2017 NFL Draft

The Game Room
102

The local guys are destroying Pace. It’s savage. Several NFL wonks are saying that they can’t find a single team that will admit to having been in talks with the 49ers, which means Pace was bidding against himself and got hoodwinked by the rookie GM Lynch. I personally find that dubious, since those teams have everything to lose by leaking that - it implies they were both as desperate as the Bears yet too incompetent or timid to follow through.

I just like the player a lot. Nice fit with Rivers and Allen too, but mostly he was my favorite WR in the draft. I think he made Watson look a lot better than he is.

Incidentally, the Bears traded with the Cardinals to recoup a few picks which is a good recovery. It doesn’t feel like it’s a talent cliff in the middle of those 10 spots, so there’s probably a handful of guys they can grab here if they don’t trade back again.

We really need a DB, either CB or S, but I’m kind of enamored with JuJu Smith-Schuster. We’ll see.

103

Bengals took a chance on Mixon. Could be a good pick for them.

104

Don’t know how to feel about that Shaheen pick. TE isn’t an extreme need, but we do need playmakers and Glennon and Trubisky will need help between the hashes. Good TE play will make Howard a lot scarier too.

But this guy has less quality game tape than Trubisky. You can’t infer anything from that level of competition. Gonna hope for the best, but Pace is really sticking his neck out this draft.

105

We’re poised to have a breakout year on offense, provided everyone stays healthy AND we get improved o-line play from Ogbuehi and Fisher. And I think we will.

106

Opinions on Kizer?

107

Who is Kizer?

108

So, say he can play, it would be a good pick there.

109

The Cowboys are winning the draft of player names…

110

Redskins apparently trying to draft as much of that Alabama defense as they can. Not the worst plan ever, but I’d have liked for them to look for an inside LB rather than outside. They couldn’t stop the run for shit last season; I could have gained 100 yards on them.

111

There are some good players being taken in the third. Derek Rivers is the most Patriots pick ever.

All I care about is the Eagles getting Jourdan Lewis. They’ll get an A+ from me no matter what happens in rounds 4-7.

112

Yeah, sure, let that happen, Universe. Isn’t life so much fun.

113

I think Drew Pierson won the draft.

114

I feel like the Browns probably hit their plans pretty well.

Garrett was the guy everyone agreed was the top guy, so it’s hard to go wrong there.

Trading down from #12 to #25 for a future first rounder seems like a decent price. Houston will probably be good, which means you’re trading it for something around the #25 and #20-30, which isn’t amazing, but in practical terms, would you rather have Malik Hooker or Jabrill Peppers + 1st rounder?

If Houston happens to implode, which isn’t impossible (every year there are at least 2 or 3 previously teams that way underachieve), the Browns would have 2 extra picks in the top half of the round.

A few months ago there was an article about the hybrid defender role in Gregg William’s defense, and it looks clear that he’d have a hardon for peppers in that role. I linked a video earlier which suggests Peppers has a lot more talent than the scheme he played in allowed him to show.

So if they really had Peppers in mind anyway, they picked up their guy and a first rounder next year on top of that.

David Njoku. I don’t know anything about him - young, athletic freak, could possibly play a hybrid WR role, but not a bad blocker. Raw athletic prospect sort of guy. I think they traded a few spots back into the first just to get the 5th year option on him, since he’s going to take some time to develop. Given that they had draft picks out the ass, paying a fourth for that doesn’t bother me so much. Maybe they also thought someone might grab him.

Kizer. I haven’t seen much of him yet. I guess he’s got a great size/arm/speed combination, which is great. I’m sick of drafting guys with significant physical limitations. I don’t know if they were targeting Mahomes and missed out on him, or if Kizer was their A plan all along. From what I gather, none of the QB prospects this year are any good, so I don’t mind that they didn’t grab one in the first round. And it doesn’t seem like Kizer is all that much worse a prospect than the ones who went before him - in which case grabbing a high upside guy with a mid second pick instead of reaching at the top of the first seems prudent.

I’ve heard people say he was held back by his situation at ND - bad supporting cast, bad defense, etc and that if he had better pieces around him he’d have probably been a high first round pick. Meh. #52 isn’t so high that if he sucks you can’t draft a QB high next year with your multitude of picks.

Ogunjobi. Don’t know anything about him yet except that he’s extremely athletic. In fact, pure athleticism seems to be a big deal to this FO - all of the guys they picked aside from Kizer (who I haven’t checked) have 90%+ percentile SPARQ scores. Very young draft class, too. Nassib and Ogbah had moments of domination last year - there’s a serious injection of talent into the D-line which will become the clear strength of the defense.

If you think all the QBs suck and Kizer has as good a chance as anyone, and Peppers can develop into a versatile defender, it’s pretty great. We’ll see.

115

Mixed feelings about the **Giants **draft. I like the talent so far, but really felt their greatest need was on the O-Line, specifically a left tackle.

If Eli has time to throw, he has so many great targets now it is almost embarrassing. The defense should be able to repeat or improve on last years performance, but if Flowers does not step up his game, I’m afraid any good pass rushing team will still stop Eli’s flying circus.

116

There’s alway the running game to take some heat off…oh yeah…

117

Lions day two is a bit more questionable. A 4.6-4.7 cornerback, And a WR far above his projection who mostly seems to just be tall, maybe they think he will be the next Herman Moore.

118

Because that way has worked so well for the Ravens and Kyle Boller, the Lions and Joey Harrington, the Jags and Byron Leftwhich, the Bills and JP Losman, the Titans and Vince Young, the Cards and Matt Leinart, and on and on and on and on. Meanwhile other teams find starting caliber QB talent in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds (Carr, Wilson, Cousins) and other teams build contenders with a strong defense.

But, we’re simply repeating the same things over and over. I think the vast majority of evidence, whether it is teams finding QB’s later in the draft without overpaying, teams built on defense contending for the Super Bowl, and the failure rate of the teams that do follow your plan shows which of our ways is better. But, by all means, here’s hoping the Bears continue their ways.

119

Not enamored with the Packers 4th round pick. I would have much prefered Carl Lawson or Desmond King, but it’s kinda hard to be mad when the Packers select a Badger who can rush the passer. I have high hopes for Biegel, but I think he was a big reach there and there were much better options.

120

Hehe speaking of Herman Moore

121

I asked a friend of mine who is a huge fan of Notre Dame, and his take was: “My read is that he’s very very talented. When it comes to things that are hard to teach he’s good, like pocket presence and touch on his passes. But he’s not all there in terms of reading coverages and whatnot. But that’s stuff you can learn. If he gets in the right spot and can sit a few years and develop in a stable system, he has potential to be very good.”

So, Cleveland might not be the best spot for him. I like Hue Jackson but no idea if he’ll even be there in a few seasons, and Kizer may end up starting before he should since the Browns’ other options are Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan and possibly Osweiler.