LEBills

A high ankle sprain cost him almost the enitre 2022 season. That’s the only injury I know about him

With the 44th pick in the 2024 NFL draft the Las Vegas Raiders select Michael Penix, QB, Washington. The Maxwell award winner was in consideration for the Raiders at pick 13. Antonio Pierce was able to keep Bowl Cut Mark at bay and picked up the lefties blindside protector instead. Mark Davis reportedly “grilled” potential GMs about their plan for getting the Raiders a QB. With that type of mandate, the Raiders will take a QB early in this draft. Of the ones likely to be available, Penix is the best fit for Luke Getsy’s offense. Getsy used play action the 7th and 16th most in the league in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Penix used play action the most and was the highest graded play action QB in this class per pff. Getsy also had a lot of deep passes baked into his offense as Chicago threw the sixth and forth most 20+ yard passes in the league the past two seasons. Penix has a huge arm and a beautiful deep ball. The injury concerns and age are a concern, but when you feel like you need a QB you take a swing. @frostbitmic and the Saints are now in the clock

Nah we still had KCs first from the Mahomes trade. So we used the third we got from Cleveland in the Tyrod trade (1st pick of the third round) to move up from 22 to 16 to get Edmonds

Yea I think his poor combine started the slide and then people are hoping for a bigger bodied WR who can win contested catches which is not Franklins strong suit. I hope Beane is thinking Logic-ally!

I feel the same way, Franklin is my WR4 of this class. I’ve watched a lot of the WRs this year. People have posted YouTube videos of every 2023 target of Brian Thomas, AD Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Ladd McConkey. And when you do enough digging you can find just about every snap of Franklin, Legette, Baker, Coleman, etc. I’m not a scout, but I thought Franklin was the most consistently good player across his targets who still had big time moments mixed in where his speed flashed. I’m still hoping he is a Bill in a few weeks.

I know losing Diggs is a big deal. But we still have a lot of spots on the roster that need young players besides WR. Trading away a lot of picks including next years first isn’t worth it when a good WR will be there at 28 imo.

That is one knock on Mitchell, the other is that he only average 3.2 yards after the catch despite being a 4.3 speed guy.

My buddy who is a Washington fan wants them to trade up for a LT to protect their rookie QB. So if it happened, that would be my guess.

Senior Bowl, combine, and attended his pro day. I wouldn’t say that’s a lot of time but we haven’t been getting much news about top 30s and private workouts yet so their may be more we don’t know about.

Yea I am fully in the trade back camp. I wanted to draft two WRs early this year but had resigned myself to the idea that 1 would be the max this year and the Diggs replacement would come next year. With that timeline pushed up, I think we have to get 2 early WRs this year and the only way to do that would be to add more day 2 picks. (Miscalculating that comp pick really keeps hurting more and more). Once you get past the top 3, I think guys 4-9 I’d be about equally as happy with and then once you get outside the top 12 non-slot guys it feels like the exciting talent is gone. So getting two of this top 9 guys would be amazing and feel like 2 first round picks in my own mind. Though I think the third we pull in the trade back packaged with our second would probably be enough to move up high enough to pull this off

He was a really good WR for us most of the time Not sure we will miss playoff Diggs and his 21 yards against the chiefs last year. Or the 35 yards against the Bengals in 2022. Or the 7 yards agains the chiefs in 13 seconds (he did catch the two point conversion then at least) Good luck Stef

The Gould, Tahj Washington, Jha’quan Jackson group of WR is the late day 3 guys where I think one could emerge into a productive player. Gould in addition to being an excellent returner that should secure a spot on a roster is a bit of a metrics and film guy darling. Top yprr against man in the class, Greg Cosell is a big fan too. I really like watching Tahj Washington and think he is probably the better USC receiver. Jackson probably has the most NFL ready body of the 3.

With the 13th pick, the Las Vegas Raiders select Taliese Fuaga, OT, OSU . @frostbitmic Is now on the clock. Laitu was so enticing, we had to hold Antonio Pierce back. Though we want the defensive line to be a strength we don’t want to hamper the growth of Tyree Wilson. Cornerback was also in consideration for this pick but we like the depth later in the draft. Since we blew up our offensive line a few years ago we have been looking to rebuild it. Once we do that we can think about adding a top QB prospect next year. Adding Fuaga gives us a cornerstone RT. HC Pierce is an old school linebacker so you know he believes in setting the tone and being nasty up front.

These are my rankings, 20 deep of the 2024 NFL draft. Can’t wait for the draft to be here! 1. MHJ 2. Nabers 3. Odunze Pretty Consensus. 4. Troy Franklin 5. Xavier Worthy 6. Brian Thomas Jr 7. Javon Baker End of Day 1 Receivers 8. AD Mitchell 9. Ladd McConkey 10. Jermaine Burton 11. Roman Wilson 12. Xavier Legette 13. Keon Coleman 14. Malik Washington 15. Brenden Rice 16. Devontez Walker 17. Malachi Corley End of day 2 guys 18. Jalyn Polk 19. Ricky Pearsall 20. Jamari Thrash

Vegas, chargers, atlanta

Exactly and I think Franklin and McConkeys ceiling is still pretty high. What I would love if the Bills drafted McConkey (my WR5) is to pair him with Kincaid. McConkey was SO good working on the same side of the field as Bowers and affecting each other’s defenders. It was a beautiful two man game.

