DCOrange

Yeah, I mean, I'm on the record as not wanting to take Mac before the 3rd round but I'm sure someone will get desperate and take him in the 1st somewhere. I haven't gotten to Trask, Mills, Mond, etc. yet but I'm curious to see if one of them ends up earning a higher grade from me than Mac; I suspect at least one of them will.

Fields is a straight up better passer right now and more athletic too, but Lance sees the game better both as a passer and a runner IMO. Thought it was interesting that @GunnerBill said he thought Fields is a better scheme fit for Shanahan; it seems like everyone else I've read (and my opinion as well) that Lance already runs a lot similar concepts to Shanahan's offense while Fields does not. I would tend to think nobody outside of Lawrence fits Shanahan's scheme better than Lance to be honest. At any rate, I agree with most of the people here that it's between the two of them at #3. I don't know where Mac will be drafted but I would tend to think he'll slide a bit on draft night.

I mean, who even are the options? The only QBs that have received this kind of hype since Peyton are Luck and maybe nobody else? Luck didn't become one of the top 10 QBs ever, but he was one of the best in the league pretty much every year. He was probably on track for the Hall of Fame if he hadn't retired early.

I think Lawrence is comfortably the best QB prospect in this draft (and the best I've ever graded personally), but I'd still take the field just because you never really know. Also, one of these QBs is going to play in Kyle Shanahan's offense and another will play in a similar system; that could be enough to push one of them above Lawrence as an NFL player.

Cleveland has had a great offseason so far IMO. They should be good once again next season.

It looks like it was initially reported as a 4.36/4.38 but ended up being bumped up to a 4.48/4.50.

Just a tad lower than Javonte

No RAS for Najee Harris since he didn't do athletic testing, but needless to say, Javonte and Etienne would both represent a massive upgrade in the athleticism department over Moss/Singletary (though I still hate the idea of taking a RB this year anyways).

The "playmaker is vague" comments are kinda odd considering a sentence or two later, he specifically said he's hearing a YAC receiver, 3 down back, and speedy corner. Aside from naming specific names, that's pretty specific. Focusing on YAC receivers that might be available, the tops in the class statistically speaking are (in order of YAC/rec, and some scouting notes from PFF's draft guide): D'Wayne Eskridge - 14.4 - 5'9", 190 lbs, he's considered to have pretty poor hands, run pretty poor routes, and doesn't make people miss, but he has a lot of speed. Anthony Schwartz - 9.0 - 6'0", 186 lbs, "fastest WR in the class, no debate", "not a receiver, no feel for route running or ball skills", doesn't make people miss but his speed allows him to just outrun people Cade Johnson - 9.0 (in 2019) - 6'0", 184 lbs, an older prospect so might not be a priority for Beane, good acceleration and plays with no fear. Amari Rodgers - 8.0 - 5'10", 212 lbs, tied for 7th most missed tackles forced, regarded as having very good hands but pretty poor route running, PFF thinks he may be used as a RB in the NFL. Jaelon Darden - 7.7 - Only 5'8" and 174 lbs, he led the country in missed tackles forced at the WR position and put up 1,190 yards and 19 TDs this year (granted against lower level competition than other prospects) Rondale Moore - 7.0 - 5'7", 180 lbs, freak of nature athlete with great production, good at running the few routes Purdue used him for, and good hands, but he's barely played the last two years due to injuries and a lot of his production came off of screens which generally hasn't been a big part of our offense. Kadarius Toney - 6.8 - 6'0", 193 lbs, elite athletic scores, "some might say he has generational YAC abilities", moves in a way that nobody else really does, great hands, elite acceleration but top speed isn't anything special, "wholly unpolished route-runner", dealt with injury issues his first 3 years of college Pretty much everyone I follow on draft twitter has basically said no matter how desperate you are, you should just skip this year's class of one-tech DTs lol.

No offense taken. At the end of the day, it's just something I do for fun and there's so much that goes into whether or not a prospect pans out that you can never know when grading guys, especially if you're just a random person like me that doesn't have connections to all the coaches and whatnot. I'm pretty happy with my track record so far. I was a lot higher on Mahomes and Lamar than most people and lower on Rosen and Haskins than most. The Herbert and Darnold grades are definitely trending in the wrong direction for me though haha. Some grades will always look bad though; high potential guys that never reached their potential or high floor guys that are technically high floor but also replaceable players. So for example, the 85-89 range means I think they'll be a starter but either have a relatively low ceiling (like Daniel Jones, who I thought would likely be a low-end starter which is precisely what he's been) or a low chance of reaching their ceiling (like Drew Lock, who I said would likely be a Nick Foles caliber player, which is basically what he's been outside of the one fluke year Foles had with Philly, but that Lock had the potential to develop into a very good starter, which he has failed to do). Re: Mac, he's a fine athlete. People have made a way bigger deal out of that locker room picture than they should have; he can move, he just chooses not to. I think he's overrated as a passer though. There's times where he moves the defense with his eyes and throws a WR open that really stand out for a college player, but people have a tendency to see productive passers that don't have great arms and assume they have elite accuracy and that just isn't the case with Mac. He's certainly a lot more accurate than Trey Lance by comparison, but his accuracy is just pretty good. I have a 3rd round grade on Mac personally. I don't doubt Kyle Shanahan's ability to build a productive offense around him if that's ultimately their pick but I think he has a pretty low ceiling and I don't really view him as a high floor guy either.

