NFL Draft 2022

The Game Room
1

Holy Cow, this snuck up on me. The NFL draft starts tonight, and aside from a few hours spent in the doldrums of February/March, I’ve done very little research into the prospects. Which will have absolutely no impact whatsoever on my ability to have valuable opinions I will stand behind 100%.

A couple things I am relatively sure of : 1) I really hate the QB prospects in this years’ draft. Not only is there no potential stud like Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray or Trevor Lawrence (hey, I said “potential” stud), I don’t think that any of these guys are likely to be starters in 5 years. Unless the NFL decides to go full NCAA and run RPOs on 90% of plays, none of these guys will cut it in the NFL without massive development. 2) That opinion will do nothing to stop some idiot team from overpaying by trading up and over-drafting some 3rd round project in the early first round. I’ve been surprised at the number of mock drafts I’ve seen that don’t have a QB selected until the mid or late first round. Some team, likely more than one, will convince themselves to overpay for someone in the early first round. It’s what they do. Although with all the off-season QB movement and the lack of quality, maybe this will be the year where a team doesn’t grab some project like Daniel Jones, Mitch Trubisky (who this year goes by the name Sam Howell), or Josh Rosen.

One other thing about this years draft: it is super deep in WR and Edge rusher/defender. I really like a ton of guys at those positions, which is nice because those are the positions the Packers need most. OT is another one with a fair amount of top tier talent in this years’ draft.

Finally, the draft this year is in Vegas. Great idea, and seems like given the amount of unsurety in draft picks, a very appropriate place. With the concerts (Ice Cube and Weezer), the secondary shows (Blue Man Group, Cirque de Soliel), the red carpet at Bellagio fountain, and the draft itself, it seems like it would be fun. The NFL has been quite smart in turning the draft from an afterthought to a weekend extravaganza. Plus, a Nevada sex worker has offered a free “romp” to whomever is the #1 pick of the draft. Vegas Baby!

Without further ado, here’s my list of My Guys and Your Guys

My guys

1st Round

Kyle Hamilton, S, Notre Dame
Drake London, WR, USC
Derek Stingley, CB, LSU

2nd Round

George Karlaftis, ED, Purdue
Chris Olave, WR, Ohio State

3rd Round

Max Mitchell, OT, Louisiana Lafayette
Leo Chenal, LB, Wisconsin

4th Round

David Ojabo, ED, Michigan – a torn Achilles at his pro day will drop his stock significantly.
Calvin Austin III, WR, Memphis

5th Round

Cole Kelley, QB, SE Louisiana – draft a QB every year.

6th Round

Brian Robinson Jr., RB, Alabama
Kyron Johnson, OLB, Kansas

7th Round/FA

JT Woods, S, Baylor
John Fitzpatrick, TE, Georgia

Your Guys

Any QB drafted in the first two rounds
Garrett Wilson, WR, Ohio State
Travon Walker, ED, Georgia
George Pickens, WR, Georgia
Christian Watson, WR, North Dakota State
Kaiir Elam, CB, Florida

Best Names

Smoke Monday
Skyy Moore
Sincere McCormick
Isaiah Likely
Dallis Flowers
Cameron Dicker
Johnny Johnson III
Myron Tagovaiola-Amosa
Myron Cunningham

Let’s hear from you. Who are your “My Guys”? Who do you think will bust? Will you be offering a free romp to Mr. Irrelevant?

2

My Bears don’t have a 1st round pick due to the trade up for Justin Fields last year. So I’m waiting for tomorrow as I do not think we will be trading up to the 1st. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if we did some trade backs for more picks. We need to bring in a lot of young talent. I don’t have particular names in mind, but we need WR, offensive line, CB, defensive line. We truly are in a “best player available” position at almost every pick because we need help almost everywhere.

3

There’s no way Ojabo lasts till the 4th. And unlikely that Karlaftis lasts to the second.

My prediction: The Jets will ruin two players’ careers by drafting them too early in the first round cause the owner likes them.

4

Saints: Please do not pick any QBs in this draft.

5

At number 9, I’d love to see Seattle leverage their picks from Denver and trade up to get Stingley or Neal OT - 'Bama). Listening to Seattle sports new, it seems most likely if we stay at #9 that we will get Zion Johnson (OT/G - Bahstahn College)

6

A couple of related stories from today, which may influence what these teams do in the draft:

  • The Cardinals picked up the fifth-year option on QB Kyler Murray, keeping him under contract through 2023.
  • However, the Giants declined to do the same for QB Daniel Jones.
7

I really don’t think Chris Olave makes it to the second round. I hope you’re right though, I’d love the Bears to take him and reunite him with Justin Fields.

8

As I understand it, the Giants plan is to go OT at 5 and DE at 7, unless two of their top OT prospects are still on the board, in which case DE at 5 and whichever OT is still there at 7. Apparently their top two or three prospects are toss-ups in their mind.

Daniel Jones gets one year with (hopefully) a team around him to prove he’s the future. Nobody expected them to pick up his 5th year option, so today’s news wasn’t a surprise.

I would (will?) be happy with them spending a top 10 pick on each side of the line; IMO you win from the inside out. And I’m fine with Jones getting one last year to shit the bed again and get another high draft pick, hopefully to try and get a real quarterback next year. It’s been over a decade of suck; I can handle one more year. Worst case scenario for me would be 8-9 or 9-8. As in, oh god, don’t you dare resign him!

Not sure what the Jets are going to do. All I know is I’m jealous of their quarterback situation on the Giants behalf. That’s really sad.

9

I’ve seen a few posts on social media over the past week which suggest that Aaron Rodgers is a fan of Olave. I don’t know enough about Olave to know if he’s a reach in Round 1, but it’s certainly the Packers’ biggest position of need.

10

Ugh. Anywhere but Green Bay please.

11

I’m good with any combination of OL-DL-OL for the first three Giants picks.

Definitely not a surprise but I don’t mind sitting through another season of Danny Dimes knowing that the Giants can move on if he doesn’t magically blossom :laughing:.

Personally, I think the “worst QB draft class ever” talk is way overblown this year but I’m always skeptical about how we assess QB prospects. With the exception of the elite stud players, I feel like we usually miss the mark on which QB prospects end up succeeding at the next level.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this class go down as the best value QB class in history. If most teams ignore QBs until later then we may end up with quite a few “steals” after the first round.

12

FWIW, Kiper’s latest mock has Olave going to Washington at 11. If they take Olave over Jameson Williams, they’re crazy.

I’d be thrilled if the Jets took Williams at 10, but - they won’t, because Jets; and even if they did, they’d screw him up.

13

Jacksonville on the clock.

14

I don’t understand why the first team on the clock takes so long to pick. They’ve had several months to research all the prospects. It makes no sense for them to waste all that time. The clock went down to 5 minutes before Jacksonville made their pick :crazy_face:

15

Looking for trades, I’m guessing.

16

And Jacksonville makes a first round pick that they will regret in 5 years.

Same old. Same old.

Didn’t take the Lions long…

17

It used to be the #1 pick was sign, sealed and delivered before draft day. #2 couldn’t do anything until they were on the clock though.

18

Best case for Lions. I’m not entirely sold on him as an Elite Rusher, but I think there is enough talent already there to stop him from getting double-teamed into irrelevance, and (Full Disclosure: Michigan dude speaking here)I think he does have Leadership, Integrity, and Drive, which Lions have desperately needed more of for going on 5 decades.

19

My guess is that they are playing till the last tick just in case an impatient, idiot owner, of which there are many) loses composure and offers a Hershel Walker of picks out of panic.

20

I thought this was the year of the offensive linemen. First 4 picks all defense.