One of the things I love about this time of year is that different people can see different things when trying to project players to the NFL. I will agree that Franklin has his share of lowlights, but so does every WR in the draft. Personally, if I see the same good plays over and over, I do forgive the times the play is missed. Im not a combine hater at all. I think testing numbers both good and bad are a reason to go back and watch to see if the testing shows up on the field. Some guys run a fast 40 but can’t run away from anyone on the field, etc. As DCOrange mentioned upthread, the gauntlet kind of confirmed Franklins hands are not a strong suit and his catch radius is a bit limited which you do see show up and he did have a 10% drop rate this year and his hands are sub 9 inch. I do not blame him though for being a little shorter than reported like everyone else usually is or for him not rerunning a 40 -that he did clock a good 4.41 time - at a pro day. I dont think I’ve ever seen 10 yard split times reported from any pro day but maybe I’ve missed that. As for the private workout for the Bills, I don’t think it means the Bills have him listed above the other receivers or want to retest his numbers. They had Josh for a private pre draft workout because they wanted to know him better. I’ll try to show you some non-highlight reels and why some of us are high on Franklin as a player. Utah 2022 3:59 this is from his sophomore season against Clark Phillips iii (4th rounder of the Falcons last year). Facing soft press near the end zone, he is excellent at planting and exploding off that outside leg on slants Washington State 2023 You see the same play at :14 seconds against the Senior MVP of the National team Chau Smith-Wade. The following play he gets vertical out of the slot against CSW. 2023 Pac12 Championship game 8:06 in the video. Same play, 4th down need to have it play. This was after Franklin got injured in the first half and was gutting out the game. Oregon State 2023 This whole cut up is a great example of how on the same page Franklin and Nix were this season. Option routed and comebacked the OSU defense to death. Arizona State 2023 Started the cut up with a beautiful post route touchdown. You see him later blow past his guy immediately for a long touchdown (1:37). Utah 2023 This is a good example of what I like about Franklin and where his weaknesses are - you see him fight for yac on a screen, followed by a deep comeback, then he blows past his guy and misses the deep catch, hits the post. Skipping ahead to 1:16 he makes Cole Bishop (mid round draftee this year) whiff and catches the touchdown. Washington (2023) Washington is going to have several people in their secondary drafted eventually. Jabbar Muhammad (#1) is an aggressive player and should be an early round corner when he comes out. He beats him deep with a subtle push off at :45 causing a PI penalty when 1 tries to recover. Then 2:39 he avoids the jam and you see the speed as he beats Dominique Hampton who will likely get drafted this year to the corner of the EZ. Then finally, he Beats 1 fast off the line and has to turn his body to make the one handed catch with 1 holding onto his other hand. This was as they tried to close out the game - which they didn’t lol In addition to everything you see in these cut ups. two stats I love for him. 1. He averaged over 3 yprr against both man and zone this year. 2. He had a catch of 30 yards or more in 12 of his 13 games (the one miss being the championship game when he got hurt) which was by far the most in this class. I love this latter stat because it shows no matter who he was playing he could generate explosive plays. So anyway, Franklin is my WR4. Some other players may be more dominant than him out of this class. But he is just too good in too many ways not to be a good pro imo. I think he would be really good in Buffalo.

Yea their system just translates really well to ours for DBs

lol Imo he is much more than just speed

He is still my top realistic pick for the Bills as well. The combine sucked for him but the most concerning parts of the combine - his size, his 10 yard split, his gauntlet just didn’t match what he looked like in game and he weighed more at the pro day. Outside of the top 3, I think he has the best combination of releases at the line, route running, yac, and - most important for the Bills - explosive plays. I do think he is more of a Diggs successor than a Gabe replacement. A well rounded player.

Agreed, he is not a refined route runner and separator which is part of the reason he looked bad at the senior bowl but he is an excellent deep ball tracker and the long speed is real. Felt like he really good game against Nate Wiggins who is a really good corner on a day that Maye really struggled against Clemson. Late in the second I could see him being one of the better receivers left if their is a run like expected

Nice job. I do think that is how the order the first 5 QBs and 3 WRs go - whether the Vikings go to 4 or 5 is the only question. I like the Jets taking Bowers because ARod has never really used TEs in his GB offenses. Probably just because the best one he ever had was Jermichael Finley. But the dream is for ARod to leave Bowers watching Allen Lazard getting targets rather than throwing to him. It’s hard to say where exactly he will go - maybe the Jets still - but I think Fuaga goes a little earlier than 20. I think Dejean may slip out of the first round since he is a bit of a tweener. And with the Eagles losing Fletcher Cox and both Sweat and Reddick not being happy I could see another DLine addition here as is the Eagles way. As for the Bills pick, I agree I think they will pick a WR at 28. AD is lower on my rankings than others but if he was the pick I would understand it. He is excellent until the ball is in his hands which is very useful, just wish he was a bit better after the catch. I would be happy they got Josh a playmaker. Jer’zhan Newton is one of the guys I would take after my top 4 WRs are gone though so it would hurt to pass on him for AD. Good mock as usual Gunner

Would be a good day 3 addition to the CB room

Troy Franklin is my WR4 after the normal top 3 receivers i think if someone takes Byron Murphy ahead of Johnny Newton they are going to regret it. Payton Wilson is the most fun LB to watch in this draft but Nathaniel Watson will be the biggest bargain Chris Abrams-Draine is small but looked good in reps against Nabers and Legette Give me Mo Komara and Marcus Harris on day 3

Give me all the Troy Franklin and Brenden Rice stock One thing to keep in mind with McConkey - who is a great receiver - on this chart is he only had about 150 pass plays this year per @DCOrange Google doc which is less than half most the other top guys so the smaller sample size may affect it.