DCOrange

I've only finished scouting Caleb Williams and Bo Nix so far. I obviously have Caleb ahead of Bo Nix; significantly so. Having said that, I was pretty disappointed in Caleb's tape. There's a lot of issues to work on there IMO. Still a sky high ceiling considering his package of physical tools, elusiveness in the pocket, and creativity, but I ended up having him on par with Jordan Love, Daniel Jones, and Trey Lance in terms of draft grade, slightly behind guys like Justin Fields and Baker Mayfield. I didn't have a full scouting report on Kyler Murray because it sounded like he was going the baseball route for most of the process, but I definitely think Kyler was a more polished QB at the time than Caleb is right now and a more accurate passer as well. My scouting reports on Caleb and Bo are here: https://draftqbs.wordpress.com/2024-draft/caleb-williams/ https://draftqbs.wordpress.com/2024-draft/bo-nix/

Could call it power struggle but more just disagreement over the vision of the team. Vrabel was pushing for a rebuild and win-now at the same time. GM was pushing for a tear down and rebuild. Ownership sided with Vrabel, so they approved the move for Hopkins while also allowing the GM to rebuild a bit with the AJ trade, Levis draft pick, etc. This season was basically a disaster for Tennessee; they missed out on draft picks that they could have gotten in trades and are now kinda stuck rebuilding a year too late. Vrabel still wants to push for a win-now approach and ownership decided enough was enough.

I don’t think they have a RB under contract, Mike Williams is a question mark at this point with all the injuries, and Keenan Allen is quickly approaching the age cliff. Their cap situation is dreadful too. They have the QB sorted out but beyond that it seems like a bit of a tear down may be needed.

Think I might argue for Washington. New owner who’s happy to spend a lot, I believe the most cap space in the league, #2 pick in the draft and like 5 top 100 picks, and some good pieces in place already.

I think they pretty much have to go QB in the draft due to Fields’ contract status and the relative lack of development in terms of pocket presence/pocket passing. Having said that, I’m halfway through my scouting of Caleb Williams (haven’t hit this most recent season yet but did study his Heisman campaign) and he is not someone I’d be comfortable taking at the top of the draft personally. The physical tools and creativity are extremely captivating though and I generally favor those types of prospects but it’s legitimately rare to see him simply run the play that is called and do it on schedule. We’ll see how it shakes out once I finish his tape but right now I’d probably grade him as a mid to late 1st rounder based purely on his play. I tend to think a lot of the off field stuff people are getting hung up on is overrated but I’ve been shocked by how much I’ve disliked his on field play.

I believe they pick somewhere between 5-7 in the draft so likely to get a much needed OT or WR and go from there. It’s time to rebuild.

They arguably should be, but I don’t think Jacksonville views it that way yet. They’ll chalk this season up to Lawrence being hurt and just some weird bounces/drops at the absolute worst time. I saw a stat that they’re the second worst red zone offense in NFL history ahead of only the 0-16 Lions. I think there’s still plenty of reason for optimism there but this was undeniably a weird and disappointing season for them.

Bo Nix is my first QB to scout this year. At least based on the couple games from last year that I’ve watched thus far, they have a weird offense. Doesn’t really let plays develop long enough to see what all the WRs and Nix can do, but Franklin has definitely stood out. He’s had a few really nice catches where he reaches back and just snatches it easily.

2023 - Obviously very early but feels like Johnston is headed towards bust territory. Addison and Zay are off to good starts and JSN could go either way.

Free agency is relatively stacked at WR and the draft is crazy this year. It might not be Odunze, but someone that's considered that tier of prospect will likely be available at our pick. Obviously a lot can change between now and April, but Nabers is currently viewed as a top 10 pick. Odunze at the moment seems more attainable, but probably still out of reach for us barring a trade up. But there's like 10 WRs this year that have a chance of going in the first round so there will be talent available for sure.

Allen's had better receiving options than Lamar maybe every season of his career lol

I gave up once I hit the 1980s, but I'm not sure an MVP QB has ever failed to make first team All Pro.

I would assume he is not a shoe-in for the OC job, particularly if the offense continues to sputter next week/in the playoffs, but he has a chance at the job for sure.

He's been ESPN's main NFL writer for like a decade now.

I think there are decent cases to be made for Josh, Oliver, Douglas, Bernard, and Taron. Josh might be the only one I'd actually give it to this season though, and even that might depend on how Week 18 goes. I think Oliver, Bernard, and Douglas are close but not quite in the real discussion. Taron is definitely in the discussion but we'll see.

Aaron Donald has to be ahead of Oliver too. Feels like Oliver's at best #4 and I don't think it's likely the league views him THAT highly.

Interesting. I feel like that's been the most impressive part of his game so far this season and (granted the number is low) he's among the league leaders in broken tackles for tight ends. I feel like nobody on this team transitions into being a runner after the catch quicker than he does, sometimes to a fault.

#68 is the only one who reported. #58 and #70 were just a distraction to try to confuse the defense. The latter two never actually said anything to the ref, but #70 had been reporting throughout the game so the ref just assumed he was going to report again. Was a great design by the Lions and they even warned the ref in advance that they were going to do it to avoid this exact situation but the ref just couldn't help himself from messing up.

#70 is the only one that the ref reported as eligible and he's also the only one that didn't have a chance to talk to the ref in order to report lol

The stadium announced #70 as eligible. Most likely, nobody on the field heard the announcement because it was very loud and they were all focused on listening to Goff since they were in the huddle at the time. Detroit also had no timeouts to stop the game and having Decker go over and correct the officials would have likely caused a delay of game or completely given the play away to Dallas at that point. The whole point of the play was to get Dallas assuming #70 was the one reporting as eligible just long enough to sneak #68 into the end zone for the play.

I don’t think that’s a reasonable assumption at all. One player reported as eligible and the ref acknowledged him. They all did their job perfectly and then turned around and started listening to their QB who was talking as the stadium announced it. Players are too busy and too focused to have to listen to a stadium announcement too, especially when they safely assume they already know what the stadium is announcing.

They probably never heard it in the first place given the fact that it was loud and they were focusing on running the play. But even if they did hear the announcement, how do you want them to correct it without (1) taking long enough to get a delay of game and (2) without being like “Hey guys, it’s me, #68, I’m the one that’s supposed to sneak into the end zone and catch the game winner” without making it blatantly obvious to the defense at that point? They would have wanted to run an entirely different play instead.

No. The WR in his left (Reynolds) was off the line so Decker was properly uncovered. It was a legal formation, just unbalanced OLine.

Definitely agreed with that. It’s not the refs job to remember something that was mentioned to him nearly 4 hours earlier. Having said that, it looks like Decker is telling the ref he’s reporting while Skipper is innocently running in his direction not saying anything at all. THAT is definitely on the refs to get right regardless of Campbell’s warning.

The Schwartz brothers (former OL guys) were tweeting about this after the game. Basically said offenses do this because between the adrenaline and the crowd noise, players can’t hear/willfully don’t listen to who they’re announcing as eligible so if you’re slick about it, you can trick them. They should be able to tell based off the formation anyways but Detroit motioned Sewell over to the line late in the pre-snap to cause confusion on that front too.