Who did you pick with your second rounder again? I can’t remember.
Phil Emery reminds me of those guys who feel like they have something to prove and need to be the smartest guy in the room. “Don’t tell me Shea McClellin is a 3-4 OLB! I’ll show you and draft him as a 4-3 DE”. “Sure, anyone could tell you that Shariff Floyd falling represents good value and he might be dominant, but I liked Kyle Long before any of you idiots ever heard of him!” It will be interesting to see how his picks pan out. Personally, I’m not all that impressed, but it is still way early in the game.
So British Olympian Lawrence Okoye didn’t get drafted, but he did sign with the 49ers as a UDFA.
You consider this a deep draft? Really?
I’d much rather have a 3 and 4 next year than a 4 and 5 this year.
What I’ve been hearing is that the draft sucked at the top this year but the 2nd-3rd round worthy talent was deeper than usual, so 4th round picks this year are unusually worthwhile. I don’t know if there’s any truth to that.
The current FO kept the previous scouting structure intact but I’m pretty sure they’re going to gut it this year and bring in all their guys. It may just be that they didn’t trust the current staff enough to make picks this year and they want more next year when their guys are in place. It also gives them more power to trade around next year in a strong QB draft.
Maybe. A lot of guys who were probably tabbed to be first rounders before this last college season past college season (Lattimore, Barkley, etc.) slipped, so maybe they’re all steals in the middle rounds. Then again, maybe we’ll see more busts from the middle rounds this year.
I hate to say it, but I don’t disagree. Last year it was McClellin, Hardin and Rodriguez. This year it’s Long. At least the rest of the picks this year look like appropriate values, though he seems to clearly favor potential over past performance. Hopefully the new staff is better at developing players and realizing that upside than the previous one.
With only 5 picks, the Saints didn’t do too badly. Vaccaro and Armstead have a chance to start this year. Jenkins, Jones, and Stills are probably looking at special teams/rotational spots for the near future. One of the “grade the draft” guys gave us a “C-” overall. I think it’s maybe a little better than that…maybe a “C+”, but not great.
SB Nation has a nice UDFA tracker posted.
Scanning through it there aren’t too many names that jump out at me.
Couple guys I was interested in for the Bears are in St Louis, TE Phillip Lutzenkirchen and C Graham Pocic.
The 49ers look to have landed Lawrence Okoye and Luke Marquardt.
My favorite sleeper RB Miguel Maysonet landed in Philly.
Da’Rick Rogers ended up in Buffalo where he’ll have ample opportunity to make the roster.
The Bears so far look to have just a bunch of junk. Couple of DTs who won’t make the team and a east-west RB. I don’t know a ton about LSU C P.J. Lonergan, but he’d be the one I hopes surprises and becomes the Cinderella story.
LSU had a dominant offensive line in the SEC against almost everybody except Alabama. As a unit, they could and often did take over games in the 4th quarter. Lonergan was a big part of that. Not sure how that will translate at the NFL level. The scouting report I just read projects him as a career backup rather than a potential starter.
Steelers just went crazy in free agency. My favorite is Reggie Dunn, check it out:
That’s a 4.25 40! Not to say whether it can be used in the NFL, but who cares, it’s an UDFA.
They also got Luke Ingram, the highest touted long snapper in the draft and the only one invited to the combine, as well as Nick Embernate and a ton of others. Special teams might not be a liability for once!
I’m loving some of the names of the Packers’ UDFA class. They now have Angleo Pease (All I’m saying, is give him a chance), Jake Stoneburner, and Dame Smith. Not sure if they can play football, but the one thing of note is that they got a couple spots that they didn’t take care of in the draft that I thought should have been, the center position (Patrick Lewis, Texas A & M, he’s the guy who made Luke Joeckel look good) and nose tackle (Gilbert Pena, Mississippi, a mountain of a man at 6’3" 333 lobs). I’m not even through the drafted guys, so they’ll have to wait a bit.
4.25!
That’s Yamon Figurs and Jerome Mathis territory right there!
Glad to see Jordan Kouvacs is getting a look from the Dolphins. Not much chance he’ll make it, but a all-effort walk-on getting a chance to prove what he can do ispretty cool.
Any faster and he’d be Leon Sandcastle.
Panthers only had 5 picks, but I’m baffled how they managed to NOT draft a defensive back. I’ll give the new GM the benefit of the doubt until I see otherwise, but that’s a tough sell.
It’s not that he ran that fast. It’s that he ran that fast both ways. 99% of the time you see a 40 time that fast the run in the other direction is a 4.4 or something.
NFP has another list of UDFAs for each team. They have links to scouting reports on some of the better known players which is nice.
For the Bears people have somehow mislabeled Mark Harrison as a Safety on these lists, but after reading the scouting reports he’s basically Calvin Johnson without the production. Can’t say I mind them bringing in another physical beast at WR, maybe Trestman, Cutler and Marshall can help get the guy to produce.
Bit surprised to see that the Bucs didn’t draft or sign any interior linemen. We have the best starting interior line in the league, but primary backup Ted Larsen is going to leave as a free agent next year and there’s not much behind him. Considering Davin Joseph and Carl Nicks are both coming off serious injuries, that’s a concern.
Chiefs signed Tyler Bray. Canny move; if he can last through training camp, he might be their quarterback of the future.