I think it's a good group too, but I don't think Wilson and Fields are anywhere near Lawrence like some people say. For me, it's more on par with most of the recent draft classes. I haven't finished grading the Day 2-3 targets yet, but looking back at my grades since the Mahomes draft, I have the following with 1st round grades (2021 class bolded): 96 – Trevor Lawrence 94 – Patrick Mahomes 93 – Lamar Jackson/Joe Burrow 92 – Tua Tagovailoa 91 – Sam Darnold 88 – Josh Allen/Drew Lock 87 – Baker Mayfield/Deshaun Watson/Justin Fields 86 – Daniel Jones/Jordan Love/Trey Lance 85 – Mitch Trubisky 84 – Josh Rosen/Zach Wilson 81 – Dwayne Haskins/Jacob Eason 80 – Justin Herbert

Honestly think the QBs are a little overrated for the most part too. Lawrence is an incredible prospect but Fields is my #2 and I have him a hair behind Josh Allen's pre-draft grade (who was my #3 that year behind Lamar and Darnold).

I ultimately did the same. I'd be happy with Ossai anyways so wasn't really a problem for me but he wasn't my top choice.

It's kinda fascinating to see people arriving at polar opposite conclusions with his tape. Usually the tape guys seem to lock on to the same players each year. Iffy seems to be very polarizing with people like yourself and others saying his tape is flat out bad while others like Cover1 love his tape. I personally haven't watched his tape but I did watch a lot of Syracuse games in the moment as I always do and he always looked like a good, not great, prospect to me. I'm not sure how it works with the NFL; I imagine the league itself films the games from the All-22 angle but not sure. College tape is filmed by each school individually and then sent around to other schools for scouting purposes. So I think it's just tougher for them to figure out a way to monetize it since it's so decentralized compared to how I imagine the NFL does it. Having said that, some people are able to use sources to get their hands on All-22 college film and then trade it with others for games that they want. Some people pay others for it. I spoke with one of my favorite film guys on Twitter about it and he said he paid $350 for access to a google drive of film. I was able to find a guy that I could pay $5 a month for it so I ended up paying for two months to get my QB scouting in and then I'm out.

Would sadly be an excellent start to the draft for the Patriots. Fields ended up as my #2 graded QB in the draft (also FWIW Wilson ended up #4).

You're thinking of Jayson Oweh, not Joseph Ossai. Ossai had 5.5 sacks this year and was 4th in the country in TFL.

I think WR is on the table, yes. Not a need for this year, but could be for the year after and we're at the point in the team building now that we need to be thinking 2+ years down the road with these picks IMO. Could also argue that someone like Toney makes McKenzie expendable this year while also having the potential to replace Beasley as he continues to age. I think WR is more likely than RB personally. Having said that, I wouldn't say WR is a likely choice, but I do think they'll consider it depending on who is available.

Teven Jenkins seems like the obvious value pick here. He, Toney, or Ossai would be my choice personally.

Jamel Dean is effectively a starter and a good one at that; I believe he graded out as a top 15 corner this year on PFF and the eye test matched that evaluation. Tampa has three good corners. Dean played out wide when they went nickel (which they were in most of the time), but if they started a game in the 3-4, he wasn't credited with the start. Ramsey, Tillman, Jones, and to a lesser extent, Dean are all hits. For the record, I wouldn't be willing to bet on Iffy being a hit, but I do think he's a talented prospect and just pointing out that you're definitely short-changing Dean and Jones.

1st round would be high for him, but I'd be happy with him in the 2nd and I won't be angry if he's the pick in the 1st. There's very few directions they can go that would make me legitimately angry honestly; the team is set up well right now.

Sucks to see him go as his skillset is really tough to replace (but we also didn't get that skillset the last 10 or so games for whatever reason). He's a better prospect than some of our other recent early departures IMO though lol. Don't expect him to get drafted regardless.

He doesn’t really have that much of a track record. He just lists them in every order imaginable and then in retrospect picks the order that looks best and cites that. He talks about how he had Lamar as his #1 QB in 2018, but by the time draft day rolled around, he had him 4th and had Rosen #2.

I expect someone will trade up for him if San Fran doesn't take him themselves but we'll see. New England and Washington are two candidates that stand out to me. Might be a smokescreen but I know there's a buzz that Washington is in love with him.

Talent is talent. If not San Fran, someone is going to take Lance early. Guys with his physical tools are rare, and guys with his physical tools and decision-making are even rarer. If they could have traded for Watson (obviously before his current issues), that would be a no-brainer IMO. Even if Tua develops well, you're hoping he turns into someone like Watson. I'm skeptical they were ever seriously considering a QB at 3; I think their intention was always to grab Pitts, Sewell, or one of the WRs and that's why they ultimately made sure they could pick up the 6th pick when they traded down. I'd be shocked if they spent an early pick on a QB. They already have a solid backup in Brissett in case things go off the rails with Tua and they're ready to push for a playoff spot; they'll almost certainly use their premium picks to build up the team around Tua and then if he looks bad this year, then maybe they'll start looking for a potential replacement.

That's true for Allen's first year for sure and Allen looked worse than Tua as a rookie IMO. I'm not sure Tua's supporting cast was much better if at all better than Allen's in year 2 though. Brown and Beasley were on par if not better than Miami's WRs and Buffalo's OLine was definitely better IMO. At any rate, we've only had about half a season of Tua playing so far. His supporting cast should be much better this season and he'll be another year removed from the leg injury. If he doesn't take a step this year, I think we can write him off, but I don't think it's fair to do so after an okay rookie season considering all the context around it. He looked to have lost a bit of the zip on his throws from college, but he's absolutely still a running threat and a talented passer.