Problem is that this doesn’t look like a great year for OT. Pats will be in range of Campbell and Banks but we’ll have to see how they grade out. I know there has been some talk about whether or not Campbell will succeed at OT in NFL or would be better suited to be IOL, similar to Robert Gallery.
Kiper, Field Yates, and a few of ESPN’s other draft guys co-wrote an ESPN+ article the other day. There were anecdotes regarding the quality of this draft class. One AFC source said they only had 8 guys with true first round grades. An NFC source said this class had the lowest number of true first rounders that he’s seen in his career.
Yeah, not talking a huge trade down but we should be bottom 3-4 this year. Would be good to trade down maybe 4-5 spots and pick up another 2nd or something like that.
On the other hand where were Thuney, Karras and Onwenu drafted? If there are no good free agents at premium positions because they all get signed prior to free agency, then you have to draft these players and if you can get great guards in the middle rounds, you have to do it and use your premium picks on the more valuable positions.
As with every position, the majority of “great” guards come from the early portions of the draft. You can get a Thuney in round 3, sure. But nobody would say “you can find Russell Wilson in the 3rd or you can get Stefon Diggs in the 5th and therefore wait to take a QB/WR”
That’s been the consensus for a while.
So if they do trade down, maybe a good idea to focus on a return of future picks? Always a bit risky but can be very lucrative.
The guys hitting the draft now were seniors in high school and freshman in college when Covid disrupted two years or practices and trainings and games
If they're trading out of a top 3 pick to outside the top 5, they better get a 2026 1st rounder in return. And nothing less.
Don’t think you get that unless someone falls in love with a QB, which tends to happen but this class doesn’t look great. I would definitely shoot for a 1st.
No chance there aren't 3 teams looking to jump up for a QB (unless they are already in the top 3). Ewers is going to enter the draft, and Sanders/Ward will have plenty of suitors. Milroe will likely look great at the combine/pro days...I think teams will be looking to even move up for a guy like Hunter.
I dunno, man.....Mayo is killing them with his coaching and the defense has regressed horribly. It's very possible (likely?) that Maye continues to play well but they lose out.
I find it hard to believe that 3+ teams will want to move up simply because the two most obvious such teams (Las Vegas and the Giants) look well positioned to stick and pick a QB
I think it's POSSIBLE, but I definitely think assuming that there is NO CHANCE is way too strong. This isn't a strong QB class, and history tells us that many QB classes better than this have not had a bunch of teams looking to trade into the top 3 or 5.
I was a fan of Polk coming out of school, but more as a 3rd rounder who could be a #3 somewhere. I thought he needed to go somewhere where he could be paired up with a smart OC who could scheme him open or play alongside high end weapons that would draw coverage away from him (or both)
I mean what is weird is.... he's bad at all the things we expected him to be good at, and at various points appeared to be good at the things people thought were weaknesses. Like Polk getting incredible separation for the 1st six weeks, but suddenly dropping everything was just weird. First couple weeks people nationally were talking about how he was getting open but had almost no catchable targets (at one point I think someone had him with 6 catches on 6 catchable targets and 10 uncatchable... Jacoby could not hit him downfield), then late Jacoby into Maye weeks, maybe starting with the GW TD that got waived off? He suddenly just couldn't catch at all, then he couldn't line up or get off the snap on time....just a really weird season.
right.
The Polk trade looks so much worse when you consider the fourth round pick they received in the trade became Baker and he has been less than zero. I cannot understand how after the emergence of Maye, these guys haven’t produced.
I think we're looking at this a bit backwards. The reason teams don't trade out of the top 3 and teams don't trade into it very often is because teams in the top 3 need a quarterback. It's rare for a team picking in the top 3 to already have their franchise qb, and thus, be in a position to move down.
Did anyone actually say this on draft day? Is there a single member of the Boston media that can say they wanted McConkey better than Polk.
SMU liked McConkey more than Polk. Quite a bit more:
They claimed that they wanted Polk and were willing to take him at 34 but felt they could trade back and still get him. There is video of Wolfe saying that very thing in the Polk thread. Polk was always their guy.
I watched him play all last season and he made one tough catch after the another. He wasn't a separator but could create enough space and his hands were excellent. This clearly isn't the same player thus far.
Yeah, McConkey was flying up draft boards the week before the draft. Reports of his routes and dazzling combine performance gave him a lot of helium. I was hoping he'd still be on the board when the Pats picked, and he was! Of course, they traded the pick and he was selected immediately. We got the extra 4th but were saddled with Polk.
He and Hooper are tied for the team lead in TD catches, with 2. Polk and Hooper each caught one from Brissett (his only 2 TD passes) and one from Maye. Each of Maye's 10 TD passes was to a different player:
Wasn't an extra 4th but we gained 27 spots in the 4th, we used that pick on Baker, LAC used the 4th they got from us on Tarheeb Still who is a key cog of their revamed secondary.
I know this is the common refrain, and there were a lot of people that liked McConkey, but McConkey felt like a limited upside prospect. It's hard for me to get mad at them swinging for the fences.
I’m not really sure trading down to take a slow, sure-handed guy with limited separation skills is swinging for the fences. Like, if they traded up to go after Worthy and he sucks, it is what it is, and I kind of respect it even if it goes sideways. But if you trade down because of a limited upside guy who you don’t want and take another limited upside guy, you better hope your limited upside guy has more limited downside too, and thus far, he’s the Mariana Trench.
McConkey's measurables were almost identical to Garret Wilson, he has very high upside but injury concerns have lingered throughout his career. I could understand if he was too much of an injury risk but he was one of the best route runners in the class.
Yeah one problem with draft analysis of guys with injury history is we'll never know the medicals. Not impossible that the team doctors looked at that foot or back and said "yeah he's gonna have issues going forward"
Yes, as an example-
This is a great point and the Patriots would be justified in not taking an injury risk given their first round selection of Maye. In contrast, I’d like think a contender with an established QBs would be more capable of taking on a risk like that.
I know that McConkeys ceiling isn’t incredibly high and I believe the thought was that Polk could play “X” while Ladd couldn’t, but was Polk a swing for the fence pick? I feel like Polk and Ladd are almost the same ceiling but Polk was possibly better outside?
I don't understand why you need to add BS to your posts. What does it serve except to undermine your argument? Polk was the clear #2/second best WR for UW last year unless we are talking something else. Why do you need to season the facts?
I’m not adding BS. McMillan was clearly the #2 last year. He missed a whole bunch of time.
McMillan was not the number two all last year - health played a role but Polk was better too. I watched almost all of their games.
How was Polk better? McMillan was playing over Polk when both were healthy. That’s not bias or opinion. That’s literal fact. When healthy, his snap counts were higher. When both were healthy in 2022, Polk was #3. On opening day 2023, Polk was 3rd
You can't disagree with this guy. He knows everything and we are all wrong.
These are almost identical to Justin Jefferson’s numbers save for the 40 time (though he beats JJ on the 10 yard split)
