super Bowl with a very good defense and no elite QB. So if you’re a team without an elite QB, you’re much better off trying to build that defense and running game than continuing to roll the dice and hope you get an elite QB. And even if you’re going to roll the dice for the elite QB, you’re better off drafting one every year and developing them than paying through the nose to take a shot when the run of QB’s drafted happens every year. Brady was a 6th round pick. Rodgers went 24th overall. While Manning was a #1 pick, he was … not good, when the Broncos won the Super Bowl with him.
But, again, we’re beating the same horse that has been dead for a decade at least. I’m more than happy to watch teams throw so many resources to chase the elusive elite QB. It makes things interesting at least.
All those teams had “franchise” QBs. They may not have been elite, but they weren’t replacement level guys. Manning twice, and while he sucked in 2015, he was still Peyton Manning and helped get them there. Newton is arguably elite and at least very good. Wilson is really good. Kaepernick sucks, but that year he had a 98 passer rating (Alex Smith was 104).
The best place to be as a NFL is team is with an elite QB. The next best is with a reliable franchise QB. After that, is having a league leading defense.
Look, for our entire adult lives the Bears have had good to great defenses and the Packers have had very good to elite QB play. The Packers have been the hammer, and the Bears have been the nail almost exclusively.
Not sure what it would be. The Raiders are the only team that hasn’t had a player arrested in the last three years.
As far as the QB debate goes, I think I’m on Hamlet’s side. Ask the perpetually 7-9 Saints how they’ve been doing with their elite QB and a swiss cheese defense. The QBs in this draft class don’t look to be very good, and the high prices paid for the trades look crazy to me.
There’s no way I would’ve spent the #2 pick on a guy who only started 13 games in college, let alone giving up an additional two 3rds and a 4th. I could be talked into Mahomes, but his mechanics need a ton of work/rebuilding, so I’d only take him in an Aaron Rodgers situation where I knew I had a solid starter for a few more years. The Chiefs are possibly in that position (there’s a good argument Smith is, in fact, holding them back from championship contention) but again, I wouldn’t have given up a 3rd and future 1st to do so.
Watson is the most interesting one to me, especially because I think he’s in a good situation (as the Texans are pretty much like those early 2000s Bears team, one good QB away from championship contention). A future 1st is a high price to pay for the trade up, but they are sorta in win-now mode and apparently weren’t interested in trying to keep Romo out of retirement.
Why? There is absolutely no evidence he did anything wrong. Another great pick for the Raiders.
No, what they had were efficient QB’s. Guys who wouldn’t lose a game for you, but were also not asked to do much (Manning attempted just 23 passes in his super bowl and stunk, and Seattle and the Niners were consistently near the bottom in pass attempts). The defense was the motor that drove those teams, and the QB just had to not crash it.
And, again, that holds true only because Aaron Rodgers is one of the greatest QB’s to ever play the game.
But the real question is, what do you do if you don’t have Aaron Rodgers?
You seemingly advocate throwing as many resources as possible at it and hope you luck into the next Rodgers (which is not how the Packers got Rodgers, or the Pats got Brady or the Saints got Brees or the Broncos got Manning). I meanwhile advocate building a team, draft a QB every year and work to find or develop one of those efficient QB’s who can help and won’t kill your team. I think the evidence, from the failed chasing the QB’s in the first round to the success of the aforementioned teams (and the Ravens and Bears and Steelers before them), clearly supports my view.
Well the Packers are sitting with the first pick in the 2nd round, and a lot of time to field offers for it. Since there is a fair amount of talent still available there, I have no problem with them trading down and grabbing a guy like Forrest Lamp, Jourdan Lewis, or Dalvin Cook. Should be interesting to see if there is any team with a guy they love.
Thrilled that the Jets got Adams. Never thought he’d be there at 6. Perfect fit for their needs and seems like a special player and good leader.
However, like the Browns, we still need a franchise QB.
Late to the party, but I absolutely LOVE with the Browns are doing.
The dream scenario is to draft an all-star QB who will lead your team to the promised land, but how often does that happen on a team as bad as the Browns? QBs can do a lot (I’m a Packers fan…I know), but they can’t single-handedly lead you to the Super Bowl (I’m a Packers fan…I know). So why reach for a QB in a down year when there are going to be just as good of QBs next year? It’s not like the Browns are close to the SB anyway.
So what do you do? You build everything else around a warm body and see where it takes you. Slowly but surely you get the best linemen, the best 'backers and the best skill guys you can and sllloooowwwwwllllyyy begin to rise to the surface. Then, in a year (maybe two) when you’re a competitive 8-8 with a FA QB, you take the giant haul of picks you’ve amassed and grab a really solid prospect.
Maybe hiring a baseball guy, who sees the world in pure data, isn’t such a bad idea…
I don’t hate the Browns’ draft so far. Mostly, I’m just glad they didn’t try to be contrarian at #1. Kinda meh on Peppers, but like the TE they traded up for. With the 20th pick in the 2nd round, I do not think Kizer will fall to them. I could see any one of the Jags, Jets or even the Saints taking a QB with their 2nd picks.
I love the plan and technique, but I’m not sure I love the selections. Myles Garrett was kinda a no brainer, but I’m not sold on Peppers or trading up for Njoku. Peppers is an amazing athlete, but his college production (one interception) was unimpressive and I’m not sure he knows how to play any position well. He’s a jack-of-all-trades that a coach will love to play with/develop, but I’m not sure he’s ever going to excel at any position, especially safety. Charlton and White would have been better selections there. And Njoku is a project who is raw and not a good blocker at all. He could be a nice TE/WR hybrid like Graham was in his prime, but the end of the first round was a reach for him.
In case it hasn’t been reported in the Chicago media, 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco says indeed the Bears were in a bidding war with other teams trying to trade into #2.
In general, or for the Chargers specifically? I’m not sure WR was a big need for them. I guess their skill positions do look pretty scary, so hopefully Rivers gets more than a second to throw.
I’m happy with Jarrad Davis for the Lions. Safe pick of a good athlete for an important need position. Not quite the same upside as some of the other options available there, but it’s the Lions, 
when you lose every gamble, you need tostop taking risky bets.
This is worth a watch.
I’m actually not sure they traded up to the end of the first because they thought someone might snatch him there before their pick, but purely because first rounders get the extra year on their contract. Since they have 11 picks this year and their late rounders aren’t all making the roster anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they traded a 4th just for the 5th year option on a guy they think may take a year or two to blossom.
The Saints drafted well and signed the right FAs for a stretch and won the Super Bowl in 2010. The Saints drafted poorly and spent money poorly in the years since and went 7-9. If they didn’t have Brees they’d have been 8-8 in 2010 and 3-13 right now. Never said that elite QBs guarantee success, but they do take the lid of your potential and raise the floor.
I think you under sell the capabilities of 2013 Manning, Newton and Wilson.
Agree that the right approach is to draft a QB every year no matter what. Doesn’t matter what round, if he’s the BPA, you draft him. That, while building the rest of the team, is the ideal approach. We’re 100% in agreement.
The question is what to do when you’ve already fucked up, when you’ve managed to leave yourself in a QB-less chasm?
Sure, the Bears should have been taking fliers on potential starters (not just 6th round backups) all those years with Cutler and with Grossman before (and they actually kinda did with Orton) and McNown before that. But they didn’t and they are where they are now.
So yeah, when you’re in this position, you do everything you can to fix the QB position. That’s priority 1 and patience is not a virtue here, that just leaves you in limbo.